Once back home, we had a bit of a break, not before getting Texas dialysis up and going, though. We arrived Friday evening, and Amanda had dialysis on Saturday. It was in a clinic 30 miles away in Del Rio, a town we frequent. While she was in dialysis, I went to the Roses, who came up to spend Christmas with us. Another friend, Mike, who had lived in Brackett years ago but now lives in upstate New York, was in town for work. After Amanda got out of dialysis, we all went and had dinner together. We were up for church the following morning. I needed to be there early to adjust the sound system a bit; the worship team had been needing a little help. Even though we’d found a great Nashville home church, it was beyond good to reconnect with our church family back home.
I marked up for work with no time to spare. I needed seven compensated days, and I got back on a board that is guaranteed, where I get paid every day, whether I work or not. I made my seniority move on the 25th to get just the right number of days needed. This board pays about 75-80% of normal pay, but without the guaranteed daily pay, I wouldn’t have been able to get my insurance, and thus it saved me thousands. So, it all worked out in the end. The benefit to this board is that I typically don’t work much, which left me time to work on our remodel. It ended up being a real blessing to have off work on the house.
Speaking of blessings, it was a real God thing that Mike was down at the same time we were home. He had offered to come and help work on the remodel a while back. He and I work well together and redid the front of the church, converting the foyer. So he quickly signed up to help me on his days off while he is down. He has worked in the construction business and flipped multiple homes, far more than Amanda and I have. He was over on his first two days off. We have come so far in the past week and a half that we’ve been home. His help got me rolling and motivated, and I’m hoping we’ll have the house listed in the next couple of months.
Amanda’s kidneys still need to wake up and haven’t shown any signs of recuperating. We have been praying and will continue to pray that they will wake up, and she won’t need another transplant. The kidney team finally called and said everything is ready for her to be listed. All we need to do is call and tell them when we are within range, about four hours away from Nashville, for them to flip the switch and get Amanda officially on the list. We are reluctantly ready for another organ transplant and will pray hard that it isn’t needed.
Amanda has been getting more independent for her upcoming time in Nashville, which will be solo. She took it upon herself to wrap her dialysis catheter for showers. I was a little worried about this since it was on her chest, but she was already doing this solo before we left Tennessee. She also started driving herself, including to and from dialysis. She hadn’t driven in nearly 14 months since she went to the hospital for her rejection back in 2024. It’s wild that we’ve been fighting this battle that long. So, it was big that she was back behind the wheel! Another thing that was back to normal was Amanda leading worship. The second Sunday we were back, she started singing again. I was in tears during worship, seeing her back up there. We’ve come so far over the last year and a half since all of this began.
During construction, with Mike and I building walls and tearing out things, including the tub in our master bath to make way for a new, large shower, so there has been a ton of dust. Amanda has been in my case about dust. It’s always terrible to live in a remodel zone. When I was planning to come home, I wasn’t expecting Amanda to come with me. So, I wasn’t too worried about the dust with just myself at home. But it’s different with her being home. She has been at work or in dialysis during the construction, and by the time she’s home, it’s settled, and she’s not breathing it in as badly. However, you can see the evidence all over our bedroom! In getting new Bibles, I have a dedicated nightside table bible for my evening reading. I have been gauging how bad the dust is by that bible since I use it every night. A different meaning of the song Dusty Bibles by Josiah Queen!
Our time at home has been super busy. I have worked only a few times, but have been able to work on the house most every day since Mike and I got started. We are making strides. I started with a long 13-foot bathroom that I had cut the slab on to expose the plumbing so I could split it up. We got walls up for both the bathroom split and a larger shower, added backer board and plumbing for the shower, added the necessary electrical, and hung, taped, and floated the drywall. I got the shower floor tile down today. I think we will be mostly done with the drywall work by the weekend, too.
Amanda has either been at church working or at dialysis. We even made a mad dash to San Antonio to get the tile for the shower and bathroom floor. Every day has been nonstop. When I got home after lunch this past Sunday, after working the night before, I went straight to work on the shower. As I was going back and forth, Amanda was curled up in her oversized recliner in the fetal position, passed out tired. The busy schedule, followed by leading worship, had worn her out.
It’s crazy that we’ve already been down for three weeks. We head back next Wednesday. Amanda has been working to get her dialysis schedule lined up in Nashville for our return. Everything is set up for her to have four sessions when she’s back in Nashville, then she’ll switch to home dialysis. I was hoping we would be able to go straight to home dialysis when we returned, but no luck with that.
I was bumped off my cushy reserve board job, so that changes how long I will be in Nashville now. I’d hoped I would be able to stay for a week to ten days, but not now. We arrive next Thursday, and I’ll need to come back the following Sunday. This is bad timing because it is a short work half with only 28 days in February, so I need to come home to make sure to get enough trips in. Amanda starts her home dialysis the first week of March, so I plan on coming back up for a few days then. When it’s just me going back and forth, it’s easier because I’ll just drive straight through. Last-minute flights are expensive, and with my work schedule, it’s too hard book flights early enough to get them cheap, so driving it is.
Once we hit Little Rock or Memphis, Amanda will call the kidney team to get her on the kidney list. We’re really praying that her kidneys will wake up. She’s been through enough, and doing another transplant that won’t last, but ten years or so seems daunting after all we’ve been through. I’ll be calling for some very pointed prayers in the near future. I’ll make another post specifically about that on Saturday. So if you are and have been a champion of ours and a prayer warrior, be on the lookout for that.
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