May 26 4:00pm

I am back in KC today with Steve. Now he is playing the numbers game. His CB3 which is how stirred up the immune system is was at 8 today. It has to be below 10 and yesterday it was at 6. When you put a foreign organ in the body your immune system gets all crazy because it knows it is not yours and tries to reject it. This is why he has been receiving pretty much everyday a bag of Thymo goblin through his IV anti-rejection medicine. Yesterday they started him on the pill form of prograft anti-rejection meds. He has to have this in his blood and the level on this has to be between 10 and 12. Today it was only at 2 so they increased the morning dose to 3 pills verses 1. The CB3 needs to be below 10 and the level of anti-rejection needs to be between 10-12.

We went over the meds he will be coming home on and it is not 20 like we were first told. Looks like 12. 3 anti-rejection meds, 1 antibiotic, 1 medicine to kill fungus, 1 steroid, 1 to prevent infections, 2 blood pressure meds, 1 to make your tummy feel better because of all the above that you are taking etc... I knew a pharmacy degree would come in handy.

They started giving him lasisks again today he has had it twice and it works immediately. His ankles are still pretty fat. I am wondering if they will make him stay to get more fluid off before he goes home? He has to pee about every 15 minutes. He has lost approximately 9 lbs of fluid this process is pretty slow. His kidney is working at about 18% and I know that doesn't seem like much but eventually they say it will get about 60%. You and I don't even have a 100% of our kidneys working, this is what the docs say. They want what they want, first it was urine they wanted and that is what they got now it is quality urine they want which means the clearance or the creatinine level which today was 3.5. The nurse said she thinks it will get to 1.0 again.

He seems to be in pretty good humor. We will see what happens tomorrow when he gets the work go or stay. The nurse told him today he has not been here the longest. Your still in the same month. Other patients have been here 1 month or longer. One person had a transplant after 17 years of dialysis and was her for several weeks, 5 I think.

We have written our letter to the donors family thanking them for the gift of life. We have decide to keep this private but will let you know if they respond. So bittersweet! Please pray for the donors family.