It has been awhile since I've visited, but.. ASHLEY GOT HER TRANSPLANT!

THATS RIGHT!! I'm a little delayed on giving the good news with being busy but she received a living donor transplant from one of her good friends on August 16th at Northwestern Memorial in Chicago, IL. He (Mahdi) was honestly the last person I had or anyone would have expected to step up and donate pretty much because of the lifestyle he led (party animal kinda guy). But he was completely physically fit and healthy to do it and on top of it he matched blood type and antigens 6 for 6! Not sure if race plays a role but for him to be Muslim and her to be African-American the odds of matching antigens seems like it was one of those meant to be kinda things. He was released the next day and Ashley released the day after him. He is back to his old self and as for Ashley she has been doing great. She has been taking medications as directed and getting blood work done 3x a week which I believe goes to 2x a week very soon and also a urinalysis from the local Quest Diagnostics who in turn sends it to Northwestern to adjust anti-rejection medications as necessary. Quest Diagnostics is nice enough to send us a copy of the lab results by mail whenever she has them done. Her creatinine had dropped from a 13 to 9 to 7 in just a couple of days after transplant. She is currently at a 1.42 and I've seen as low as 1.29 with the lab results over the past month. Sometimes when they adjust anti-rejection medications it'll spike the creatinine up a little bit so the docs said a slight fluctuation after medication adjustment is nothing to worry about. So far everything has been great I think the biggest challenge for her has been getting used to drinking as much fluid as she wants. Sometimes I have to say "Hey I haven't seen you drink anything for awhile". The doctor recommends 2-3 liters of fluid a day. The funniest thing though is her experience after the catheter was removed. Keep in mind she hadn't urinated for almost 4 years and she basically freaked out the first time because she felt that minor pressure we all feel when we urinate lol. She thought something was wrong and was panicking so I had to reassure her that everybody feels that and it's nothing to worry about lol. Well that's pretty much it for now. If anyone has questions or anything feel free to ask and I'll try and answer the best I can. And I would just like to say for those who feel like they're hopeless and they'll never get a transplant KEEP YOUR HEAD UP! Your time will come too and it'll be when you least expect it.