Wild Animal Safari

On our drive up to Charlotte for the surgery, we decided to take a slight detour.

So we spent Saturday night at a hotel in Pine Mountain, Georgia.

And then we drove through the Wild Animal Safari first thing Sunday morning.

We were advised to rent one of their vans instead of driving our vehicle through the park.

It was a wise decision if you ask me and Grace.

We also bought two bags of animal food.

We were one of the first tourists through the park and the animals met us at the gate. 

In case you didn't notice, there are no windows on the doors.  But there are bars over the back windows.

We were amazed that the animals came right up to the windows and tried to climb into our van!

When Grace saw those long tongues on those big animals, she just said, "They're too big, Momma!" and wouldn't feed any of them.  She sat in the very center of the bench seat and wouldn't move.

We were warned that the zebras could especially be aggressive.

This one came so far into David's window that he hopped over to the passenger side!

Then this guy met him at that window so David ended up straddeling between seats.  I'm glad he didn't get bitten!  Those zebras were hungry!

The tongues kinda creeped Grace out.  They were so looong!

Then we saw the giraffes up ahead.

Giraffes are my favorite.  They are tall and skinny and covered in spots - just like my husband and daughter!

I couldn't believe he reached all the way down and between the bars trying to get some food.

His tongue was by far the longest - at least a foot in length - no exaggeration!  I wish I had gotten a better picture of it - it just kept coming and coming and coming.  And he curled it into circles on itself trying to get at the food.  It was amazing!

There were ostriches.

Most of them were just curious, but some pecked at us trying to get food.

We saw llamas.

They look so funny when they chew.

And they look like they're laughing at you when they're not eating.

We saw reindeer.  They were very docile and let us pet them.  I couldn't believe how soft they are!

This guy followed us for a bit after we drove on.

And here's a momma pig with her babies.

They were so cute!

So was this fella.

Grace liked him enough to actually feed him.

There were several little deer.

Grace really liked the deer.

Then Grace climbed into her Daddy's lap to see more animals and to help him drive.

There was a really big rhino.

Before we knew it, we were back at the entrance where the cows were waiting for us.

I'm not much of a cow fan, unless you're talking steaks or burgers, but I have to admit this is one of my favorite pictures of the trip.  It was just so typical of the animals to loll their tongues around searching for food.  Everytime I look at this photo it makes me giggle.

Finally we left the animals behind and I noticed this sign.  Trust me, we didn't need a reminder to wash our hands.  After all that slobber we really needed a shower...

Post surgery: We're out of the hospital!

David was doing so well Sunday that I decided to finally go back to his parents house for the first time to get some real sleep for a change. When I arrived back at the hospital Monday morning, I found out that both David and Bud were being discharged from the hospital. What a wonderful answer to all of our prayers!

David is doing much better. He received two 12 hour IV antibiotics on Sunday to clear up a little redness and puffiness around one of his incisions. He has a prescription for a 5 day antibiotic and about 2 weeks prescription pain killers. His pain while taking these pills has been holding steady around a 4 - much better than what it was previously. He has a post surgery follow up visit with his surgeon Thursday at noon. Assuming it goes well, we will have the okay to head home this weekend.

Bud is also at home now. He is on various medications. His pain level has increased over the past few days, but we are told that was to be expected. Immediately after surgery, he was on strong medication and steriods to prevent him from initially rejecting the kidney and now that medication is wearing off. Hopefully, the pain will decrease again soon.

Thank you all for your prayers and concern over the last few days and weeks. We are so thankful to have had so many people praying over us during this worrisome time in our lives. We are blessed that both surgeries went so well. Both David and Bud's surgeons said that the surgeries couldn't have gone better. The kidney was perfect and both David and his dad are recovering very well. I am convinced that God heard each prayer on their behalf and He watched over both of them all the way through surgery and continues to watch over them as they heal. God truly has blessed us and we are so thankful for His blessings and for each of you.

Post surgery: Day 2

Today Bud is doing much better.  He is able to eat regular meals now and is up roaming the halls. His energy levels are incredible and he looks like a new man.  What a blessing to see such a dramatic change in him! 

David, however, is still on a liquids only diet and has a hard time moving around due to his pain levels.  He really misses his coffee!  We also had a conflict with one of our nurses that caused David to have a pain setback. 

David had a nurse whom I'll call "Joan" and she kept telling David to use breathing and visualization techniques to deal with his pain instead of giving him medication.  She kept saying that David just had major surgery and he was going to have pain and he just needed to work through it.  What a quack!  She thought David should imagine being on the beach with Grace and his pain would just dissapate.  Maybe it would if he was dunking Nurse Joan under the water...  Anyway, when your pain level is a 10 it's a little hard to imagine it away.  Crazy Joan actually told us a story of an 8-9 year old girl that she help reset a broken bone without any medication!  Needless to say, we went to the head of the transplant center and had nurses swapped.  Our new nurse whom I'll call "Angie" talked to David's surgeon and now David is on dilaudid instead of morphine and it is working much, much better.  His pain level has decreased to about a 6 which David says he can tolerate.  He has a high pain threshhold!

Anyway, now that Nurse Joan is off helping someone other than David things are going much, much better for us.  Nurse Angie is very attentive to David and doesn't believe in unnecessary pain - a woman after my own heart!  David is resting as much as he is able between blood pressure checks, temperature checks, etc., and his pain is somewhat tolerable.  I plan to stay here at the hospital again tonight to help David as much as I am able. 

Thank you again for keeping us in your prayers.  I truly believe that the worst is finally behind us and better days are just over the horizon.  God is watching over all us as David and Bud begin to heal and I have faith that we will all be going home soon.

Post surgery: Day 1

Thank you to everyone for your continued support and prayers. We are overwhelmed by all the emails and phone calls we've received from so many people just expressing their love and concern for us. Thank you for your thoughts and kind consideration. It may take me a while, but I plan to answer each email and return every voicemail - just please be patient. :)

Today Bud has been doing extremely well. He is now out of ICU and has been moved to his own private room just down the hallway from David. His vitals are great and his skin color is wonderful. He is even up walking around all by himself and is hardly using any pain medication at all. Not too long ago he surprised David and me by showing up in our room. David was so glad to see him doing so well. It was the first time they have seen each other since the surgery. They compared surgery scars, of course. :) The doctors have Bud on a regular diet and Bud is joking around with everyone he meets. He's walking so much, he's becoming hard to keep up with! His recovery has truly been amazing and we are so thankful he is doing better than we expected in such a short time.

David is also doing better. The nurses took his first labs today and they came back good. After a few bumps this morning, we finally seem to have his pain under control. While he is not pain free, the pain levels are tolerable. He still gets nauseated from time to time and cannot eat anything yet, but we are working on that. He can drink water and juice. We hope he will be able to eat sometime tomorrow afternoon. Today we walked up and down the hallway twice and then David sat in a chair by the bed for almost 40 minutes this afternoon. Currently, he is getting some much needed rest. His surgeon and nurses have told him that today would most likely be the toughest day for him and I am hoping that the worst is behind us now. 

Surgery update

David is in his private room and he's doing a lot better now.  They've changed out his medication and that seems to have really helped.  He's sleeping now.  Bud is doing very well - in fact, he's already cracking jokes. 

Update

I was just able to see David. He is in a lot of pain now and could really use your prayers. His vitals look good but they won't move him out of ICU until his pain is under control. He's on morphine now but his pain level is still at an 8 on a scale of 1 - 10. Please keep praying for us. It's so hard to see him hurting so much and be unable to do anything to help.

Transplant Surgery Update

Bud is now out of surgery. He also finished early - almost 1 1/2 hours early to be exact! We just finished speaking with his surgeon. Bud did very well especially for someone his age. His arteries were flexible and pliant making it very easy to join his new kidney to his old ones. The Dr specifically said that David's kidney was "beautiful" and "it couldn't have gone better." And "as for a kidney transplant, you couldn't have a better or more perfect procedure." We are so blessed that everything has gone as well as it has.

In addition, neither David nor Bud even needed a blood transfusion. That is incredible!

We are so thankful for everyone keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. It means so much to us to have so many people praying for us and supporting us during this time. God has been so gracious to us!  Please continue to pray for a speedy recovery!