Long Overdue Update

This update has been in the making for a long time...With all of your help, support and love we raised the $20,000!!! Me and Mine met with all the nurses and doctors at UVA, who were beyond thrilled that we raised the money! The next step was a few tests i had to have updated, then the transplant teams meets to confirm or deny I am a good candidate for a second transplant. On Friday, June 19th, I went for those tests...a chest x-ray, which took 2 seconds and 2 pictures. The second test was an ECHO, which is an "ultrasound of the heart". I learned that i have a beautiful heart. Perfect in every way. and when my blood pumps through it sounds like an old school rap song where the guy smacks the girls ass! yeah, you know the sound! LOL!!! But seriously, the nurses doing the ECHO were amazed by how perfect my heart was. So its true, all my other organs work just fine, my kidneys just hate me! Dialysis at home is still going really well. We're still learning as we go. I keep losing more weight and just went out and got lots of new clothes, which is a pleasant upside of being poked with 2 needles all the time. Some days are still rough, I still get headaches, and hiccups, but for the most part I am doing really well with this new lifestyle. We are planning our first dialysis adventure away from home in August. Here's hoping we don;t forget anything! YIKES! Me and Mine went on an Adventure Saturday, June 20th, to Staunton, VA to look at a new car. It was a bust and the car had been sold so the Adventure took us to Charlottesville, VA to the outdoor mall. To our surprise, there was live music playing, it was LINDSEY STERLING! She was just there in the amphitheater rehearsing for her show that night. She plays the violin but she plays like a rockstar!! It was awesome and beautiful! Such an amazing woman! After listening to her rehearse for a while we started walking. We came across a new chocolate store. YUM! We each got some chocolates...Peanut Butter cup for Me and a White Chocolate Truffle for Mine. We walked, held hands and just enjoyed a day away from the Dialysis machine. We did have to stop and rest for a while, since it was hot and i needed to sit down, but we did it in style. We found a roof top bar and had glasses of cold water and an afternoon snack. I had Chips and Salsa, Mine had Grilled cheese with Prosciutto. It was a Beautiful day! Sunday it was back to the machine and FATHERS DAY! We did early afternoon dialysis and the celebrated Fathers Day with a Pasta Bar. I made Vodka Sauce, Alfredo Sauce, Marinara Sauce with meatballs, Chicken Piccata and Shrimp Scampi...and it was all WONDERFUL!!! I made an antipasto platter as an appetizer which was also very tasty. Don't let all this dialysis fool you, I still cook and I still love it! I almost forgot...I recorded my Aha Moment with Mutual of Omaha on June 9th. It was an amazing opportunity and i had so much fun! I talked about raising the money for the transplant and how it made me feel. After it was all done, they told me i was a rock star! And it made me realize that i am truly awesome! I'm taking this genuinly awful thing and just making it part of my life. Some days it ruins my life and some days its just an after thought. One last thought...Mine has been so amazing through all of this. He really is my own personal super hero. I love how even when my arm won't stop bleeding, hes exhausted, just wants to go to bed and the stupid cat had been playing with the drain line all night long....He can still make me laugh. He is an always will be Mine.