July 18, 2016
Well, here we go back down to Salt Lake City again Rick is having problems with his mitro valve and also fluid around his right lung. We are very upset about this trip. We were told we could be down there indefinitely. We love all of our Salt Lake friends but our heart is in Boise. This our home. Please pray it will be a short trip and his issues will be corrected. The medication to help with the mitro valve is one that causes him to pass out. Quality of life goes down with that one. His kidneys are also getting weak from the changes in medication. Tears as we depart. We need your support and prayers during this time. Thank you all. You always think that once you get a heart that it is done. Don’t ever believe that. You still have a huge battle on your hands. We are still asking for donations because I have not been able to get a job. We have been back down in SLC every month since we have been home. The medications count a lot and we keep having the expense of going to Salt Lake. I would love to find a job but Rick is still not well enough. Thank you again to everyone who has and will help us.
April 5, 2016
I am home. Rick is not. On March 22nd, 8 days before we were to go home they found a problem on Ricks lungs. They also started filling up with fluid. They drained 2 liters of fluid and tested it to see if they could tell what is wrong. His last doctor appointment before I came home with March 29th. They told him he could not go home. He was so upset.
We have since found out he does not have cancer or TB. These were some of there first choices. He is seeing a specialist in lung problems and an infectious disease doctor. There is a possibility that he got something in Africa (where he was born) and it laid dormant for all these years until he started taking the anti-rejection medications.
He has to have the fluid drained again on the 8th of April. It is very painful. We would like your prayers that they will find out what it is and pray it is treatable. If he is hospitalize I will go back down there, if not I will probably stay here unless he needs me. I guess God is not done with us in SLC yet.
March 24, 2016
Pretty rough couple of days. They found fluid surrounding Ricks lungs causing one to collapse. We have spent 2 days at the hospital. He had it drained today. They got 2 liters of fluid out. They will test the fluid and see perhaps what caused it. We would love your prayers for this problem. We are supposed to go home in 7 days and this is not something we wanted to happen. He is in alot of pain. We are both exhausted.
March 18, 2016
Well, one more biopsy on March 22nd and then we can go home. We are loading the truck March 29th and leaving the morning of March 30th. What a journey we have had. We have made wonderful friends, gone to a great church, and gone thru things we never thought we could go thru. I can do anything through Christ who strengthens me. This is so true. Thank you again for all of your help. We will see you soon. Goodbye to all of our loved ones in Salt Lake City.
February 20, 2016
Here it is February. Rick is doing really well. His kidneys are still having a hard time. They are having to adjust his medications quite frequently.
The University of Utah had a record number of transplants this year. They have picked Rick to represent the University with the press. There will be a big press release on February 25th. He will be speaking. Our understanding will be national. It is encouraging people to donate organs.
There is also a radio station that is starting a program interviewing people about their lives in Boise, Idaho. Rick has been picked to be the first one to be interviewed.
God is so good to us. So many miracles for us and other people we have met.
We will be going home at the end of March. We hope to continue our mission in Boise.
Thank you to our donor family who has saved Ricks life. Thank you to all of you who have donated money, airline miles, prayers, dinners, and I could go on and on. Thank you so much for everything.
December 23, 2015
Three months check up complete. No rejection. Everything is great. They are reducing or even dropping some of his medications. Thank you God! He is still in cardiac rehab to strengthen everything. We are still seeing people at the hospital from time to time.
I just had knee replacement surgery so that has slowed us down a bit. That also went well. This is a little different Christmas for us. No grandkids or family. We have new friends we are having dinner with. We have so much to be thankful for. This journey has certainly changed our focus on what is important and what is not. Thank God for the opportunity.
November 18, 2015
Just a small update. Rick is back in the hospital. No problems with the new heart. It is beating strong. He got a bad nose bleed. A really bad nose bleed. I took him into the hospital on Sunday night about 9:00pm. They tried stopping it for about 5 hours. Finally they got it under control. They admitted him for observation because he had lost so much blood and he was dehydrated. He is doing much better today. (Tuesday) Looks like they will release him tomorrow. We felt right at home on the 4th floor again. Lots of friends! Your prayers would be appreciated. Thank you all for everything so far!!!! GOD IS SO GOOD!!!
November 4, 2015
After a long day at the hospital for checkups and tests, all my tests came back fantastic with 0 sign of any rejection. My kidney numbers are high but the doctors feel that they will be able to get control of those numbers with an adjustment in my medication. It’s hard to believe that it has been one month since my transplant. We still have to remain here for five more months but are so looking forward to returning home. God has been so gracious to me and has allowed me to serve him in the the ways He saw fit for me. Many thanks to each of you for your continued prayers and thoughts. God is good ALL the time.
November 4, 2015
www.kivitv.com
This is a link to our story that was done on us for Channel 6 news in Boise, Idaho. We are so thank you we have been well enough to do the things we have done in Salt Lake City. While we miss our friends and family greatly, God has blessed us with a calling to help others that are in the same situation we are. It has made it bearable. We have meet friends we will have for rest of our lives. Thank you to everyone who has helped us by praying and with financial help. You have helped make this possible.
October 18, 2015
Our days are very hectic right now. Lots of appointments, tests, etc. But the wait is over. This is something in Ricks words “It’s been 20 days since I received my new heart. I was released from the hospital last week and am doing very well. My last biopsy showed 0 rejection and my numbers are perfect. My strength is steadily returning and I begin my cardiac rehab on Monday which will last for four months. Words cannot express my gratitude for all your prayers and support you have given. Thank You to each one of you, but most of all Thank You to a gracious and healing God that has shown His mercy and love for me.” This about sums it up right now. Things are going great.
October 6, 2015
Rick is doing so well. He will get out of the hospital Thursday. He has to have two more tests or they would let him go now. He just has his open heal wound pump where his drive line for his LVAD was. No more IV’s. He is taking his immune suppressants by mouth. He is taking 14 pills in the morning and about 8 at night. He has not had much pain at all, so no more pain meds. He is walking 1/2 mile twice a day around the hospital halls at a pretty good clip.
He told me last night he had never felt like this in his whole life. He has had heart problems his whole life and so he didn’t know what normal was. It made me want to cry. We never know how someone is feeling until we walk in their shoes.
The hardest thing so far, is them telling us that we couldn’t be around the grandkids or much of anyone for 3 months. That’s a killer during the holiday season.
And no pie night for us. We had an idea that we may just Skpe him in.
This heart transplant journey has been an uphill journey but we have learned so much about ourselves and about God. It has been worth every minute.
October 3, 2015
Rick is doing so good they may let him out of the hospital Monday. Wow!!! That is a week and 1/2 in the hospital. He had a biopsy and it showed 0 rejection. That is wonderful!. We have 6 more months in Utah now to get the medication right and while he is in Cardiac Rehab. Praise God he finally got his heart. Thank you so much to the donor for giving Rick another chance.
September 28, 2015
We have a wonderful update. Rick got his heart on September 24, 2015. He was transplanted at midnight so we are choosing the 24th because that is when the surgery began.
The hospital called us on a very lazy Thursday morning at about 11:00 am. We were just taking it easy because we had a full week and were needing a little down time.
Melanie called from the hospital and said she had heard we were waiting for a heart. Rick (the jokester) said “of course, and are you calling to tell me you have one for me. Ha! Ha! ” She said “yes”. He said “are you kidding me?” She said “no.” We were shocked. She said the nurse would be calling us in a few minutes with information and directions. Sure enough, she called. It’s true they have a heart. Then one of the cardiac doctors called and then the nurse called back and told us to stay home for another two hours before coming to the hospital because they were still testing the heart. She called back about 20 minutes later and said “No, come now!” Oh wow. We were so not ready. We were calling, texting, packing, and praying all at the same time. We got there at 1:00 and started the blood work. We had a room on the 4th floor for about two hours tops. Rick was then taken to pre-op on the 3rd floor where they finished getting him ready. We cried a little, prayed a lot, and felt the peace only God can give in this situation.
Ricky, Rick’s son arrived 10 minutes before they wheeled him to the surgery room. He was so happy he made it from Boise in time.
The surgery did not start until actually 8:00pm. The were still trying to get his comaudin level down(blood thinner). In the meantime, Isaiah (a grandson), my sister Barbara (from the Rexburg area), and a son from Cleveland flew in. It was so wonderful to have that kind to support for this long surgery.
They called us with an update about midnight to tell us the heart we in and doing great. They were having some bleeding problems and pulse problems so they were working on that. He had not had a pulse for a year and a half. We finally got to see him at 5:30am in ICU. He looked good but he had the breathing tube and was very much sedated. We were exhausted, so we left Rick in very capable hands and when home to bed.
We came back later at around 1:00pm. The breathing had been taken out and Rick was looking good. Praise God.
He has continued to improve everything day. Third day out of surgery he walked around the whole ICU floor, ate dinner sitting in a chair, and did some arm and leg exercises. WOW! They said he would probably be in the hospital until about next Saturday or Sunday.
The University of Utah has given him great care and they were all so happy for him. What a great bunch of people. Caring and good at what they do.
All of our LVAD friends and Lung transplant people have been wonderful too. We have our Boise church, our Utah church and family and friends who were all so concerned and praying. Thank you all so much.
We are hoping that this is the beginning of our mission instead of the end but we are in Gods hand. We will go where he leads us.
We will be here another six months with many restrictions on how we can or cannot be around people because of the immunosuppressant drugs. Again a new change but we can handle it with Gods help.
Please everyone pray for the donor family. They lost someone they love and he was fairly young from what we understand. What a wonderful gift he/they gave to us.
WOW! what a miracle.
September 2, 2015
Here it is September. No heart yet. The wait has been the hardest thing yet. It is going to cost us more because we having to stay for so long. God with your help has proved for us to far. We will have to raise our goal because even if he got his heart today we will be in Salt Lake until about March. We are very thankful that God has kept us busy with all of the patients we see at the University of Utah hospital. We are busier here by far than we were in Boise.
We have made so many new friends. Our goal is to get Ricks heart first. Then we would like to continue with this ministry of seeing people in Boise that are faced with this problem. It is so overwhelming that it makes a big difference to have someone come along side you. We have friends in Boise that did it for us.
Jim Petty was the first and he was so helpful. What a guy! Also Ray Mickelsen was great. These guys are both have destination LVAD’s.
We also would like to take a road trip and visit alot of the people we have met. We would go to Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Idaho, New Mexico, back of Utah, and Alaska. We would love to see Brandon again who moved to Florida. We love all of these people like family.
This month we are supposed to speak at the Kiwana’s meeting, Rick is supposed to run/walk a 5K race, and we are supposed to speak at a PHD defense for someone at the hospital. If Rick doesn’t get his heart we are trying to go where the Lord leads us.
We got a call today for Rick to get some extra blood work done. They said it would not be long before he got his heart now! Wow, that would be great! But we will be content where he sends us.
Thank you all for everything you helped us with. It means so much! We love you all!
July 4, 2015
Latest update- We don’t have a heart yet but they allowed us to go home for a couple of days to see our new granddaughter. What a blessing. She is adorable. She was born June 30th. We will post some pictures as soon as we get them off of our phones. They decided that heart transplants had been so slow (two since April 1st) that we could go home to enjoy a great visit with family. We are learning how hard it is to be away from friends and family and to appreciate them more.
June 15, 2015
Please check out the pictures (in the albums section) of some on the people we have been able to talk to since we have been in Salt Lake. They are all great people.
Ricks is getting weaker and more depressed. This wait is not for the faint of heart. (Was that a play on words? 🙂 ) It is very difficult to be away from everything familiar and all of your support team and family. Oh family- how we long for that! They either live too far away or do not realize the incredible struggle this is. We are sure glad that God is always there. We are being taught some valuable lessons. Patience for one. Thank you to all of you that reach out to us frequently. It really helps. Thank you also for your prayers. We are still praying for a heart. Rick is at the top again but they don’t seem to have very many organs right now. So we will wait. Patiently?????
May 25, 2015
We made the front page of the Idaho Statesman. We knew they were doing the interview but we had no idea it would be on the front page of the paper. It was a lot about needing more people to donate organs. I really like that and we felt privileged to help with that cause.
Boisean has bittersweet wait for heart transplant
By JAMIE TALAN
Special to the Idaho Statesman May 23, 2015
Read more here: www.idahostatesman.com Copy paste this website to see it.
May 11, 2015
We are still waiting for Ricks heart. He has passed the 30 day time period for being on the top of the list. He is now on the top of the 1B list. Which means there may be a couple of people ahead of him. However, everything depends on the suitability of the heart for that person so God has Ricks picked out and it is not ready yet.
The doctor and the social workers have asked us to visit people at the hospital that had just gotten new LVADs or they were possibly going to be getting one. It has been so wonderful that we have been able to help other people in a very scary time.
We just got back from the hospital and we had the best news. There was a 19 year girl whos heart had failed while she was 8 months pregnant. They almost lost her and baby. They gave her an LVAD and RVAD. She had 0 positive blood which makes it very hard for her to get a transplant. We just found out that she got her heart this morning. What an answer to prayer!!!
April 27, 2015
Waiting is the worst! We are still waiting for that perfect heart to arrive. We know that God wants the right one for Rick. We are getting out and seeing the sights but Ricks breathing is getting worse. We are glad we are near the hospital where they know exactly what to do to help him as we go along.
We were on our way to our wonderful little new church yesterday. On the way a lady rolled her car right in ahead of us. I thank God we were far enough away to not be involved in the accident. We stopped to help but the lady was alone and fine. Her car was totaled but she was fine. A doctor came along right after we stopped so we left as there was nothing we could do at that point. Ricky, our son, said we had just stopped to see if she had the same blood type Rick did. (Never did find out.) 🙂 This was funny but it brought back the thought that someone has to die for him to live. We pray that we will remain mindful of that thought. Thank you all for your support and prayers. We miss you all so much.
April 23, 2015
Just to update everyone. We are still waiting for a heart. Rick is in the 1A position so they are saying anytime we can expect that call. Rick has had lots of blood work done to make sure he is healthy and to get info for the match. We have had appointments with the LVAD team, the surgeon, and the Transplant team. Everything is a go and it is just a matter of waiting.
We were given the opportunity to speak in front of about 20 new LVAD recipients and their caregivers on Wednesday. After that several of the people requested that we visit some of the people that were too sick to attend the meeting. The counselor, Stacy also wanted us to help with some patients that she thought needed encouragement. We had a busy day, but very rewarding. Dr. Gilbert saw us in the hall of the ICU and told us he really appreciated us visiting difference ones. We are so glad that God is using here. We also had a visit from a ministry called Heart to Heart. They are wonderful and will be very helpful as time goes on. Wow! What a journey we are on!
April 8, 2015
Big day today! Rick had a right heart catheter, blood work, and an heart echo. Everything turned out great. He was officially listed on the 1A status.
The doctor said that about 85% of people will get their hearts within this 30 day time period. We are praying that God will find just the right heart for him. Thank you for all your prayers.
April 4, 2015
We have made it to SLC. Ryan and Amber (son & daughter) have helped get settled. I don’t know what we would have done without them. 8 people came from the church to help us unload the truck. We are blessed in every way. Rick goes into the hospital Tuesday for tests. The adventure begins.
March 21, 2015
Thank you to all of you who have helped us monetarily. We have not lived in an apartment in years and are amazed how much it can cost to get settled into one. A lot of people have helped us by sharing their tax refund with us and we are so touched by this. We know that money is tight for everyone.
We have 10 days until we leave Boise to start our adventure in Salt Lake City. Our house looks like someone threw a bomb in it. There are boxes and piles of “still need”, “maybe”, and “going to need first”. We are both a little nervous but know that we are receiving lots of prayers and this is helping sooo much.
God gave us an early spring so we are so thankful to get to see our trees and flowers in bloom. A beautiful going away gift. God is good all of the time! Check out our pictures in the album Our Spring Gift.
March 16, 2015
Yesterday at church a lady (no name to protect her privacy) told us that she had put the paper on her refrigerator that had Ricks picture and story on it. This was a reminder to pray for Rick and our situation. I believe she has 6 children. Her 11 year old boy said he wanted to talk to her privately. She was a little surprised by this but said ok. They went to a private room and he told her that he would like to donate his heart to Rick. When she told him that wasn’t possible he asked if there was a test to see if he would be a match thinking that was the problem. She told him that only someone who died could give their heart because you couldn’t live without one. He said ok but could he give his allowance to help. She told him yes that he could do that. Wow! I could have just cried. The love of this child is amazing. He is a hero in our eyes.
March 9, 2015
Our latest update is we have leased an apartment. It is about 4 miles from the hospital in Salt Lake. We are loading the truck on March 29th after church and traveling to Salt Lake early morning on March 31st. We are packing so we have been very busy.
Ricks health continues to decline. His heart is retaining fluid again and he gets very dizzy if he coughs or laughs. He just needs that new heart.
Thank you so much for all of your prayers and your generous support. We love you all.
March 4, 2015
We just had a wonderful potluck on Sunday. Heidi Howsden and Shauna Kester hosted it at our church. It was so amazing to see all of our friends get together, share food (great food), and pray for us. We feel very blessed. Thank you so much Heidi and Shauna! You are the best. We are sending the money to HelpHopeLive.org so check out how our charity is going. Thank you to all of the generous people. I love you all and will miss you so much. Heidi even wrote a touching poem for us. WOW! How can you have better friends than these? The Lord was definitely with us that afternoon.
January 27, 2015
We spent 4 hours in the emergency room today. Ricks heart is getting weaker and weaker as we know it would. According to the interrogation of his Pacemaker he went into V-Tac several times in the last day or so. That usually doesn’t happen but of course Rick always has challenging symptoms. They said all the labs were good and EKG with fine. Just a bump in the road. Thank you all your prayers. Also, thank you to all of you who have donated so far.
