Stephen's Journey: Halloween Pics

Friday, November 2, 2012

Halloween Pics

As promised, here are our Halloween pictures! Hopefully you can tell from the pictures that we had such a blast taking Stephen trick-or-treating for the first time. I actually think Bill and I might have had more fun than Stephen; well,especially when we tried to "force" Stephen to wear the lion mane. He was not a fan. But he definitely understood what we were doing and had fun playing with his candy. And he even ate some of a lollipop which was so cool (considering he doesn't eat a thing)! And we got a chance to meet all of our new neighbors. All-in-all it was a successful Halloween!

Sorry if the pictures post out of order.

1 comment:

AnonymousNovember 3, 2012 at 11:40 AM
Too cute for words!! Glad all of you had fun!!
Love,
Aunt LuAnn
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Our Crazy Kidney Life

As many of you already know, our son Stephen, was born with a very rare kidney disease called Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease (ARPKD). When the disease was discovered during my 27th week of pregnancy, Stephen was given a less than 1% chance of living more than a few hours past birth. He was to have such severely underdeveloped lungs that the doctors said he would likely not even take one breath. However, on January 4, 2011, we were granted our 1st miracle - and Stephen came into this world crying (and breathing!) and fighting for his life with fierce determination. At 6 days old he had BOTH of his kidneys removed and began peritoneal dialysis. Stephen came home from the hospital when he was 59 days old requiring 12 hours of dialysis every night as well as enteral (feeding tube) feeds during the day and overnight.

On May 9, 2013, we were granted our 2nd miracle, in the form of a new kidney from an extremely generous friend. Stephen received a kidney from a non-related living donor at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He spent 13 days in the hospital recovering from his big surgery and ever since has been living life the fullest! His life is still a delicate balance of medications and weekly lab work, but he's an extremely vibrant, loving, active 2.5 year old.

This blog is Stephen's journey told through my eyes (his mother's), thoughts, and emotions, with extreme highs and lows. But there's no way we would be where we are today without all of the support, thoughts and prayers from our family, friends, and readers! Thank you!!