Look Mom, I'm Blogging!!

I have been saying for some time that I wanted to start a blog because TheStatus.com, the patient page that I updated often while waiting, during and after Shawn's heart transplant, is impossible since it "upgraded". Upgraded?? please!! I wasn't able to log on ever!! SO....I finally did it, and here I am writing about the every day doings of our family once again, and truth be told!! I missed doing it. I would see or hear something funny and I'd think, "oh, I have to remember to write about that!" because that's what I did for years!! I am happy to be back to 'documenting' our journey.

First of all, I will say that Shawn is doing very well, however, he scared the snot out of us in April when a routine biopsy showed rejection at a cellular level at a 3a ~ there are 4 levels of rejection. Luckily, a few days of intravenous medications and a second biopsy 2 weeks later showed results of 1a (we'll take it!!) but we are watching him very, very closely. He had NO signs of rejection which is scary. We leave for CA next Sunday, which means we will miss Father's Day, so we'll have to celebrate on Saturday. We are worried about 2 different types of rejection. Rejection at a cellular level (which the biopsies, snipping a tiny piece of Shawn's new heart and examining it under a microscope look for) as well as the anti-body (humoral) rejection, which is seen in blood work and a test called DSA (donor sensitive antibody) which takes forever to get the results back from. We treat the antibody rejection with the 12 hour IVig infusions ~ he is back to having these infusions once a month. BUT you wouldn't know any of this if I didn't tell you because Shawn looks and is acting strong, healthy, funny, crazy, and amazing. He's gotten taller and thinned out now that his steroid dose is way, way down and his color is beautiful. It's like a miracle every single day watching my son, who is no longer sick and able to do simple every day things, like walk up and down stairs, things he wasn't able to do before, he is able to do without thinking about it. It. Is. Incredible.

Other big news, our oldest Amanda as well as the twins that we call our own, are high school graduates. And NO BABIES! Sadly, in this day and age, that's impressive. Amanda is working so much, 2 jobs, one at SunSplash tanning salon, the other at Jalapenos restaurant. She is a hard, hard worker and the best employee. We are so proud of her work ethic. The girl can't make her bed or pick up her dirty dishes to save her life, but she's one heck of a worker bee!!

Little Haley our baby, finished up 1st grade with flying colors, which I would hope so, considering she's already attended Stanford!! She will be attending 2nd grade at Alpenglow and is so hoping that her and her bestest friend in the whole wide world, Mariyah Becker will be in the same class.

Shawn finished 5 grade and will attend 6th grade at Alpenglow, but after that, we don't know what we are going to do. We are leaning towards Mirror Lake middle school, but I do have a year before really worrying about that.

My Sam, who is now a high schooler (9th grade), is in Indiana with her friend, Alex, whose family moved to the lower 48 and invited Sam to go with them to help Alex with the transistion (LUCKY) we miss her, but we are hoping they are having fun....what an experience, too.

well...it's a start. I will be back to posting about Shawn, our family and such...just like old times.
Good night =)