Ok we have had just about as much Christmas as we can stand. We had Christmas on Christmas Eve, Christmas day and the day after Christmas. The tree and decorations have been packed away until next year. Call me hum bug if you want but I had to get it put away because this week will be busy.

We are trying to use the access in Steve's arm, this is not going so well. He has went a few times to train with this access. (By the way thanks Gary M. for going with him, it really helped me out a lot). The training nurse is having trouble finding the right spot. She can always get the Venus line in with no problem but the arterial never works. Usually they stick him 1 to 3 times and end up hooking the arterial line up in his chest catheter. They stuck him so many times the week of Christmas and it infiltrated that his left arm looks like he has been in a bad car wreck. It is badly bruised from the elbow to the wrist. The nurse thought it was good he wasn't coming back for a few days to give him a break. Blair went with him one day last week and I warned her if blood, needles or any of that bothered her she might not want to watch. I have to admit it is not good sitting and watching this pain. I have never had any problems with this kind of thing but I have to tell you I found myself getting a bit queezy one day last week watching all this.

Today we went an things did not go any better. They get the Venus line every time time but not the arterial. The training nurse called in another nurse today that does this on a daily basis and she did good. Steve wants her to start doing it all the time. It is so painful that he keeps telling me he doesn't want to go back. He is really discouraged this week.

With the way the weather has been and sounds like more snow tonight, with his arm being so badly bruised and the pain I think we will be doing this the month of January anyway. What they are trying to do in case I haven't made that clear they are trying to form what they call a button hole. The vein builds scar tissue from all the sticks and it makes it tough so he can stick it in the same place once the button hole is formed. Easier said than done.

We know there are a lot of you that have been praying for him, please keep it up he is needing it now more than ever to keep his spirits up. We go see the Nephrologist at KU on the transplant team before long and also the first of February we are going to KU to do a CT scan with contrast which he has not done in years. They warned him doing it with contrast is the best picture but could cause whatever remaining kidney function he has left to fail. We said we knew that. At this time they will discuss what it looks like. The ultrasound from Dec. 11 show a slight change, nothing that they were alarmed about, probably just normal detieration of the kidney. Probably will make a date with the urologist to have it taken out. He would like to keep it as long as possible if they think it does not have cancer because it does help with the water balance and he is still peeing some which is good. If they take it out he will have to be more strict with eating and fluid intake.

Thats all for now. Take care and God Bless.
Love Steve, Christy & Blair