Rhabdo

We had been planning on having the scouts in our ward come over starting wednesday evening and again on saturday to pour concrete pads in our backyard last week. What we didn't plan on was a 4 day hospital stay during the same week. Jeffrey gave us quite a scare, he had been sick for 6 full days, hardly eating and drinking anything because he couldn't keep anything down. At first we thought it was food poisoning but after 2-3 days we called it the flu and tried to ride it out. Early thursday morning around 03:30 I woke up to find him in the kitchen cutting our costco frozen chicken breast packages apart and using them as ice packs on his belly. Thursday morning we got in to see a GI doc who sent us the ED for a gallbladder work-up and dehydration. We learned there that his gallbladder was fine but his labs were off the charts, he was in acute kidney failure due to rhabdomyolysis and may need dialysis. We were shocked and terrified to say the least and quite upset after the long week he had already had. They admitted us to the hospital where we stayed for four days while they pumped him full of 24/7 fluids and monitored his labs each day. Thankfully and due to, no doubt in my mind our family fast, blessings from our home teachers and the love, support and prayers of our family and friends, Jeff's levels slowly dropped and his kidneys were able to start healing themselves and flush the toxins out of his body without having to do dialysis. On sunday evening Jeff sweet talked his way out of the hospital and we got to go home. Today, (3/20) we followed up with the kidney team and things are still looking good and his levels are continuing to improve. It will be a couple of weeks before he (and his kidneys) are back to 100% but because he is otherwise young and healthy he should have no residual effects and be able to return to normal physical activity as well as competitive sports.

We can't begin to express our gratitude to all those who called, text, dropped off packages, came to visit, gave blessings, offered meals and help with Scout and anything and everything else that was thoughtful, kind and willing to help in any way. Even though we tried to keep it out of the public the response from family and friends was overwhelming in the most amazing way and I am so grateful for each and every person who thought of us during this time. To see and feel all those who love and support us was such a strength and blessing and meant so much to us. We are truly blessed and grateful to our Heavenly Father to have such a great support group to fall back on. The gospel is true, my mother-in-law said something in conversation that I will never forget, she said that miracles happen everyday and while some may be small, some big, we don't always recognize them as miracles. I know that the health and strength of my husband today was and is a miracle. There were many many things that transpired over the course of the 2 weeks that led up to his hospital stay and also those that happened while we were in the hospital that changed the course of his treatment and disease and had those things happened differently or not at all, we would be facing and entirely different and more serious, scary, lengthy etc. situation. So for fear of repeating myself again and again, I will only say it once more, THANK YOU. Thank you to everyone who prayed and fasted along side of us and to those who took care of Jeff (and me), thank you to our Heavenly Father for seeing it fit to heal my husbands kidneys and to let him continue to live an active, healthy and happy life. Thank you to the scouts and leaders, especially Bro. Neff the young men's president (and concrete man) for taking care of our yard, watching over our house and leaving two new shiny pads of concrete in our backyard that seemed to magically appear when we came home from the hospital.

*the only picture I dared to snap of my poor guy. This was our first night at the hospital and about 10pm he turned the tv on to help him fall asleep. I blinked once and found him like this upon opening my eyes.

**For those curious to know just how "off the charts" Jeff's labs were, a normal creatnine is anywhere from .2-1, usually they start dialyzing patients at about 4-5. When Jeff arrived at the hospital he was at 13.8, I still think it's crazy they didn't start him on dialysis as soon as we got there but I know it was another "small" miracle given to us because he didn't end up needing it at all. 

Scout slipped right through my feet as I went out the back door to drop off some thank you treats to the boys before heading to the hospital for day. He was dirty up to his knees? (do dogs have knees?) It was pretty hilarious, especially watching the guys try to catch him in the yard afterward so I could clean him up. It's like trying to catch a greased pig!