Number Three is Married and I Survived It.

Well, it is over and I actually made it without getting sick again. The bride was beautiful, the groom handsome (thank God he looks like his Mom), and the ceremony and reception was very nice. I must admit that I had reservations about a Vegas wedding, but it was great...we actually had an ordained minister....no Elvis look alike Justice of the Peace. Sandy was a real trooper pushing me around in a wheel chair because of my edema in my legs. A big thanks to Dave and Jim for making sure I got to all the festivities.

The only hitch happened at the Vegas airport where there was no wheel chair when we flew out Monday. A fellow passenger told me that the travel assist people for United were at an inservice on how to serve the handicapped traveler.

I forgot the time!

The wedding is at 6:00 pm Saturday. Thanks to those who reminded me that I forgot to list the time.

Live Wedding Ceremony for Chris and Sara

I am told that the ceremony will be broadcast on the web. Some of our friends have told us that they would like the web address so they can watch, so here it is.

http://www.playcaesars.com/Caesars/LasVegas/Splash/wedcast/

Hopefully, it will work. Just go to the above address and type in Christopher Mahalek (or maybe Chris Mahalek) in the space provided and click broadband or dial up depending on your connection. They told us that it would be available for about a week. Any questions? Drop me an email.

I'm Back...At Least For a While

I was dismissed from the hospital Monday evening, and is it nice to get home. The staph infection in my central line is gone.....now it is a matter of trying to get my white cell count up so I can resist infections. Thank God the staph was not one of the new killer drug resistant strains. The infectious disease specialists told me that I was much better off recuperating at home rather than being exposed to all the bugs in the hospital. For now, antiobiotics, neupogen shots, procrit shots, and steroid treatments for several days.

The good news is that I can go to the wedding....I'll take standard precautions such as masking in planes and airports.

To the Class of '60, my heartfelt thanks to all of you for your prayers and support...It means so very much. Thanks for the comments about Beecher's Island....they brought back a lot of memories. Also thanks to all of our Kearney friends.

Beecher Island Setback

We had hoped that Dan would get out of the hospital today....we were even packing up stuff in the room when we found that that his white blood cell count had gone way down after steadily rising each day. We were very upset at this news....and then it was explained how some of the medication is hard on white blood cells and how the white count can fluctuate....and we were still upset. Dan is very tired of being in the hospital.

He is taking nupugin which promotes the growth of white blood cells, but that takes a week to kick in. It is hard to change his medication around much....he takes so many different medicines and each drug effects the other drugs and his body....and he needs each thing for a different reason. I really don't think he is the same person I married.

Also I hope this whole Beecher Island thing doesn't set Dan back. I read Doug and Jim's posts to him over the phone and it set off a whole rant on how terrible it was...how hot it was...how players got dust pneumonia and there was no water...it was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard of....and on and on. Good grief!

You know I don't think I have this quite straight in my mind....could you guys reenact the Beecher Island football game at the next class reunion?

Impatiently Still in the Hospital

Dan is still in the hospital even though things are going well....white blood cell count is up, red blood cell count is up, creatinine level is down,...he has a cautious internist and that's O.K. with me even though Dan is more than ready to come home. They put a pic (sp) line in his arm so that he can take antibiotics intravenously for two weeks (out-patient.) Plus he can go to the wedding although we might stay an abbreviated length of time in Las Vegas. We are concerned about infection and he doesn't have much energy.

We watched Kearney High School play in the state high school football finals at Memorial Stadium on ETV last night. It was a good game and Kearney won. I was just waiting for him to recount memories of the Julesburg Lions playing in sand burrs and the Beecher Island football game, but he didn't bring it up.

I'm sure you will know when he is home...he will be burning up the computer. They were not able to get Jim's old laptop hooked up in the hospital room....and I know Dan is going through computer withdrawal. I ran off a copy of your replies and took it to him yesterday. He enjoyed reading them.

Dr. Hranac says that Dan will be released on Sunday and we will hold him to that. Thank you for your kind thoughts and prayers.

Can You Believe It?....Staph Infection

Dan has hit a tough patch....it is a good thing that he is a strong person....

A "Readers' Digest" synopsis: We left Omaha on Sunday, promised to come back soon if we had to (the rejection issue isn't entirely resolved), and Dan was going to receive a blood infusion at Kearney's Cancer Center (they can handle the line in his neck.) Well...I receive a call from Dan wanting me to come to the Cancer Center immediately. As I pull up I can see an ambulance in front. I am praying that it isn't for Dan....and of course it is. Dan can barely talk, he was gasping for air, he had a high fever,....and they rushed him to the Emergency Room.

My only weak moment was when someone said, "UNMC wants you to come back,"....I have had it with UNMC and the team approach to medicine. I like being at our home hospital where our neighbor was his emergency room nurse, his doctor stayed with us for 45 minutes in the Emergency Room and checked on him four times that night in the hospital, two of our sons and tons of our friends are nearby,...and ultimately Dan was checked into Kearney's Good Samaratin Hospital.

Dan's red cell count was low, his white cell count was low, he had fluid outside his lungs pushing in, he couldn't breath very well...and really most of this has greatly improved. The line was removed because it caused the staff infection and treatment for the staph infection will last for one to two weeks. He will probably remain in the hospital until Saturday or Sunday. This is all very upsetting because antibiotics are hard on the kidney...not to mention Dan has been through so much already.

Dan's tests are looking good and we are hoping that rejection is not still a problem....other tests will reveal more. He doesn't like being in the hospital, but our Kearney friends and family have been great to visit. We were trying to get a computer for him in his room, but that hasn't happened yet.

I am upset that this even happened. We kept trying to tell UNMC that he didn't feel well when he was there....but the infection didn't take off until his immune system was really down.

And as for the wedding....Chris and Sara are getting married at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas on Saturday, November 25th and there is reason to hope that Dan will be able to go....he is the best man. We do have a doctor and two nurses in the family so hopefully this can all be done.

We are hanging in there. We appreciate your support.

Still here ...in Omaha

Murphy's Law head reared it's ugly head yesterday.....we were supposed to go home, but the final antibody test showed a new A antigen that should not be there. So another treatment was scheduled for Sunday and then we go home. Next Monday they will call and tell me if we have to return to Omaha for another treatment. I am trying to set up these sessions in Kearney....It would certainly be easier than constantly driving to Omaha. I will let you all know what happens.

Absolutely Nothing Happened

Reflections on election day..........
Absolutely nothing happened to me yesterday, and that is good news. The highlight of the day was going for a dressing change on my central line. As they say here, no news is good news.

Jim and Chris called.....in fact, Chris called 3 or 4 times and we discussed the election results as they were coming in. Chris and I were both disappointed that S. Kleeb was defeated in this race for the House of Rep.

Oh well, time to go to pheresis so I will sign off for now.

How Far Did the Bear Run Into the Woods?..........

Now I feel that I can answer that question from first hand knowledge....I seem to have reached the half way point and am now heading out of those woods. My legs are much better, I can actually put on my own socks and shoes; the wound has quit draining; and the best news of all is..........the rejection of the kidney has stopped.

Dr. Wrenschall, the guru of transplant immunology sent a Dr. to my hotel room (Yes, it is true Virginia, there is a Santa Claus) to see me this evening to explain that my rejection has disappeared. All drug therapy has been cancelled; however, I will undergo two more plasmapheresis treatments to make absolutely sure that all B antigens are gone from my blood. They were able to determine that I did not have vascular rejection...that was the best news I could hope for.

Thanks for all the prayers...medical science can only do so much. I'll keep you updated on this continuing saga.

Sunday update

Still continuing my treatments for both kinds of kidney rejection. Hopefully, after tomorrow's tests they can determine the exact type of rejection. It could be B Cell or T Cell...the T Cell is easier to treat, but they suspect that it is B Cell vascular rejection. In this type the kidney basically tries to destroy itself.

Today's treatment was only 6 hours....yesterday's was 15 hours long. Tomorrow should be about 5 hours....Yeah!!!! It is pretty quiet here as Sandy has returned to Kearney, so if any of you are in the Omaha area, I will treat you to dinner at the UNMC cafeteria. Actually it is not too bad.

Thanks to all of you who have written....Ed, watch out for those cows, you don't need anymore broken bones; Glen, watch out for those Smokies and those radar guns...they like senior citizens on motorcycles; and Lora and Jamie thanks for the kind thoughts.

REJECTION

Friends--

I want to give you an update on what is happening....

Dan has been struggling for the past week so we came to Omaha for a biopsy on Tuesday evening and on Thursday evening learned that he has a vascular rejection which is an acute rejection (better than chronic.) One of the transplant team said that this is difficult to handle, but they have handled it successfully in the past.

He will have eight days of treatments....two different kinds of anti-rejection medications plus blood cleansings. There could be more treatments or there could be less....it all depends on the blood tests. We started in on the process this morning at 6:15am and (if we are lucky) he will be done at 10:00pm. If his blood pressure goes up they stop the IV for a while until his body recovers. Today's treatment is the longest one we will have. They had to put a line back in his neck for the treatments.

We kind of go in and out of being discouraged....and communication around here is as poor as usual which isn't really helping. However, basically we understand that this happens and we are glad that there is something they can do about it....and it is good that they are treating it aggressively. This happens to people that are not non-compatible donors....but it is more likely to happen if we are non-compatible like we are.

One doctor explained it to us....much the same way it was explained to us in the past...the body tries to reject a foreign object over and over. After a while the body will simply accept the kidney. This has gone on for months for some people. When the blood tests say that Dan is O.K. then we can go home....and if blood tests in Kearney show that rejection is happening again then we will come back to Omaha for more treatments.

We are staying at the Lied Center which is handy because it is attached to the hospital. Jim is coming up tonight or tomorrow morning with Dan's drugs from home (we only brought stuff for about 3 days) and a laptop that Dan can use.

If everything seems to be going well then I will come home on Sunday afternoon so I can go to school on Monday. If Dan doesn't feel well then I will stay in Omaha.

Thank you for your kind thoughts. We appreciate it.

--Sandy