Well, many of you know our journey to move to Idaho over the last couple of years.  We are getting close to getting our house in next month!!  We are very excited indeed….

Another aspect of moving to Idaho included transferring all of Samuel’s doctor’s to St. Lukes in Boise.  We have met the entire team and couldn’t be more happy with them!  His new urologist encouraged Samuel to start catheterizing himself during the day and it has given all of us such freedom.  He is able to go to the bathroom and cath when he needs to without waiting for Mommy or Daddy to help.  He has also taken it upon himself to ‘unhook’ himself every morning from the foley cath although we are still hooking up the foley before bed.  This too has allowed him the freedom to get up without Mom or Dad’s assistance.

Most recently, we met his new gastrointerologist.  She did a quick test and found that Samuel is not relaxing his pelvic floor completely and thinks it would be a “goldmine” (her word) for Samuel to go through PT biofeedback where they will try to retrain his muscles to work properly.  This will allow him to empty his colon completely (and hopefully bladder too) and heal.  Please continue to pray with us that his bladder and GI track will completely heal so as to save what little kidney function he has left.

He will still need to meet with transplant team at UCSF every 6 months to keep track with them so they are ready when he does need transplant.

Also pray for his medical supplies… our insurance is constantly refusing coverage of his catheter supplies and forcing us to jump through hoops every month.  The insurance from last year audited our account and refused to pay for items that they had already paid for (makes my head hurt) and giving us a bill for almost half his supplies for last year.  That is one reason why COTA is such a valuable resource for families like ours to help coordinate support from donors like you to assist with transplant-related expenses, like supplies and needs Samuel has to keep him off dialysis and see us through transplant.  We thank God for your support!

Thanks for partnering with us!