Never a dull moment, that’s just how we roll - livin la vida loco 😜 

On Wednesday November 9th Florida was bracing for its 2nd hurricane in 43 days and Walker and Candy had to drive up to the Mayo Clinic at 5am for some testing, then they turned around drove right home returning about 12:30. I was driving back home to Orlando about mid afternoon from doing a job in Melbourne, where the wind and rain where starting to get serious, as Nicole lumbered across the Gulfstream towards land fall wed night or Thursday morning. Then I get a call from Candy. “Walker just got a call from Mayo saying he’s in full blown rejection and that we need to head up there for a 730 am testing and that they will probably be admitting him”, she says. Gulp! Brain freeze, time stands still, heart starts beating faster. Seeing as I am familiar with this type of difficult news, my symptoms are momentary as I take several deep breaths and return to the job at hand. [...]

Greetings 

Overall we can say that Walker continues to do well making small strides everyday towards a more balanced life. This transplant life is of course very interesting to say the least. It seems the roller coaster continues but with smaller vertical drops if you will. While it is true that he continues to get stronger, there have been some large pot holes on the road to recovery. For example, about 3 weeks ago, Walker was throwing up so badly due to a brand of rejection med that needed to be changed but couldn’t get it when needed, that he become so dangerously dehydrated to prompt Candy take him to Advent Health emergency room the Sunday before the hurricane. They admitted him and kept him till Wednesday am then Candy had to drive him to the Mayo Clinic emergency room in Jax where they determined he was fine from fluid replacement and sent them home after a few test. They raced home late afternoon Wednesday as the hurricane was blowing into town, thankfully few cars on the road as the car whipped back and forth from the high winds. [...]

Howdy Folks

The summer heat is on the way out, college football is back, and Walker’s health is the bomb dot com. Oh yea and Juul agrees to pay nearly $440 million to 30+ states to stop litigation against them for marketing their Very! addictive nicotine based Vaping products to under age kids, your kids. And on a down note, the FDA continues to allow the sale of every flavor imaginable of disposable vaping pens (see picture) easily purchased with a fake ID at down market gas stations everywhere. Isn’t that just BS. That stuff has never been tested and approved as safe to use yet our government seems to think it’s ok that millions of America’s youth should have the freedom to buy it and you can be sure it’s kids who are smoking (Vaping) flavors like Peachy Rings, Island Orange, & Strawberry Macaroon. Take the time call your congressman and lodge a complaint! 

Last Wednesday Fox News came to our house to interview Walker and his Dad seeking our response to the news about the Juul agreement. This is probably the 10th or 11th time Walker has been interviewed about the Vaping epidemic and he and his parents will continue to speak out doing our part to call attention to the dangers of Vaping. If a digestible food product at Publix was known to cause an illness as bad as EVALI (E-cigarette or Vaping Use-associated Lung Injury) it would be yanked from the shelves immediately and there would be hell to pay for the company. So, how is it that a digestible product like Vaping pens is allowed to continue to sell openly in public knowing the real dangers it possesses to our youth not only for addiction but often causing permanent lung damage. A recent June 13th, 2022 article in US News & World report spells out in plain language the dangers of these products that are cheap and readily available. [...]

Walker texted yesterday “I’ve been cleared to go home and drive!!!!!!!!!!!”

A week ahead of Walker’s 3 month review at Mayo which is next Tuesday July 6th, his doctors said that he is doing so well that he can go home on the weekends and he is now Free! to drive his car. So, Candy and Walker changed plans on the fly to come home for the holiday weekend, a welcome change for all of us. And Walker is out now driving his sporty silver VW Passat with very dark windows and a kickin sound system.[...]

Walker was discharged on Monday 05/09 to the Gabriel House, located on the Mayo campus, to stay with his mom. With 30 beautifully appointed large suites, a huge spacious kitchen area, TV rooms, a library, and a screened in patio, this place makes a wonderful group healing space for fellow transplant patients and cancer patients. Walker & his mom spend most days at appointments at Mayo visiting his many doctors and rehab staff then chill for an early night. So far, so very good. The main challenge currently is getting his stomach to stay in a consistent good place, managing blood pressure’s, and his many medications. The docs say his lungs and kidney are doing great and that an appetite will return in time and when it does he will have to tame it from overeating so not to worry about the stomach. [...]

Happy Mother’s Day 

Candy and I could not be happier with how well Walkers recovery is going. This week he has made great strides with improved breathing, no more oxygen needed, kidney is working full stream ahead, tomorrow removing his dialysis catheter (no more dialysis wooo hooo), and looking to be discharged late afternoon tomorrow. He will be staying with his mom at the Gabriel house on the Mayo campus for at least the next 3-4 months where they will be cooking most meals in-house and going to Mayo outpatient clinic multiple times a day. [...]

When your nineteen yr old son, a healthy athlete who just started University months ago, comes home sick, you expect a quick turnaround for him to get better to head back to school, back to his exciting college adventure. On Friday March 8th, the Centra Care doc said you need to take your son to the emergency room at the Oviedo hospital, so I did. For a kid that was hugely afraid of getting stuck with a needle, so much so that he would break out in a sweat and need someone there to give him courage, the scar terrain of his body three years later is breathtaking to say the least. To say he has been at war would be accurate. Walker has fought tirelessly for 3 years to stay alive, enduring pain and suffering usually reserved for POW’s.[...]

12 days ago Walker had very sick lungs that were literally killing him and no kidney function at all. Today, the nurse was just commenting to Walker that your lung SATS (oxygen saturation) are 100%. How grateful he is, and we all are, that he is awake and his lungs are performing very well after a major 3 organ transplant. His new kidney is a little sleepy but it will get back to work soon we are confident.[...]

Post-Op Day 6

Same plan different day. Plasma exchange day 3 for reaction to meds that hit the kidney pretty badly. Good note: testing completed by hematology group show no underlying issues so they signed off of Walkers case. 😀 Blood test for antibodies do not show rejection of the kidney. 😀 Nephrology thinks/hopes the kidney will return in time. Lungs still look ok just very wet so they are going back to continuous CRRT (dialysis) gently pulling fluid off his body. His arms look like “Popeye”.  They plan to do a few more procedures today. Likely trach Wednesday or Thursday. They need him a bit more stable. He is sound asleep.  His skin looks good they keep him spotless. All in all a bit better than yesterday. We have to celebrate the small wins.[...]

Yesterday 4/8 was a very tough day for Candy especially and me as well. As they tried to wake him and failed many times, finally everyone coming to an understanding that this will be an extended process,  one we have seen before but had great hope would be different this time around. While we were shook up and very scared, the wonderful doctors gave us confidence that his physical condition was good 👍 and that they have seen this type of reaction before. 

[...]