BIRTHDAYS AND MORE

Friday, 10:10 p.m.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JENNIFER AND STEPHEN. Oh my gosh, we just can't believe that "the twins" are 24 years old. We had a little birthday celebration for Jen at the hospital. Many thanks to Auntie Dawn for picking up the pizza and cake---we missed Stephen but school work kept him in NY---we'll hopefully have a full celebration next week. Happy, happy birthday you two, we love you both very much!

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog. Alison had a pretty rough day yesterday with a great deal of pain on her left side from the tap. The doctors finally decided to give her a new pain drug but found out today that it effected her kidneys. So, now her kidney function has been compromised once again. Her prograf level(anti-rejection med.)is also increasing, which can also effect her kidney functioning, so the doctors have stopped the pain medication and halted the prograf for now. We're hoping that this will result in her kidneys stabilizing again.

Alison's roommates and friend from college came by to visit last night. Then her friend Laura, who started her holiday break yesterday, came to see Alison at the hospital. She stayed overnight and through the day with Alison. Alison was pretty nauseas throughout the day, but it seemed like she was able to still enjoy spending time with Laura. With Laura staying overnight, Alison was a little more open to her mom going home. We actually had a scare with our family dog, Riley so mom was very eager to get home to check on him. Our niece, Melissa took Riley to the vet yeterday, God bless her. There are not too many people who could manage a three year old and two year old while getting a 100 pound labrador retriever up in an SUV-she is just remarkable-thank you, thank you, thank you goes out to her-she is just the best!! The vet wanted to keep Riley overnight but Joe explained the circumstances and let him come home for the night. We really thought that this was the beginning of what we have feared for him but today he seemed fine, we cooked him special food and watched him carefully and, thank God, he seems to be doing just fine. Looks like he just needed his mommmy.

When we got up to the hospital today, Alison was starting some crafts with Laura. It was so nice to see her doing something she enjoys with her friend. As the evening went on, we could see that she was getting very tired. We're hoping that this new situation will resolve and that she will feel better tomorrow. She really needs to start eating-even just little bits at a time. Please pray that tomorrow will be a good day for her.

We spoke with John's dad tonight. John seems to be doing well. It is always so wonderful to talk with them.

Well, we hope our next post will be a good one.

Much love to all,
Karen and Joe