This is the lastest on Steve.
We had an appointment with Dr. Brown this week and things are going as expected. Although Steve is not liking the idea of getting ready for dialysis, he is still feeling pretty good. He is set up next week to see the vascular surgeon in St. Joe to do the mapping on his arm and do the out patient surgery to get the fistula started in his arm. No more arm wrestling. Before long his arm is going to be his life line.

The surgeon will graft one the arteries to a vein which will make the vein grow bigger. It will take at least 2 months for the fistula to mature. A fistula is hardly ever used before 8 weeks. Once this is done he will probably be able to go the summer hopefully without dialysis. In the fall they are planning on taking out the other kidney as a precaution. We don't want the cancer to start in this one so we are going with the Dr. when in doubt get it out. Very tough decision to make.

He also has a follow up next week with Dr. AJ the oncologist. There are starting to be more appointment than days of the week. Keeping very busy with wedding planning, Steve has started in the field, Emily is about to graduate from RN school and Blair is counting the day until school is out and she can start making money.

I probably won't post again until next week after his surgery. Oh one more thing the last time we talked with KU about transplant they did say males similar to Steve's size would be the best candidates. The doctors says the donor can not have a belly (beer belly) and they can't be scronny skinny either so all you people of comparable size you have time to loose weight or put weight on. So lets get started we want to have a nice bunch of candidates to pick from.

Thank you all for the cards, prayers and concerns, we really appreciate it.
Steve, Christy and girls.