Gwen

[Buck]

Hey Barry, how about an update on the Gwen now that a week or so has passed since the operation. Hope all is well.
Buck

[CanuckHoss]

Gwen got home Wednesday afternoon around 2pm and is rocking the healing process...which I knew she would just did not know she was going to knock it out of the park.

Had an awesome day getting her from the Hospital. She travelled quite easily.

Today is Monday and 10 days into the transplant...5 Hospital days and 5 home days.

I can't describe the feeling of joy we both have with this new lease on life. Only a few who may have had a situation like this might understand how this feels. On a scale of 1 - 10 it feels like a 20

Our home is 5 years old and I have spent more time on the back deck smelling the roses with Gwen in the past 5 days than the past 5 years.

The weight that has been lifted from us......wow!! and I truly have my wife back...she was a different person for the last almost 10 years...not all bad either... but now I see the person I married.

The next 4 to 6 weeks is early morning blood work at a Clinic 30 minutes away as the doctors balance all the meds..specifically the anti-rejection drugs. Those will taper in the 6 weeks and get to a maintanence dose.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for us.

Gwen looks forward to meeting all my 8 friends. International travel is quite frowned upon for at least a year...see when the time comes how they hold her to that as I think she will be ahead of any transplant patient in recovery.

So in summary...ALL IS WELL!!! and we are HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!!!

[CanuckHoss]

posted twice

[mmaupin]

Barry,

That is great news!

So good to hear Gwen is progressing very well.

Keep up the good work.

[Buck]

outstanding report, now tell her to keep it up
Buck

[Ronald]

Coming from a parent that has a daughter that is a Cancer survivor, even it's not or it is related, I fell what you guys went and are going through, just keep the positive thinking and the high spirit, good luck and keep it up!!

[V-MAN]

[Iron Maiden]

x 129 how much coffee have you had today - LOL!!!

[mdwdvm]

x 129 how much coffee have you had today - LOL!!!

136 to be exact, but who's counting.

[CanuckHoss]

x 129 how much coffee have you had today - LOL!!!

Thanks guys...all the good thoughts and words are truly appreciated...

I introduced Don to the Starbucks Short Latte Extra Hot (2 Expresso shots) at Bikeweek....might be showing a bit in his post...

Josh and the Crew have done a great job of looking after the shop in my absence...I spent only 4 hours there Saturday and mostly caught up after over a week away.

Interesting how June has become a busy Anniversary month for us. June 12th was 17 years adopting our daughter Alina..we call it her "Gotcha Day"...June 17th was our 20th Anniversary and June 19th is now Gwen's Kidney Transplant Anniversary

Today is one week home and Gwen and I have been very very relaxed like we have not been for a long long while...and man why shouldn't we be hey...LIFE IS GOOD and ALL IS WELL!

I will try and get a picture of her soon on here...

PS...Happy Canada day to my fellow Canucks...148 years

[buyarbi]

Glad to hear all is going better than well Barry
Bill

[petitemoose]

Barry,
When you called me I was standing in the check in line for the flight to Germany. Sorry my phone hung up on you btw.
When I called you back and heard you were not going on the trip, my heart sank and I felt disappointed. Luckily that only lasted about 10 words because when I processed what you were telling me it filled up to overflowing with Joy and Gratitude! LoL Airport security "noticed" my rather loud resounding YES when we hung up.
It is awesome that Gwen has received what she needed to have a long full life. It is even more impressive to see that she has received what she needed to get to that point. All the trips to the Dialysis clinics and all of Life's challenges and triumphs that took place along the way. You two are truly blessed and I could not be happier for both of you!!!
Germany will happen again as will Bike week and Sturgis and all kinds of other events. You guys will appreciate them even more now which is uber cool.
It is a wonderful thing when prayers are answered the way we ask them to be

[CanuckHoss]

Barry,
When you called me I was standing in the check in line for the flight to Germany. Sorry my phone hung up on you btw.
When I called you back and heard you were not going on the trip, my heart sank and I felt disappointed. Luckily that only lasted about 10 words because when I processed what you were telling me it filled up to overflowing with Joy and Gratitude! LoL Airport security "noticed" my rather loud resounding YES when we hung up.
It is awesome that Gwen has received what she needed to have a long full life. It is even more impressive to see that she has received what she needed to get to that point. All the trips to the Dialysis clinics and all of Life's challenges and triumphs that took place along the way. You two are truly blessed and I could not be happier for both of you!!!
Germany will happen again as will Bike week and Sturgis and all kinds of other events. You guys will appreciate them even more now which is uber cool.
It is a wonderful thing when prayers are answered the way we ask them to be

So true Dennis...I never prayed for the trip to Germany but I sure as heck prayed for a Kidney for Gwen...along with a lot of other friends of both of us...prayers answered with a HUGE MIRACLE..as you say...next time for Pullman and other events.

[502wingman]

Great!!! I just feel happy too that you are happy and all is going so well.

[CanuckHoss]

Today is 3 weeks post transplant and Gwen is doing very very well according to all the nurses and doctors we see 3 mornings a week. Gwen and I feel it is going great too.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers for her recovery..they help a lot.

[randy burkey]

Gwen This is great news..Keep up the good work. Wish you both many,many years of health and happiness...

[SQ4MN]

GOOD NEWS BARRY, I'M HAPPY FOR YOU AND GWEN.

[GordonBH]

Gwen and Barry, (yes that way round)

So glad to hear that you are doing well since the op, (been out for a while in Hungary) a real life changer and it's onwards and upwards to quote an old English expression. Every day is a winner, and not many people get that view on life - cherish it, and you have a bunch of new friends who if they ever meet (open invitation ) will be glad they met you - oh yes and Barry too (LOL).

Thinking of you and your speedy recovery into your new life.

[CanuckHoss]

Yesterday was 6 weeks....6 awesome weeks other than Gwen wrenching her back 2 weeks ago getting out of bed...crappy....oh well...at least the Kidney is 100% and her back is healing....

I am still mostly at home doing stuff...running errands...shopping etc...actually quite enjoying the semi-retirement..just miss riding but there are 3 decent months left here for me to enjoy the 502...

ALL IS WELL!!

[CanuckHoss]

It has been a month since updating.

It is 11 weeks since Transplant and her Kidney is 100%. But 5 or 6 weeks ago...lost count now...she wrenched her back in bed. it has been just a nightmare for her the past few weeks. She would re-injure every week doing absolutley nothing but maybe stepping up the stairs and blammmm..huge pain and back to square 1.

We even rented a Medi-bed almost 3 weeks ago because she had such a struggle just going from laying down to sitting up in bed...this has made a huge difference the last 3 weeks but her progress has been super slow.

Thursday morning she drove across town for her bloodwork at 7am and hurt her back just punching in her number for the lineup as she had to bend a bit without support. I grabbed a Taxi to go get her. 2 Hours of ER later we are home with stronger pain killers and stronger muscle relaxants...

Last weekend she went upstair Friday night and never came down until Monday morning for her trip to bloodwork at 7am because she found the stairs too hard for her.

I am still spending almost no time at the shop.

Man this is getting old and I am not sure how we get her back to even somewhat usable let alone normal...time is all there is I guess and we do have lots of that.

Please keep a good thought and hopefully I can report some awesome news in a week or so.

[Iron Maiden]

That really sucks Barry!!! So sorry to hear but glad to hear her kidney is doing well- Please give Gwen a hug for me and keep us posted on what they think it might be.

[Ponch]

Thats wonderful news Barry!
Prayers are still coming your way.

[CanuckHoss]

First...Kidney is 100%

Secondly : Here is the news and what we know as of today's visit with her family Doctor. He had the X-rays from last weeks visit to the ER of her back and also from Mondays visit to the ER....we are all too familiar with Ambulances and ERs

He explained that she has "compression fractures" in the vertebrae of her lower to mid back. This means the vertebrae are actually compressed. In 4 or 5 of these the compression goes from 30% to 40%...50% is considered critical or an Emergency. So if the bone was supposed to be 1 inch tall normally then a 50% compression means the bone is only 1/2 an in tall. That is wild. No wonder all the pain she has because the nerves and muscle need to adjust.

He is concerned big time that there are so many so close together. The compressions are from a fall or sudden jolt downward...even sitting too hard.....sounds weird but I will explain. The reason for the compressions at all is that Gwen has ostopenia which is close to osteoporosis (brittle bones) and someplaces she actually has osteoporosis in her bones. It is one of the side effects of Kidney disease..we knew this already for a few years and had a plan for when she recovered from her transplant to build bone again. Something you hear about in old people only but there are diseases that bring it on a lot sooner and Kidney disease is one of those. it could have happened one Sunday when she went to check the greenhouse and tried lifting something and fell to her knees in pain...that was her second time she injured her back since the transplant. Not sure but definitely a possibility.

They can / may be actually able "fix" the vertebrae as explained by the Doctor. They operate and inject bonelike material into the vertebrae to get it back to the right thickness...not sure if this is an option.

Plan is now to get an MRI ​of​ her back to see (better than an Xray) exactly where the condition of the bones currently are. Our Health care system looks at an Emergency situation like Gwen's very seriously but still they are busy and the MRI wait is almost 3 months...we are not waiting...we have booked a Private Clinic to do the MRI Tuesday and at $650 that is quite cheap.

We both came away from all this info quite down​ in spirits​ as there was really no good news and a lot of bad news that we kind of did not expect.

As of this moment she is for all intense and purposes bed-ridden with little energy and very little mobility.

We are both not sure about the future now. Are her bones that brittle?? Can we fix what has happened?? Is she going to be in pain for the rest of her life?? So many thoughts. Just when 8 weeks ago we thought we we had our lives back and were so looking forward to that.

I am starting more and more to believe it is another Miracle we need for her to have a normal rest of her life.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.​..thank you

[tjy]

our thoughts and prayers are with you and Gwen. wish there was something more we could do, You can rest assured The prayer chain will be full from Florida.

[Buck]

" Private Clinic to do the MRI Tuesday and at $650 that is quite cheap."

The MRI I had 3 months ago of my cervical and lumbar vertebra cost $6000, insurance and Medicare paid for most. Cheap ain't the word for what y'all got. Good luck to Gwen.
Buck