Oh Becca, thanks for sharing your pictures and you little one with us. I just love the pictures, what a beautiful little girl and yes, she is growing up!! Prayers for you guys, every day!!

I can't believe it has been two years. I was just thinking, when you are my age, you sure can use some new parts. You know, ones that do don't creak, crack and lock up when you get up.

Becca - The latest pictures of Natalie are absolutely wonderful! She is a beautiful little girl and growing more so every day! I'm continuing prayers for the situation at hand and I know that God will provide and meet your needs in His time.

For those of you in Illinois, you may remember the "Life Goes On" organ donor commercials put out by Jessie White's office.

Well, Natalie and I (and a handful of other people connected to organ donation) will be filming a commercial this Saturday for this year's campaign. The song in the commercial is The Who's Join Together.

Here is a link to the production company's website. If you click on the links on the right hand side of the page you can see past year's commercials. Ian is my favorite! http://www.vivalundinproductions.com/spots.php

They always air heavily throughout IL in the month of April
(National Organ Donor month)...so I'll let you all know...

Natalie is perfect for commercials. She's WAY too cute for words!

That is so awesome. I watched Ian and it brought tears to my eyes...a hero without the costume. Make sure to let us know when we can view "our" superstar.

A a fellow 'Illinoian" - that's probably not a word but who cares - I'll watch for the commercial for sure!!!!

Well, we never did get to go...see my latest at http://www.nataliebear.com.

Aw man...what a bummer! I sure hope she is feeling better this morning. What was it? Some sort of pink eye infection?

Well I am posting this from the hospital.
Go to http://www.nataliebear.com for more...

Becca, I hope and pray that it is just a "run-of-the-mill" virus. Hang in there!

It sounds kind of like the bug the Junebug had in November - if it is, you should be just about at the end of it. Hope she is doing better and y'all can go home soon.

how odd, my kidney transplant son came down with a high fever yesterday, and he was doing so good

God bless your family

We're still here in the hospital. Still running tests. The postive thing is that we know there in NO problem with her liver. The not so positive thing is that mommy got food poisoning last night - stupid chicken sandwich.

I read your post earlier...hope you are feeling a little bit better. I have had food poisoning and it isn't pretty. Prayers for a speedy recovery for you and for the docs to figure out what is causing the fevers for Natalie.

My father has had two kidney transplants, fevers are not uncommon, just make sure that he checks in with his Doc. Make sure that he avoids contact with sick folk, his immune system is very weak.

If it weren't for his heart attack a couple of years back, he probably would still have an active transplant today.
How old is he PR?

Kidneys stopped functioning when he was 17 and a senior in high school. Missed most of his senior year. I still remember all those letters we got from the school admins saying we were subject to arrest since we were responsible for our son's truency. He was on the type of dialysis that allowed him to do it from home every night. Only needed to do that for two years.

He will be 23 in August. Fever is now gone and we have scheduled a trip to Houston to see his transplant coordinator. That is always a hassle, we are small town folk and don't look forward to the long drive and fighting Houston rush hour traffic. But that is a small price to pay for keeping him healthy as we can.

And that, my friend, is the best thing that I have read today.

You and your family are in my thoughts. Hang in there.

Any updates on the Bear? How's she doing?

Bless you for asking...

Natalie is stable. She is still listed for a new liver and moved up on the list she went from a -3 to a -1 this week.

For more on the unos scoring system go here: MELD/PELD PDF.

But, as always, you can't tell by looking at her. She looks awesome and is super active - and sassy!! She is in ballet and getting weekly piano lessons and for the most part her liver is happy.

When I get busy, I don't always post here, but you can always check our website (in my profile) for updates.

Ballet? She must look like a little fairy princess doing those piouettes! I like that image in my mind.

Hang in there everyone. I am praying for all who need it (and also for those who won't admit they need it!)

Friday, June 08, 2007 10:32 AM CDT

An update from clinic...

Yesterday went well. Very well in fact. But I'm going to keep you hanging for a while.

Jason and Natalie and I made the drive, since this was supposed to be a "Dr. Superina" visit, we wanted to make sure that we were all there. It's helpful - sometimes Jason and I hear and retain different things, so typically we de-brief after an appointment.

So our first step o' the mornin' was IR. And they were ready for Natalie. A blood draw during an IV placement later, and she was on her way to sedation land, and I was off for a Latte while Jason dozed in the waiting room. (He worked 12 hours on the night befores night shift). After a tubey exchange, she went to recovery. We are lucky. Natalie always does well with sedation. Ketamine, Versed, and Atropine are good friends to have. And we had our favorite IR nurses - Terry and Becky there to make sure that our girl did well. Natalie was a good girl, she even said, "Cheese" to the camera taking pictures of the contrast in her tummy!

From IR we made our way to the 5th floor for transplant clinic. And we got to meet Treyton. Treyton's mom and great aunt are Liver Families members too. And Treyton just recently received part of his daddy's liver. Lucky boy!

We saw nurse Joan, and presented her with the very first Liver Families Luminary Award.

So then we had clinic. Dr. Alonso, Dr. Kholi, Dr. Superina, and Nurse Joan all crowded in the room to discuss Natalie.
Jason and I had no expectations going in. We acknowledged that removing the tube may not be best for Natalie, but told her team that we just needed to know if there was anything to do, other than wait. We said that she is growing, she is eating, she is in ballet, and will be in Pre-K next year - she's doing all these "normal" things, we don't want to rock the boat. I'm sure Jason had some good things to say too...I just don't remember what they are...

Dr. Superina said that whenever Natalie's name comes up when talking about kids on the transplant list, he just thinks that there is a girl that shouldn't need another transplant. So I asked him what we should do. And he turned the question back on me with, "What do you want to do?" I answered that I wanted to do what was best for Natalie.

And he said, "I would pull the tube."

So in 6 weeks we will go back. We will return to IR. Dr. Superina will be present during the study and if all looks well, we will pull the tube. Like I said to my friend PL this morning, you know I was fine until I typed that.

But wow. In 6 weeks we're going to try again.

I nervous...but faithful at the same time.

Keep hanging in there Becca!!!! Glad to hear things are getting better for all of you.

I don't understand the ramifications of 'pulling the tube' vs not. I do understand your love and concern for your brave, wonderful daughter. Continued prayers and ((hugs)) from WI heading south to you all.