Hello Everyone, its Storm. I guess that its my turn to 'blog' so here goes. Alaska has been a ton of fun so far. At right are a few pics from this summer, Alex holding one of the Iditarod sled dog pups and the bounty that Doug (Kerry's Dad), Dick (My Dad), and I caught on our fishing charter. The fish are Halibut, Silver (Coho) salmon, one Goldeneye rock fish and one Lingcod. The fishing up here is out of this world and I highly recommend it to everyone who even remotely likes to fish. Its not really fishing its more like 'catching'.
Our summer was filled with learning to fish, visiting all sorts of parks, sights, and animals, and enjoying all of our guests. It was really awesome to have so many people come visit us and we had a great time seeing everybody. I like to think that everyone comes to visit just because we are so cool and fun to hang out with, I guess in reality it might have something to do with where we live and all the activities available, but I choose to believe the first reason!
By now if you are reading this blog you are aware that I am donating one of my kidneys to my cousin Kevin Spence. His kidneys have failed and in fact have been removed so he is currently surviving on dialysis. Luckily in his situation a new (donor) kidney will not be affected by the ailment that damaged his own kidneys, so he should be feeling a lot better after the surgery and can expect the 'new' kidney to last around 20 years or so. Anyone who has spent any time with me knows that I really don't like hospitals so I am not really looking forward to that part of this whole evolution. If things go well, and there is no reason to suspect that they won't, I should have to spend about 36 hours in the hospital for the donation procedure. Then it will be a few weeks of minimal activity to recover from the surgery. Its going to be done laproscopically, which means using cameras and small incisions so the recovery time should be faster. Living with one kidney is not supposed to be a big deal. One is plenty to handle the body's needs and I shouldn't be restricted in any way. They did recommend that I avoid heavy contact sports so as to minimize the risk of damaging my remaining kidney. So I guess my dreams of playing on an NFL team or becoming a freestyle motocross rider are shot but I don't suppose those were too realistic anyhow. A question that I get a lot is what if due to some stroke of extraordinary bad luck my remaining kidney were to fail due to injury or disease? Well then I would automatically jump to the top of the waiting list for a donor kidney and most likely have one in a few weeks. I won't lie to you, its a scary prospect undergoing a surgery to remove an organ when nothing is wrong with me. However the risks are extremely low and this way my cousin will be able to live a normal life rather than the less than optimal existance on dialysis 3-4 times a week. Truth be told I would much rather help someone by jumping out of a helicopter and swimming through miles of freezing water or being stranded in a mtn pass and having to hike home, but that's not the sort of help that my cousin needed so here we are. I for one will be very happy and relieved when its all over and I'm out of the hospital, and I'm sure that Kevin will be too. And as much as I am not looking forward to being cut open, it does feel really good to be able to help my cousin and good friend who is in need.
I believe that is all for now, thanks for looking and we'll post more soon. See ya, Storm