garrett updates

Well it has been awhile since our last update. Garrett is doing great. Today we were back at UCSF for his 6 month biopsy. This is done even if all his blood test have been good. Garrett has done really well with the exception of a little hicup he had a couple of months ago. He was having trouble with his white blood count. This was really a medication thing and after several adjustments everything has been great.

We were at the hospital all day but Garrett felt great.

Last night we attended the Sheriff’s Athletic League dinner and our very own Jerran received the officer of the year award. It was a great night and obviously he is our hero and will always be.

Garrett had his 3 month appointment at UCSF this week. It was also his last appointment at UCSF and Elizabeth.  Everything is going really well. All of his blood tests are right where they should be. When we finished at UCSF we had our first appointment at the Kaiser in San Francisco. ( parking was fun) we meet our new Nurse Practitioner,  Zina.  She went over all of Garrett’s meds and medical charts and was also very pleased with his progress.   Although we are moving back to Kaiser we still have the same doctors as they work at both hospitals.

We have an exciting and full month ahead. We hope to post lots of pictures of all of the events.

On Tuesday Garrett returned to UCSF for a check up and another round of blood tests. Everything checked out perfectly. Elizabeth is extremely pleased with his progress. He returns in another month for his final visit. He will also start his visits with Kaiser in San Francisco that same day.

Garrett has been getting pretty antsy around the house just going for walks and playing Xbox.   The Silvernails gave him a punching bag last week and we hung it up in the garage. He also bought a pair of boxing gloves. Of course we told him he couldn’t do anything yet.  So Tuesday he asked Elizabeth about being able to start doing some more things. Basically Elizabeth gave him the green light on everything. He can run play basketball,  go swimming,  take a bath things he hasn’t been able to do in 3 years or so. 

He asked about boxing. Elizabeth even said the punching bag was fine. If he wanted to do a boxing match he could only take head shots and no body blows…just kidding. 

He can do just about anything he wants and just don’t overdo it.  We were all just so happy for him. 

It was great to see Alliaon over the house. Allison is home from TCU and she brought over some awesome brownies. At least we think they were because we didn’t get any as the boys ate them all.

Six weeks after surgery, where surgeons at UCSF removed his kidney and placed it in Garrett, Jerran is back to work as of May 1.

Although Jerran started running again a couple of weeks ago, and has been keeping himself more than busy by creating a hydroponic garden, and becoming a beekeeper, starting a new hobby with his 10-year-old son Liam, going back to full time work is a different deal.

    
(Jerran and Liam with friend Don, setting up the bee hive)

“This work stuff is hard!” Jerran half-joked, on the first day in 6 weeks that he had to wear a belt (and a heavy utility belt at that), which cuts right across his scar. As a K-9 rover in the jail, there was a lot of walking with that belt and other equipment rubbing. He had some discomfort but he’s doing great. 

Also as a K-9 officer, it was his first day back managing a leash with his 80 pound Chocolate Lab, Koda, at the end of it. That’s a workout for those abs that took a punch from the procedure.

  
Jerran’s coworkers put together a small welcome back lunch–a nice way to rejoin the workforce.

Big thanks to all his brothers and sisters in blue who supported his recovery time by working his shifts without pay. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Well it has been a couple of weeks since the last update.  I am sorry about that but things have been moving along amazingly.  Garrett is just doing wonderful.  We went back to UCSF today for our six week post transplant visit and Garrett couldn’t be doing any better. All of his blood tests are right on the money. Elizabeth even talked to us about Garrett’s future plans.

We won’t go back to UCSF for three weeks.  On that visit they are going to do a complete work up on Garrett. We will then be transferred back to Kaiser and go to our appointments at the Van Ness location.  We will still have the same doctors but will be back under the Kaiser umbrella. 

At the six month mark Garrett will go back to UCSF for a kidney biopsy.   Even though everything is working great they do a biopsy just to double check everything.

Lets talk about some of things Garrett has been doing.

Garrett along with Jack brought flowers to Hannah and took special prom pictures.   Both Hannah and Andrew looked beautiful.

Garrett wants to start back at the gym but mom said no way.  So he asked Elizabeth today and she said, “Absolutely,  go live your life.  You have a kidney enjoy it!”  So when he got mom made him take out the garbage.

Overall we can’t believe how well Garrett is doing.  We are so blessed that we have so many good and close friends and family. We couldn’t have done this without you. All of your prayers and well wishes were so helpful.

One other thing, Jerran has asked Garrett and some of his friends to go with him to Sacramento to get some honey bees this week. This will be interesting and there should be some great stories from this…

Today is the one month mark for Garrett’s new kidney. It has been an amazing ride that is for sure. We have seen such an incredible turnaround with Garrett. He is enjoying life so much. He just feels great. It is hard to find him without a smile or laughing.  Garrett walks several times a day and the walks are getting longer and longer.

Last night we celebrated with Jerran and his family at Mission pizza and a cheeseburger pizza.

Couldn’t think of a better meal to have for a one month celebration.

First off we hope all of you had a great Easter. We had a great Easter weekend. Yesterday we spent it up in Roseville with our families and got to top it off with a visit with GG. We left late last night and the boys were pretty silly on the drive home.

This morning the Easter bunny made it to our house and Garrett had to look for all of the eggs by himself.   He did good and found them all.

It was then off to Jerran’s house for lunch.  It was so much fun, what an incredible family they have. There was all kinds of awesome food.  We talked, shared stories and played games. As usual it seemed like we were always laughing.

Liam even told Garrett , ” you are now my brother, oh wait you can only be my cousin since you don’t live here.”

Whatever it is we know we are FAMILY.  We just feel so blessed and are so lucky to have them in our lives. 

Easter is the perfect day to reflect on what has happened to our family.  Garrett is feeling so good and doing super.  We just sit back and look at Garrett, we listen to him sing in the shower or laugh as he watches t.v.  Words can’t express how we feel, but we know we are so lucky to have Jerran and Mandi in our lives.

Tonight we enjoyed a night at Das Brew with Mandi and Jerran.   We all had a flat of beers and some bbq. Jerran had us all laughing with some great stories.

Once the wind kicked up we decided to go back to our house and continued with the stories.

When we got home Garrett had a couple of his friends over. We played a quick round of reverse charades.  These boys were great actors and had us all cracking up.

It is so great seeing Garrett and Jerran together.  They both showed us all of their scars. Pretty interesting to say the least. Garrett is always happy to see Jerran

Garrett has an appointment back at UCSF on Monday.   His blood test this week all came back pretty good.

Tonight Jerran made a surprise visit at K9 training.   Everyone was real excited to see him.  He had to tell his story several times as all of the handlers rolled into training. 

As far as Garrett goes he doesn’t have to go to UCSF this week.  He has two blood draws this week at Kaiser.   His test from Monday was all good and he has one again tomorrow.

Garrett has has a good weekend. He got lots of rest and has been walking more and more everyday. The one thing we have been watching is his blood pressure. The bottom number has been great most of the time but a few times it has been somewhat high.  If we get a couple of high ones in a row we have to let his doctors know.   They just might have to do a little adjustment on his medication.  They told us that younger patients have higher blood pressure on some of the medication that he is on.  Its nothing of concern just something to watch.

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oday we were home when a car outside honked.  No one got up to look and guess who it was.  That’s right it was Jerran.   He felted slighted since no one came outside.  He told us, “Hey, I gave up a kidney, you could at least come outside when I honk.”  Classic Jerran.

We also received our bill from UCSF, and Jerran found out how much his kidney was worth.  Of course, Jerran had another great line, “That’s just for a normal kidney and not a super kidney.  Good thing they don’t charge for a super one.”

Always good to see Jerran.   Beware he is back behind the wheel.

Nothing like a Sunday night movie in Garrett’s room to make him feel good.