Post stem cell treatment and recent surgery update

Greetings Earthlings :-)

i don’t know about you but I sure feel like an Alien visiting a strange planet right about now.

Last year the nice little snow globe that was our family got turned upside down and shakin often. This year it seems our snow globe life has been vandalized adding insult to injury. 2020 has been one WTF after another. Praying the strange madness that is America right now ends soon and we can all pick up the pieces and move on with recovering our lives and our lively hoods.

Recovering from a recent surgery is what Walker has been doing these past few weeks. About 2 weeks ago, Walker had surgery to place a new line in his stomach so that he could begin the process of converting over to a new type of dialysis, Peritoneal dialysis, done at home every night. This will be his 5th night doing this strange new procedure which he is adapting to slowly with each passing day. He had almost a full week of training last week to prepare for his nightly ritual which entails several large bags of clear fluid circulating in and out of his abdomen throughout the night. So far so good. It’s certainly better than driving to the dialysis center at 530am and them drawing his blood out filtering it and putting it back. That procedure would pretty much dominate his day 3 times a week. 

This new procedure does not circulate blood, it flushes a water based mixture with dextrose in and out approximately 5 times during the night. In an another week or so he should be in a good rhythm feeling more comfortable with the whole process. While temporarily challenging, it’s definitely a step in the right direction towards feeling less burdened by an already very burdensome health outcome from his major trauma of 2019. Great thing is he has gained a good amount of weight, mostly all muscle, and feeling more upbeat about life overall. Several things have happened that have contributed to this uptick in attitude and performance.

One, thanks to many of you who were generous to contribute and especially to his family that gave the majority of the funds that made it possible to afford Walker a 2 CC stem cell treatment about the middle of May. This is considered a double dose of the active healing cells that have not yet chosen their path until they enter the body and then they transform into either typically a blood cell, brain cell, heart muscle cell, or a bone cell. They are attracted to areas of inflammation and assist the body in healing. All we know is that he is that much better than before he had the injection, a little stronger, more stamina, and brighter attitude in general. So they have helped in many ways we believe though his breathing hasn't improved much which is what we were hoping for. We are thinking that we will push to have one more treatment of 2 cc in about another month or two depending on how much he improves in the short term.

Second, his momma through a good bit of research found him a wonderful Corgi puppy, named Finnegan (Finn for short) in Ocala in early May. He and Candy drove up and fell fast in love and brought him home that day. He is an easy addition to our growing animal family now 3 dogs, a cat, and 4 fish, not to mention the many beautiful Red Robins that are gobbling up our birdseed daily. Finn and Willow became fast friends wrestling daily across the backyard lawn, Suki tolerates him, and Mimi the cat is still in shock. He and Walker bonded immediately bringing lots of unconditional love to a young man looking to give back in return. A doggie love story made in heaven 😊. We thank God for bringing little Finn to our happy home adding lots more joy to our days.

We have all been staying pretty close to home doing our best to avoid too much contact with folks as we are a no covid allowed household and so far so good. Thank you Lord for your daily protection over our Family. Our journey, Walkers Journey, has many more roads with twist and turns, hills and valleys, as we head towards both kidney and lung transplants, possibly at the same time. He is just about on the list but not quite yet as he had to get through this current phase of the new dialysis treatment first before they would talk about his future, but soon hopefully. Overall, we are doing pretty good considering all that is. Candy and I both in the job market at a vey inopportune time to say the least, so please pray for Candy and lift her up during this very strange and trying time for her, for both of us. Somehow, someway, God provides for us each day and for this we are eternally grateful. 

May God bless you all, stay close to home, wear those mask, bump those elbows and try to smile threw it all. Much Love and Grace The McKnights