Life Changing Experiences

Two weeks ago, Wesley went into the hospital on a day off becasue he had been having trouble breathing for the previous two weeks. When x-rays were taken, they showed that his lungs and his heart had been filling up with water. They needed to do a biopsy on his kidney to find out what was going on. In the meantime, mom and dad were planning a trip to go up and see him. I decided that it was important for me to go up and see him too. I skipped school on Wednesday after e-mailing my teachers to inform them I would be there and see what I'd miss, I got my shift covered on Friday and called Karen to see if someone else could watch Will for a couple days. 6am on Wednesday morning, Mom, Dad and I were on our way up to Oregon.

It was amazing for me to see how supportive everyone was for Wesley. Amazing, but not suprising, because everyone loves Wesley. He got calls from everyone in our family, while the extended family got his name on every temple prayer list that they had access to. Kodiak had updates of Wesley's illness printed in the papers and on the radio. Elisabeth sent out updates to the friends and family via facebook and e-mail. Even Elisalyn offered to be tested to give Wesley a kidney, or help watch kids while the family did it, to try and help in anyway, along with many others. Even though Wesley was fired from his temp agency for missing work, his co-workers at Comcast all came to see him and gave him his job back, telling the temp agency that they were willing to wait to get him back rather than fill his position with someone else.

This is the view from Wesley's hospital room. He was on the 9th floor of a HUGE hospital. He even had a kidney specialist present at the hospital to help him out and ask questions. While waiting for the results, they had Wesley watch videos about Dialysis and other kidney related things to get him ready for the worst case scenerio.

It was nice to be able to see Wesley again and catch up on some things. Oregon was beautiful! Although, without GPS, I have no idea how the locals are able to find anything!! We had a hard time navigating around, even getting pulled over once for an illegal left hand turn. We got to see a HUGE bookstore called Powells that even had local songs written about people that have gotten lost in it. It was awesome!! I also loved that there was no sales tax in Oregon. We also had fun figuring out the metering for street parking, etc... that was different from Utah.

Here is everyone hanging out with Wesley, talking about everything from LOST to various books to dialysis. We had a good time keeping Welsey busy while we waited for the test results.

Here is dad singing "Every little cell is happy and well" to help comfort Wesley on upcoming surgery options.

On the second day, Wesley wasn't feeling well, so to give him time to rest, we killed time Hanna style: Gravestone hunting for Medal of Honor Recepiants. I think we got seven or eight at three different cemetaries. Dad only has one more in Oregon in a cemetary that we couldn't locate.

I took this picture of Dad and got the first 10 on an assignment in my Photoshop class! Thanks Dad! I love this picture of him, plus I didn't even pose him. I just got a picture of Dad doing what Dad does. :)

We got back to the hospital right in time to get the bad news. Wesley's kidneys are too scarred to save. He needs a kidney transplant and needed to have the surgery to start dialysis the next day. I cried when I found out and wasn't able to tell the family the news without crying. I let mom, dad and Wes handle telling people.

Wesley and Elisabeth are handling this as well as anyone possibly could. Wesley didn't cry when he heard the news. He just stated it was a lot to process all at one time. A lot is changing really fast for him, but he was very relaxed while we were talking to the doctor. Afterwards, Dad asked what he was feeling. Wesley said that he feels like if someone extends his life by giving him a kidney, than he feels like he needs to give something back somehow, do more with his life to make up for something like that. Wesley only started to cry when dad explained that people are willing to give him a kidney because of who he already is. He doesn't need to change who he is because he is already an amazing person.

We love you so much Wesley!! Since being home, I have gone to be tested and I am a match to give Wesley a kidney. As is Geoffrey. We don't know which one of us will do it yet, but I am planning on doing it if I need to. Justin has already told me I can have as much time off as I need. I have been researching the process and recovery time etc just in case I am the one to do it.

Here are just a few more pictures from Oregon. I would like to go up there again and have some more time to site-see. These were just taken from inside the car as we were driving by.