carebearkidney
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2012
- Messages
- 337
Hello all!
My name is Karen. Mommy of two, military wife of one, and caretaker of our "dog"hter, Downey.
I also try to keep America's economy going in the right direction by buying many potato chip products, thus forcing me to buy more pants when the others seem to shrink??
Who da thunk it?
Anyway, back in January I received a call from the Make a Wish chapter here in GA. It seems one of our wonderful docs submitted my son, Matthew, to get approved for a wish. He qualified and we rejoiced.
So let me officially introduce our family.
Here we all are (with my parents in the picture too) along with our Downey girl.
[
Matthew is our little wish child. He just turned four years old in June and LOVES Disney - especially Buzz and Woody, Wall-e, Mike and Sully and naturally Mickey Mouse.
When I was just 16 weeks pregnant with him, we found out that he had a blockage in his bladder. This "blockage" was forcing the urine he was producing to flow back up to his kidneys and basically shut them down from even forming. We were told to terminate three separate times, by three separate doctors before we found one that would give our boy a chance.
After four fetal surgeries, 11 bladder taps and 13 amnio-infusions, Matthew came into the world by emergency c-section at 31 weeks. Since then he has had 29 surgeries, including a kidney transplant at 18 months old. He was on hemodialysis for over 13 months. And when baby/toddler is hooked up to a machine for 3-4 hrs...tv is your friend...and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was ours!
Watching the rolling video cart, where they would play Mickey movies for Matthew.
Here he is after surgery 25 this past February - after every surgery he gets to pick a balloon for being such a brave boy.
William is our oldest son, and has become such a sweet and empathetic big brother. William was two when Matthew was born, and was also thrown into the whirlwind of hospitals and labs and surgeries...as mommy was never around, but always staying overnight with Matthew.
It made me very sad to miss out on so much of his life, but luckily he doesn't remember that anyway any more and often (when school permits) asks to go with us to the hospital to hold Matthew's hand for labs or radiology.
But the love of Disney has continued with William as well - he's my Cars, Phineas and Ferb, Pirates and Luke Skywalker dude.
Here's a pic of him.
So that is us! We are waiting for our wish granters to call us this week or next to say when they will come over to meet Matthew and he can make his wish. So excited. He keeps asking if we will go to Disney World tomorrow to hug Buzz and see Mickey. Not yet baby, not yet. Good things are coming sweetie - I promise.
Oh, and since Disney was always a part of my growing up...I used to sing Disney lullabies to my baby boys, both when I was pregnant and they were little. William's was Baby of Mine from Dumbo, and Matthew's was A Dream is a Wish from Cinderella. Here's a little post and pic to show how far my "super boy" as come from the doctor's not expecting him to take a first breath to just being a boy!
http://relationactions.blogspot.be/2012/06/mothers-lullaby.html
My name is Karen. Mommy of two, military wife of one, and caretaker of our "dog"hter, Downey.
I also try to keep America's economy going in the right direction by buying many potato chip products, thus forcing me to buy more pants when the others seem to shrink?? Who da thunk it?Anyway, back in January I received a call from the Make a Wish chapter here in GA. It seems one of our wonderful docs submitted my son, Matthew, to get approved for a wish. He qualified and we rejoiced.
So let me officially introduce our family.
Here we all are (with my parents in the picture too) along with our Downey girl.
[
Matthew is our little wish child. He just turned four years old in June and LOVES Disney - especially Buzz and Woody, Wall-e, Mike and Sully and naturally Mickey Mouse.
When I was just 16 weeks pregnant with him, we found out that he had a blockage in his bladder. This "blockage" was forcing the urine he was producing to flow back up to his kidneys and basically shut them down from even forming. We were told to terminate three separate times, by three separate doctors before we found one that would give our boy a chance.
After four fetal surgeries, 11 bladder taps and 13 amnio-infusions, Matthew came into the world by emergency c-section at 31 weeks. Since then he has had 29 surgeries, including a kidney transplant at 18 months old. He was on hemodialysis for over 13 months. And when baby/toddler is hooked up to a machine for 3-4 hrs...tv is your friend...and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was ours!Watching the rolling video cart, where they would play Mickey movies for Matthew.
Here he is after surgery 25 this past February - after every surgery he gets to pick a balloon for being such a brave boy.
William is our oldest son, and has become such a sweet and empathetic big brother. William was two when Matthew was born, and was also thrown into the whirlwind of hospitals and labs and surgeries...as mommy was never around, but always staying overnight with Matthew.
It made me very sad to miss out on so much of his life, but luckily he doesn't remember that anyway any more and often (when school permits) asks to go with us to the hospital to hold Matthew's hand for labs or radiology.But the love of Disney has continued with William as well - he's my Cars, Phineas and Ferb, Pirates and Luke Skywalker dude.
Here's a pic of him.
So that is us! We are waiting for our wish granters to call us this week or next to say when they will come over to meet Matthew and he can make his wish. So excited. He keeps asking if we will go to Disney World tomorrow to hug Buzz and see Mickey. Not yet baby, not yet. Good things are coming sweetie - I promise.
Oh, and since Disney was always a part of my growing up...I used to sing Disney lullabies to my baby boys, both when I was pregnant and they were little. William's was Baby of Mine from Dumbo, and Matthew's was A Dream is a Wish from Cinderella. Here's a little post and pic to show how far my "super boy" as come from the doctor's not expecting him to take a first breath to just being a boy!
http://relationactions.blogspot.be/2012/06/mothers-lullaby.html
I think they are pretty cute, but they are also asleep now...and with that comes mom-nesia for how many times they drove you crazy during the day.
Isn't that the truth!! I just put my son down and it's heaven. 
Looking forward to more of the PTR
And it often ends up being my husband...asking what's for dinner.
He was so sick and always in the hospital...having 2-3 surgeries a month sometimes and being hooked up to machines to keep him alive three times a week...I didn't take in the "normal" aspects of life. Cuddling on the couch, rocking in the rocking chair in the middle of the night, going for a walk - even if it was just at the hospital gardens. I was always so concerned with labs, procedures, weight, blood pressure, medicine schedules, therapies...sigh...pretty much the same stuff the majority of us are caught up in with our special warriors.
I'll make sure I take a step back to take it all in
His NEW wish now is to eat honey with a Heffalump. 
Granted... he only was able to stay home one night before spending another 2 weeks on the transplant floor due to wonky labs, but I still celebrate our 1st family day anniversary!
