Hello everyone! I thought I would pop in and update you all on Dean’s journey.

Since our last post 2 months ago Dean is now able to sit unassisted for long periods of time, babble and throw his toys across the room(his favorite game). Dean is severely behind in his gross and fine motor skills, so him sitting is a HUGE victory for us. We are confident and hopeful that once Dean is post-transplant, his motor skills will vastly improve.

Dean has also been hospitalized a few times since our last post. He unfortunately caught RSV from his siblings and had to be life-flighted to PICU for a few days. Since then, he has made a full recovery and back to his happy little self. Shortly after this hospitalization he accidentally pulled off his sterile central-line dressing and earned himself a precautionary stay at UCLA to make sure he didn’t cause an infection. Thankfully, he was all clear to go home after just a few days.

Fast-forward to now, we are currently admitted at UCLA. We arrived yesterday with the plan of having Dean’s broviac line surgically replaced with a port in preparation for transplant. We ended up having to push back surgery until we figured out why Dean’s dialysis catheter hasn’t been draining properly for the last few weeks. We’ve come to the conclusion that Dean will need to have his dialysis line surgically replaced. To minimize the amount of times he’s put under general anesthesia, he is now scheduled to have both his portacath and his new dialysis line placed tomorrow.

While we are staying at UCLA, my husband has been completing the next steps required for being Dean’s donor. So far, he is a match so now we are just waiting for a CT scan to confirm that my husband’s kidney will fit well in Dean’s little body. If everything looks good then we will hopefully be scheduling his transplant to be done this summer!

That is all to update for now but we will be sure to check back in soon. Thank you for all the love and support!

-Dean’s Mama