Nine Month Bio

Dear Friends and Family,

I wanted to give my bio of the last nine months from start to finish and some of my thoughts during those times. Some of this will be what you already know but I am telling you it through my eyes. I hope you enjoy!

In the Beginning

In the beginning of January I got sick with what was at first just a common cold. After a few days it got better but a day or two later some symptoms came back, like fevers and nausea. What was weird though was that I would only get fevers during the night and in the morning feel fine. So everyday I thought I might be getting better but I wasn't. This went on for about a week until my dad decided I would go to the doctor. On Friday the 17 my dad called the doctor to get me in. When I finally got up my dad commented that my face looked a little puffy but I thought nothing of it at the time. We went to the doctor and had some tests done and the doctor concluded that I was have an allergic reaction to one of the meds I was taking. I left the doctors office thinking that once I stopped the med that I would start to get better. After I got home I went to bed and tried to sleep.
Saturday morning rolls around and I am not feeling any better but I thought I would start to recover because I was not going to be taking the medicine anymore. I woke up pretty early on Saturday because my parents were leaving to go to DC for the day to show some internationals around and wanted to make sure I was doing all right before they left. Once they left I was too awake to fall back asleep so I decided to take a nice long shower. I think long showers are the most relaxing thing in the world and I was planning on staying in the shower all morning or until we had no hot water. At this time I had severe back pain that I attributed to the 104° fevers I was having so the hot water felt really nice. I was also kind of nauseous still so being in the shower had many perks. 
Around 8:00 the phone started ringing but it was the home phone and I don't answer our home phone. If someone needs to get to me they can call my cellphone. I had my cellphone on my towel in the bathroom and I was not going to let the home phone ruin my shower. The person calling would not stop and they called at least 4 times before finally giving it a rest. It was about 8:50 before I finally got out of the shower because someone tried to call the house 2 more times. I thought it might be my parents telling me they forgot something, or in my mind something dumb, so I decided to get out of they shower and pick up the phone the next time it rang.

Kidney Failure

I did not have to wait long before it rang again and I picked it up. It was the doctor and the first question he asked was if I knew they were trying to call the house for the last hour, frustrated I said no. He went on to tell me that my labs came in and that things were very serious. My creatinine level was 15.9 which suggested end stage renal failure. Normal creatinine levels are between 0.5 and 2. He proceeded to tell me that he would call an ambulance because I needed to go to the hospital right away.
I told the doctor that I did not need an ambulance because someone was home and could take me. Chris Davis was living with us at the time and was working at the hospital where I was to go, so I had him drive me to the hospital. At the hospital, the nurses were already waiting for me with a stretcher in the ER and they started to get an IV in right away. As soon as they got the IV in they had me sign consent forms to go to surgery. I hardly finished signing the papers before we started moving to go to surgery. They wanted to put in a chest catheter so they could start dialysis. Dialysis acts as your kidneys by cleaning your blood through a filter. When they were done with the surgery I was hooked up to the dialysis machine and my blood was filtered for the next four hours.

God’s Intervention: Boy Scout to the Rescue

By this time you are probably wondering if my parents know anything about this or what the heck they were doing about all this. Before I get there though I want to tell you where I saw God in all this. When I answered the phone Saturday morning my parents had already left on a chartered bus to go to DC so I knew I was pretty much alone in the house. Chris did live with us but he worked night shift at the Harrisburg hospital and we would usually only see him between 3 and 7 pm when he would be up before work. This weekend, however, he asked off because he had a Med School interview at the beginning of the next week and he wanted to have some time to switch his sleep schedule around. This is all to say that Chris told me the day before that he was going to wake up at 9 am on Saturday and try to go to a Scouting event later that day at our church.
Little did he know that I had other plans for him. This is where God comes in. I answered the call from the doctor around 8:50 so by the time I finished explaining that someone was able to take me to the hospital, Chris would be waking up. So as I ran down the stairs to see if Chris was up, I threw some bread into the toaster because I knew that's what Chris ate ever day for his "3 pm" breakfast. When I did get down to his room he had just gotten up and I was easily able to convince him that his day would be better spent at the place he called off work from than a day at the pine wood derby.
I will take a moment to say thank you once again for his willingness to be helpful. For those of you who don't know, being helpful is the third part of the Boy Scout Law, so although I am very grateful, Chris had no choice in the matter unless he want to be portrayed as a hypocritical Boy Scout Leader. I did not need to use this leverage however because Chris is a wonderful friend regardless of his extracurricular activities of  being in the Boy Scouts. As Chris got ready for the day, he was still in his jammies; I pulled his toast out of the toaster and buttered it. This is where my parents' role begins. I realized that I should probably let my parents know I was going to the hospital after the doctor called but I wanted to cement a ride to the ER before I did. So I settled on the idea that I would see if Chris would be willing to take me and then call my parents, as he was getting ready.

Parents, What Parents?

As I saw it, my parents could not do anything from where they were at so why worry them with the news that I was going to the hospital. But I got yelled at for this philosophy before so I went ahead and called them. I tried to play it down so they would not feel helpless in DC all day but even now I can't come up with a way to make "I am being rushed to the hospital" sound like no big deal. So I told them everything I knew and then told them that everything was being taken care of. But my salutation of "have a great time DC" fell on deaf ears as they were already planning their pilgrimage home, which is harder than it seems when you take a chartered bus to sight see and are the leaders of a international college field trip to DC.
So as I was being admitted to the hospital and undergoing surgery my parents were finding their way to the nearest car rental place, which was at Central Station. After some quick research my parents found that the cheapest and fastest way to Harrisburg Hospital would be by car rental but the only catch was that they would have to return the car to Central Station if the wanted to save an extra $300 on the rental. So the marathon was on for my parents! My dad had to drive from DC to our house so my mom could pick up our car stop by the hospital for about five minutes before having to drive back to DC in time to catch the chartered bus home. My mom was able to stay with me through my first dialysis treatment while my dad drove back to DC where he was able to catch the bus home. When my mom got to the hospital at 2, Chris was relieved of his babysitting duties and he went back home shortly after. I was in the hospital for another 4 days getting a kidney biopsy and regaining health. Since about the day before going to the doctor I stopped using the bathroom regularly and started gaining water weight. Within 4 day I had gained over 50 lbs of water weight and my skin was stretched to the max! My dad nicknamed me the Michelin Tire Man because of all the weight that I put on.

Home… and Back Again!

I was released from the hospital on Wednesday; however, I got a call from the hospital the next morning saying that they wanted me back. So after only being home for about 13 hours I went back to the hospital. The doctor said that they wanted to put me on some intensive treatments to try and recover my kidneys. The doctors got my biopsy back and they found that I had a serious form of kidney failure called Rapidly Progressive Glomerulonephritis or RGPN for short. There are only a handful of cases out there of RPGN and there is not much research for this type of aggressive kidney disease. They do have several procedures that could help including chemo-p-plasma (chemo therapy), steroid therapy, and plasmaphoresis (plasma transplant). My doctor had been talking with the top nephrologist in our country and consulting with them to find the best possible solutions. They wanted to keep me for the next few days to monitor me and see how I reacted to the daily plasmaphoresis, 3 times a week dialysis, and 3-4 low doses of chemo and the steroids. They also wanted to go ahead and put a PD catheter in my stomach. A PD catheter is used in at-home dialysis, which I can do on my own while I sleep. PD dialysis would allow me to have a much freer schedule and not have to go to a dialysis clinic Monday, Wednesday, Friday for 5 hours a day.

Aren’t Treatments Great!

         The doctors started the plasmaphoresis that day but about halfway through the treatment I started having an allergic reaction to the donor plasma and we had to stop the treatment. After changing to artificial plasma, albumin, everything went smoothly. I stayed in the hospital for a few more days getting the treatments. Before I left I got the PD catheter put in and I was discharged. For the next month or two I continued hemodialysis until my PD catheter was ready to use and during spring break at Messiah College I got the training on PD and was able to start that. During those two months I also was on steroids and was getting regular chemo treatments. Since my immune system was compromised, I had to watch my health very carefully and I wore a mask wherever I went. I was still continuing college during this time and I had to work closely with teachers to be able to get all my work done as well as get all my medical treatments. After about the first month of treatments we did not see any change in the kidneys and it did not seem like the treatments were going to work. After a few more weeks of seeing no progress the doctors decided that there was no way to bring my kidneys back so I stopped the chemo treatments and I began to be weaned off the steroids. The next step in the road to victory would be transplant.

Journey to Transplant

We started to inform our family and friends that I would need a transplant and if they felt led to donate they could get tested. We went to a specialist in New York City Presbyterian Hospital who recommended Johns Hopkins for the transplant and we listened to his advice. All we needed now was a donor. I don’t know how many people went ahead and got tested because JH was not allowed to give that information out but I do know that a hand full of people did tell me that they got tested. If you were one of the people that got tested, thank you so much and your support means a lot to me!

         At this point I was still taking classes at Messiah College but I was on PD. Everything seemed to be going fairly well with PD but it took a while to get used to it. School started to come to a close and I thought I was going to be able to finish classes and have smooth sailing through the summer. But God wanted to teach me another lesson in perseverance and during the last week of school I got pneumonia and was not able to take any of my finals. I took incompletes in all five of my classes and had to take the finals in the weeks to follow. After about two weeks I was able to finish all my finals and I was able to start my summer. I did not have many plans during the summer because I was hoping to get a transplant and I wanted to leave my summer open to be able to accommodate that. If possible I did want to do some traveling but a transplant was my top priority.  Things seemed to be going pretty good during the summer but it was not without complications. I had a heart ejection fraction of 30 which led to a heart catheterization to clarify the problem (no blocked arteries-kidney related).  I got sick a handful of times with two urinary tract infections, peritonitis (which is a stomach infection), two seizures (leading to temporary deafness and blindness), numerous bouts of super high blood pressure, nausea, MAJOR headaches, Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome (PRES), a spinal tap, and a kidney stone. Apart from spending time at home and at the hospital I was able to go on a road trip with my dad to visit family in Colorado and visit my girl friend a few times in Brooklyn.

Finding a Match

Around the beginning of July, Johns Hopkins contacted us saying that they found a match and that I needed to get more tests done so we could move along with a transplant. During the end of August we were able to start planning for a transplant date. We were able to get OCTOBER 14^th for our transplant date and we could see the finish line. Even though there is still another chapter after the transplant, all the doctors were saying everything would get better with the transplant and that is all I have been looking forward to for the past few months! I took medical leave from Messiah College for the fall semester and have been anxiously waiting for October 14^th, it can’t come soon enough. On September 29^th we went down to Johns Hopkins for our TWO WEEK OUT evaluation and everything seemed in order! Since then we have also set up a foundation to help financially support my family and the donor. If you want to help you can send a tax-deductible donation via check or credit card. Please make your check payable to NFT Pennsylvania Transplant Fund. Remember to write “in honor of Nathaniel Bechtold” on the memo line. Visit www.transplants.org to make a secure online donation. Click “Find an NFT Patient” to search for Nathaniel Bechtold. Prayer is also another big way you can help. Thank you to anyone that has supported us already because your support has been a crucial part of what has kept my family positive and looking forward through the tough times during the last nine months.

Blessings and Love,

~Nathaniel Bechtold~

Update 15

The attachment contains the most recent update on Nate’s Kidney Journey! It is a bit long, but, after all, it has been over three months! Contained in the update is the encouraging news that a transplant is scheduled for October 14th as a live donor has been identified and accepted by the transplant team!

Related to the impending transplant and the multiple things that go on logistically, Nathaniel’s social worker at Johns Hopkins gave us information on a charity that serves on behalf of transplant patients and their families and recommended that we participate because of all the added expenses in transportation, accommodations, and other expenses not covered by insurance. This charity requires that there be two people, a designated fund manager and treasurer/bookkeeper to handle the account. These people should not be related to the patient. We have since found people to fill these two positions! The charity is well established and has all the information necessary to manage, and no IRS information or filings are necessary on the part of the manager or treasurer. If any of you are willing to consider this, we would love to talk to you further about helping us in this way. Thanks.

Shalom,

John

I still don’t catch everyone interested in Nate’s journey in this email, so feel free to pass this on to any you know who may be interested. Thanks…

Greetings family and friends of Nate,

It has been over three months since our last long update, and I wish I could say no news was good news, nevertheless, we have seen God’s hand at work. This time, I will include the highlights (and lowlights so to speak) of Nate’s “Summer Vacation”. Many of you may have had a chance to go to an amusement park this summer and ride on an exciting roller coaster or two... well, amusement parks have nothing on the summer that Nate has had, beginning during the week of finals, just as the summer was about to begin. In our last big update, I indicated Nate had some respiratory problems, well it turned out that he did have pneumonia and consequently missed all of his finals. Thankfully a few antibiotics and a week later, Nate was able to complete all his finals and be done with a rather challenging semester at Messiah. Also, thankfully, there are not many times required when someone has to deal with kidney failure on top of a full load of college courses...

Not long after finishing his finals, Nate had a urinary tract infection which kept the antibiotics flowing. As a result of that, and not sleeping well and not getting the best nutrition due to nausea related to drugs and other issues, June was not a great month. The final distressing “event” in June was a determination by our family doctor that Nate had an unusual heart issue that he recommended a cardiologist attend to, which led to a heart catheterization on June 20th. This ended up being a rather “routine” procedure to investigate the nature of Nate’s heart which came out “crystal clear” on all counts, which led the cardiologist and the transplant team to determine the heart issue was kidney related and hopefully remedied when Nate gets a “new” used kidney. The procedure was fairly quick and gave us a few laughs since Nate was conscious during the procedure but really doped up with some “Happy Juice” that didn’t wear off for a while which kept us entertained back in his room. He kept saying everything would be OK since he was NATHANIEL IVAN BECHTOLD, at one time remarking that he wanted to swim in jello! We were hoping to get the catheterization taken care of as soon as possible because after graduation and my May – term Cross-cultural course, Nate and I planned to take a road trip to see friends and family out Colorado way. His procedure was on a Friday, and the next Monday we were on our way to Colorado in the CRV (the cardiologist did not recommend the trip so close to the procedure, but by Sunday evening we could tell things were healing nicely and the trip need not be delayed).

Our trip to Colorado was refreshing, invigorating and uneventful health-wise and allowed us to visit many family and friends who have been praying for Nate. We took Nate’s dialysis machine with us and had extra dialysis fluid shipped out to my sister Debbie’s house in Boulder, CO, so we could “hook up” every night on the road wherever we were staying, and have supplies waiting for us when we spent time in Colorado. We had many great “reunions” in Indiana, Kansas, Colorado and Ohio, that made our trip especially enjoyable and rich in fellowship.

We visited Nate’s friend from home, Hunter Spivey, who was working in Denver for the Honest Tea company as an intern and we had a great time with him at Winter Park and the alpine slide there as well as taking dinner at Casa Bonita!  Hiking in the mountains, playing Frisbee, relaxing while watching the World Cup, having cook-outs, and riding ATV’s were just a few of the things that we did with friends and family that made our time away so special. Outside of being a bit winded while hiking in the mountains, Nate’s activity level and health were great! Thanks to the use of Hannah’s smart phone we even kept up with the world cup while on the road!

On our way back from Colorado we got exciting news from Johns Hopkins Hospital that they had a live match for a kidney for Nathaniel and that progress has been made to get a transplant sometime at the end of July or the first of August! That obviously was great news, but since that phone call we have learned more and know that as far as Nathaniel’s tests, paperwork, health and transplant team are concerned, he is ready to go. All that was needed was the donor team to meet with the donor for his interview and then to determine a date for the surgery. We now have confirmed that his transplant will take place at Johns Hopkins on Tuesday, October 14th given all things go well for the next month. This is all quite amazing given that our journey essentially began just over 7 months ago!

We got back from Colorado July 3rd and were hoping that July
would be a continuation of good health and good times.
 Although neither the Dutch, nor Costa Rica made it all the way
to the finals in the World Cup, it was a good showing from both
and a great championship. The rest of July was fairly
uneventful until the wedding of one of Nate’s best friends,
 Josiah Lindquist, in which he was able to participate. In the
initial plans for this event, it was anticipated that Nate would
be overseas with an International Business course that would
have prevented him from being at the wedding, so this was a
great blessing in spite of Nate’s renal failure that he was able to
be a part of Josiah and Kimberly’s wedding! Just after the wedding Nate began to complain of some nausea and began throwing up frequently for the next few days after the week-end of the wedding. We saw his nephrologist on Thursday of that week, and although she did not know what was the cause or offer any remedy, after the visit, Nate began to feel better. That was the end of July.

August, however, has been another story. The first two weeks, again, were rather uneventful outside of another short-lived urinary tract infection. We had heard again from Johns Hopkins that the transplant would occur now at the end of August or first of October. In anticipation of greater restrictions and greater care the closer to that date, Nate decided he wanted to take one more short road trip up to Brooklyn to see his girlfriend Kari (rhymes with “sorry”). He was feeling pretty good and we had just purchase a new used car, and a road trip seemed in order. Nate had a good week-end with Kari and her family but as the new week started, Nate’s nausea and headaches began to return again. Sparing lots of details, Nate was hospitalized in the Lutheran Hospital in Brooklyn on Wednesday, August 20th having had two seizures, a BP of over 190, nausea, and the most severe headache I have ever witnessed in Nate. I came up by train hoping to bring Nate back home within the next day or two, and that was clearly not going to happen. It wasn’t until 6 days later that he had the go-ahead to come home, and then he still wasn’t feeling well-he got nauseous every time he sat up and could hardly stand at all. The only bright spot in our return were the activities of the Lindquist family when we pulled in to our drive around 9 pm. They were mowing our lawn and filling our refrigerator with food!

Because Nate had a seizure, he needed 24 hr monitoring of his brain waves, he had electrodes placed all around his head (note the urinal in the first picture is not taped to his head!) and then wrapped-it was quite itchy... Kari smiling for the camera-she forgot she had a mask on!

Well, now it is the first of September. Classes at Messiah start tomorrow and we are hoping for a degree of normalcy. Since Nate has been home, we have been to Harrisburg Hospital twice. The Wednesday after

returning from NYC was another difficult day and by the late evening Nate had another severe headache and spiking BP. We left Nate around 2 am in a hospital room after some doses of morphine and a saline drip. Well, to say the least, we were all quite discouraged! But the next
day was an injection of hope when we returned to visit Nate in

the morning - he was sitting up, smiling, and the cheerful countenance we were so used to had returned! It was the first time in over a week that I did not see pain in his eyes. We brought him home on Friday, but by Sunday his headache and nausea had returned and his BP was creeping up again. So another trip to the ER, this time catching it before it got out of control and they were able to reduce the BP and the headache and we were spared another night in the hospital. The bright spot of the week-end was the package we received in the mail from friends and colleagues from the School of Business, Education and Social Sciences... it was a package full of cards with well- wishes and prayers. What another burst of encouragement!

Although this note is long, allow me to indulge in a bit of reflection on the experience of the last week or so. Many of you have been keeping in touch with us either face to face or over the phone and we have been assured of hosts of prayer. I am grateful for such, yet it remains a mystery when so many have been praying for “removal of nausea” or “cessation of headaches” and yet we witness continued anxiety and pain in our son. A chaplain in the hospital laid hands on Nate and prayed for a miracle... I have heard more than once that people believe it is as hard or even harder on caregivers to go through such pain of a loved one vicariously, and I am inclined to agree to some extent. We know God is with us and is sustaining each of us through this journey, but still this process of prayer vexes me. If anything I am convinced of this... God desires an intimate relationship with each of us. These opportunities of prayer on the behalf of someone such as Nate and our family are opportunities for this connection with God to take place. This is by no means a trivial connection. The more I talk to God, acknowledge His presence, and remain in Him, the more the bittersweetness of the moment is amplified. Yes, the pain is still there, the kidneys are really gone, but the reality of His presence is likewise real, and undeniable... wow! I hope that as you talk to God on behalf of us and others, you likewise sense that presence that assures us that it truly is “well with my soul”. I am led to believe that at times it is not so much “what” we pray but “that” we pray that is important. It reminds me of that famous story of an interviewer who questioned Mother Theresa about what she prays, and she states that when she prays to God that she just listens... and when the question followed, well what does God say, she replied, “Nothing, He just listens”. Maybe, at least on occasion, prayer is spending time with God when neither speaks, but just listens...

May I encourage you to spend time with God, and if it is on our behalf, I would be grateful. Nate needs to get healthy, gain weight, stay out of the hospital, manage his BP, and be ready for the transplant, Lord willing on the 14th of October. Likewise, his donor, Ben, needs to stay healthy-body, mind and spirit. We are trusting God for His good pleasure and glory in all of this, as uncertain as things seem at times. Thanks so incredibly much for being a part of this journey with us!

John
For Katy, Nate and Hannah September 1, 2014

Btw, many of you know our daughter Hannah is now serving in Chaing Mai, Thailand for two years. You can follow her adventure on her blog : www.PurposefulDiscomfort.blogspot.com

 and if you ever care to become more involved you can check out her web address for donations by going to www.WorldOutreach.org/donatations

 and select Hannah Bechtold #273

Update 14

Greetings all,

It has been a month since our last update. This last month seemed to fly by being now at the end of the semester at Messiah. Home dialysis has had its ups and down this last month, unfortunately more downs than ups…. I think it has been harder on me than it has been on Nate, although he may beg to differ. Nate “hooks up” to the machine each night and the good news from the doctor of a couple of weeks ago was that he could shorten the time that he has to be hooked up to the machine during the night… instead of 9.5 hours, he only has to be hooked up for 8 hours. The downside is that he is still adjusting to the discomfort of two liters of fluid being pumped into his abdomen and then pumped out 4 times a night… the machine clicks on and off and hums a bit, and the abdomen distention sometimes wakes him up and makes it hard to get back to sleep. Furthermore, the machine at times sets off an alarm which tells Nate that there is some blockage in the line or some obstruction and one night there were a total of around 20 false alarms in one night. Thankfully he has had only one night like that, but nevertheless, it has been and continues to be an adjustment. We little realize how precious sleep is until we have to do without it! Thank God for the restorative nature of sleep, and even more so the sustaining power of God when you don’t get it!

As for the progress toward a kidney, Nate still has to have some physiological tests and tissue tests and the appointments for those are not for another month (although I hope he can get in sooner) so those of you who have signed in and have volunteered to be tested for compatibility will have to wait a while until all of Nate’s tests are in. I admit I get a bit impatient when I see what all Nate is going through and wish things would happen sooner than later, so I have been having lessons in patience this month. I am reminded of a verse in the  Psalms that was a verse I had taken to heart back in graduate school days, “But as for me, I trust in YOU, O Lord, I say, “You are my God.” My times are in Your hand” (Ps 31:14, 15), truly, OUR times are in His hands! No better place to be!

As of today, it has been rough because Nate has had a high fever and chest congestion for the past two days that have further challenged us. We went to the clinic this morning to make sure he did not have peritonitis and then to the family doctor to check that it wasn’t pneumonia or anything else… chest x-rays, blood work, extra dialysis were all part of his morning. He is still not sleeping that great and his body is just compromised and the effects are being realized. He missed his three finals today and that just adds to the challenges. Never a dull moment… we are still hoping things can soon become normalized, but it won’t be this week! Thanks for your support and prayers. It is so important to know that we are not in this on our own and that there are no surprises to God. Keep up the faith!

Shalom,

John

Update 13

Greetings everyone,

Our last update reported on Nate’s PD and getting home dialysis going. That was long awaited for and now we are adjusting to Nate’s new “life”. Every night Nate “hooks up” to a machine that pumps a special fluid into his peritoneum (basically his abdomen) and pumps it back out after it has absorbed all the impurities in his blood. This cycles through several times (lasting approx 9 hours) in a night and the plan is he awakes full of vigor but no vim J. Well, this has been an adjustment, as stated, and we are hoping he gets used to the process so that he can experience a full night’s sleep… this has yet to happen on a regular basis…. And by the grace of God, life goes on!

This last week, Nate passed another milestone in his life with renal failure and that was getting his hemodyalisis tube (in his chest-a catheter going under his skin and into a vein near his heart) removed. This was quite a process as it had been in since the initial emergency room visit in January. You will have to have Katy or Nate tell you the whole story, thankfully I was not there. It involved quite a “yank” from the doctor and a bit of spattering that I will not go into any further. If you have a stomach for it, Nate fished around the trash when the doctor left and took a picture of the tube as the only souvenir he was allowed (the picture is at the end of this email-warning, not for the faint hearted)… he could not bring it home… he asked and they said no… (he has to live with the disappointment of not having this tube hanging from his trophy shelf in his bedroom)! Now you should feel free to give Nate a hearty hug and you will not have this plastic knob-like thing pressing into your chest. It has allowed him to shower once again with ease. The doctor was surprised to hear that Nate was told not to shower with it and said that he could have done it, to which Nate replied, “Now you tell me, after I have lost my girlfriend”… (that’s a ha, ha… Nate still has a significant other, Kari, who has hung in there with him through this all).

The latest, and most exciting news is that Nate had his transplant interview at Johns Hopkins on Tuesday. We now have a better idea of what all is involved with that process. It was about a 4-hour meeting with about 6 different people – a social worker, a surgeon’s assistant, a nurse, a research assistant, a kidney specialist, and the surgeon who will perform the operation. They all agree that Nate is an excellent candidate for a transplant (as long as he doesn’t start smoking or drinking, or stops wearing his seatbelt or starts texting while drivingJ). They gave us several booklets explaining various aspects of the procedure like acquiring a donor (no coercion allowed, black market organs definitely not cool), and additional considerations of things not covered by insurance (numerous visits to JHMC and possible overnight stays, non-covered insurance items and medication costs) and how to pay for additional things (like organizations created to assist in “fund raising”). Insurance does pay for the expenses involved in finding, testing, surgery and recovery for a live donor and we were encouraged to start that process as soon as possible. The more potential candidates the better, and there is a web site to refer people to who are interested in that possibility. Furthermore, that person has full control over how involved in the volunteer process he or she wants to be… from just donating to Nathaniel, to offering to donate to someone else who might have a friend/donor that is a match for Nate and essentially “swapping” donors. Hence, even being an “ideal” match for Nate is not an issue if one is just willing to donate. Anyway, the web site deals with all of that and is the place for people to begin (https://johnshopkins.trcareportal.com/ if you register, all you do is provide your email address and create a password… you are then sent a confirmation which allows you to fill out an extensive questionnaire… “ you are not officially registered until you fill out that questionnaire). Furthermore, as extra expenses accumulate for such a procedure, we are considering  setting up a “charity” to help with expenses. As we find out more about that, we will pass that on as well.

For such an ordeal, it is amazing how upbeat and positive everyone was at Johns Hopkins. We were told that although a major operation, the success rate is high and the recovery period is fairly brief (4-8 weeks – a little shorter for the donor) relative to other major surgeries. Also, that it could occur as early as this summer which is obviously what Nate would prefer, and we likewise agree.

Thanks again for all your prayers and concerns. God is good, all the time, and we are counting our blessings all along the way! We appreciate so many of you who have shared your own experiences with kidney issues or chronic health issues as you seek to comfort and encourage us. You have shown us that this is not necessarily a comfortable journey, but it is agood journey as we are drawn closer to our God and each other. Keep up the faith!

Shalom,

John

Btw, many of you know our daughter Hannah is now serving in Chaing Mai, Thailand for two years. You can follow her adventure on her blog : www.PurposefulDiscomfort.blogspot.com and if you ever care to become more involved you can check out her web address for donations by going to  www.WorldOutreach.org/donatations  and select Hannah Bechtold #273