The photo above is just one I was looking at tonight.  It is a reminder of our transplant.  The homemade card I will cherish forever!  It's titled.... "I hope you will be OK Dad!"

Hi everyone!  I hope all of you had an excellent Easter!  This past weekend was a HARD one.  4 whole days alone with the girls to entertain... and do this with no energy?!  Well, we survived.  Johnson has been experiencing abdominal pain (cramps) for about a week now.  He started to get these just after our bout with the flu.  It hurts him so much that he can't sleep, and he's been very cranky.  This guy has such a high pain tolerance, and never once took any pain medication since he's been home from the hospital... until these cramps.  Easter morning the girls had such fun!  The Easter Bunny came, brought them baskets, skipping ropes, chocolate etc.  It was such a joy to watch them go searching for Easter eggs hidden all over the house.  I can still remember their first Easter egg hunt!  Pure JOY!  Johnson was still not feeling well and we knew we were to go to his parents house for lunch.  It was going to be a choice between Church or dinner.  We choose dinner.  I gave Johnson some of my leftover percocets and off we went.  He stayed on the couch most of the visit, bent over in pain.  It was off to drop Taylor off at my moms, cause she wanted to go for a visit, and Dad, Stephanie and I on our way home decided it would be best to go to the hospital.  Better not take any risks.  So off to the General we went.  A 5 hour waiting period ... not too bad for Ottawa, but man... there were people throwing up all over the place.  The FLU has officially HIT Ottawa!  We tried staying as far away from everyone as we could.  Masks were worn by all of us, and alot of hand sanitizer was used.

The hospital knew that Johnson was immuno-surpressed, and put us quickly in a small room to be away from everyone.  This wasn't much better as in the next little room across from us was some poor fellow who was puking so hard, every 4 or 5 minutes.  YUCK!

So the doctors examined Johnson, did some blood work, prescribed a muscle relaxant for his tummy and we were on our way 4 hours later.

The next day I mustered up enough energy to take the girls to the movies.  Apparently every family in Barrhaven had the same idea!  Get the bored kids out of the house.  We saw... Are we done yet?  I fell asleep in the movie and was awaken by Stephanie asking me to go put more Ketchup spice on her popcorn.  HA HA!!  Then what happened next was beautiful!!  It was Tuesday!!!  The day the kids went back to school!  It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!  This evening I broke down and cried a few tears when I picked us the girls from our caregivers "Julies".  She asked how our weekend was, and I just felt so shitty about not being able to do all the FUN things with our girls that we use to do.  All weekend the girls kept asking... "can we go swimming mom?" ... which I had to reply... "Mom's not feeling well enough to go swimming yet honey"... then they'd ask... "Can we go skating?" ... and the list went on and on.  Johnson and I feel so guilty!  The girls were so used to doing these fun things with us all the time, and we have not had a chance really since last September when dialysis started.  Our 2 weeks in Hawaii were so needed and such a blessing to us all.  Two weeks of "Fun Mom!" two weeks of our full attention were given to our girls!

Wednesday we were back to the hospital for blood work and our clinic, and tomorrow we will be back again for Johnson's famous STENT REMOVAL.  Yes... they remove this by going up through his penis and extracting it.  I bet he'll pop a few percocet before us going! HA HA!!  Then Friday it's back to the hospital again to meet with our new dermatologist.  You see... because of the anti-rejection drugs that Johnson will take for the rest of his life, now Johnson is more prone to skin cancer, and must learn how to protect himself, and learn what to look for.  So Friday's training will be important. 

Last night we attended a Team Diabetes night.  Johnson was not feeling well at all, but took a pain killer and we headed out.  It was GOOD for us to get out of the house!  It helped energize us again, and was great to see so many familiar faces and new ones too.  We got to speak a little about our journey this past year, and hopefully inspired a few more people to join up with us and try to raise money for diabetes!  Johnson and I don't do this anymore for "Our Cause" but we feel compelled to do it for all the small children out there who have diabetes.  I pray that a cure happens in our lifetime, and that these children never suffer the same complications of this disease that Johnson has.  We are so close to a cure!  Bye for now my friends!