Make-A-Wish: Wrestlemania 2012!!!

As you know, Bradley was granted his wish of going to Wrestlemania 2012!! I wanted to share some of the pictures of our trip.  We are forever grateful to Make-A-Wish and everyone who donates to this amazing organization.  It was such a great experience for all of the Wish kids and their families...Lots of wonderful memories and new friends too!!

Picked up in a limo at 4am!!! Everyone was still a little sleepy...

Brad got to meet John Cena, Sheamus, and Layla at Jungle Island!

Wrestlemania!! Over 78,000 at Sunlife Stadium in Miami...A new record!!!

All of us meeting The Big Show, Sheamus, and Beth Phoenix!! Mackenzie had her face painted like a tiger...LOL

Post-Transplant

I sincerely apologize for not keeping up with this blog.  It has been one crazy year!
But, I at least wanted to update it to let you all know that Brad's transplant was a success and today, almost one year later, he is doing great! We ended up going to Miami to Wrestlemania 2012 for his Make-a-Wish trip! We had a blast and met some really amazing people.
Here are some pics of Brad and my Dad pre-transplant and post-transplant. My Dad is also doing great.  Such a miracle. Love them both!!

I am working on writing a book about this experience, and I will keep you posted on its progress.

Thank  you all for reading.

Lots of Love,
Tina and Bradley

Bradley and My Dad right before heading into surgery.

Bradley and My Dad a week after the kidney transplant...Amazing!!

Immunosuppressant Therapy has begun!!

Bradley started his immunosuppressant therapy!!

2 more days til transplant!!

The scariest part about the transplant is the immunosuppressants he will have to take.  For the first three months, they basically take his immune system down to nothing.  After that, they will slowly back down on the strength of the medicines they give him, but he will have to be on some dose of immunotherapy for the rest of his life.

After an organ transplant, the body will nearly always reject the new organ due to differences in the blood between the donor and recipient. As a result, the immune system detects the new tissue as "hostile", and attempts to remove it by attacking it with recipient white blood cells, resulting in the death of the tissue. Immunosuppressants are applied as a countermeasure; the side-effect is that the body becomes more vulnerable to infections and malignancy, much like in an advanced HIV infection.

For the first three months, we will have to be very careful about where Bradley goes and who he comes into contact with, so we can try to protect him against any type of infection.

The doctors have already told us to expect at least one hospital admission due to an infection sometime within the first six months.

So even though there is a light at the end of the tunnel, the journey is still not quite over...

Make-A-Wish

One of the highlights of this whole journey was finding out that Bradley qualified for the Make-a-wish program!! What an amazing gift!!

For those of you who haven't heard of the Make-a-wish Foundation, it is a non-profit organization that grants the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses.

Bradley's wish granters met with us on February 15th.  They sat down with Bradley to find out exactly what it is he is dreaming about and would like to wish for. Since this is a very important decision, it took Bradley some time to figure it out. He changed his mind 5 times I think!! Butttt...that's ok!! It's the dreaming that takes his mind off of his illness, and that is what the program is all about.

So...what did he wish for??? Well...since he is a big WWE fan, he wished to go to WWE Wrestle Mania in Miami next year, April, 2012!!

He will not only get to attend Wrestle Mania, but he will also get to meet some of the wrestlers (and mom gets to meet The Rock?? haha), go into the ring, get a world championship belt (not the real one of course), and probably much more!!

He should feel really good next April...almost a year out from transplant...so it will be an amazing trip I'm sure!!

I can't wait!! And I'm sure he can't either!!

Stay tuned for more on this, as his wish granters are going to make sure that the excitement keeps building throughout this next year!!

Light at the end of the tunnel

Only 6 more dialysis treatments left!!! WooHoo!!

For those of you not familiar with dialysis, let me tell you, this machine is a miracle in itself.  The way the blood goes into the filter and then the filter works as your kidney would is incredible. Medical technology has come a long way.  Thank God for this!!  Without it, Bradley and so many others would not be alive today.



Because we knew Bradley's dialysis treatments were temporary, he had a 'tesio' catheter placed in his chest instead of the fistula in the arm which is the usual procedure for long term patients.  This was a blessing because if Bradley had to have a fistula that would mean they would have to use a needle each time to access his vein for dialysis.  At least this way, Bradley had no discomfort whatsoever while getting dialysis treatments.  They just hooked the machine up to his catheter, and Bradley was 'free' for 4 hours to do whatever he wanted within the comfy confines of his chair.

These weren't just ordinary chairs...they were really comfortable recliners that had their own tv/computer touch screen.  Bradley loved playing solataire and some of the other games on the computer, as well as, watching American Idol with all the staff.

Bradley made such great friends with a lot of the nurses that work there.  They have been so great to him since day one.  One of the male nurses, Justin, became Bradley's bff at dialysis.  Whenever Bradley would show up there, the first thing he would ask, 'Is Justin working today?' If so, Bradley would have this huge smile on his face and they would goof off together the rest of the evening....so much that I think they moved Justin to the other side of the center so he would concentrate on work instead of goofing off. Haha

There were many a times when I was caught in the imaginary crossfire between those two.  Justin would duck behind the nurses desk and then poke his head up like he had a machine gun pointed at Bradley.  Then Bradley would throw some imaginary bombs his way...hey whatever it takes to pass the time right!!???

Leaving dialysis is going to be a little sad...only a little sad though!! We can definitely go back to visit every now and again, and Bradley has hopefully made some great friends for life.

Happy Easter!!

I wanted to share this song with you in celebration of Easter.  It is one of my favorites. The words are so powerful...'this child can face uncertain days because he lives...'  Amen.

Happy Easter!! Enjoy!!

The warning signs of Chronic Kidney Disease

I found this video on you tube describing the warning signs of kidney disease and thought it would be perfect to share with you all; especially since it portrays a teenagers sense of humor very well. :-)

I haven't shown this to Bradley yet, but I'm sure he is going to get a laugh out of it. He has the best sense of humor ever. That's one thing that has never left him, even throughout all that he's been going through.

Hope you enjoy the video and please take note of the warning signs of Chronic Kidney Disease.