My husband Hiram is not the kind of guy who likes the limelight. He says his shyness is a natural response to life in Alaska way back in the homesteading days. He remembers being pointed to on the street by well-meaning parents who would say things like, “Sally, Billy, see those two little boys? Now you know what twins look like.”
But today is his birthday, and I think the world needs to know what a blessing he’s been to me and to many others. So here’s a post from March of 2008 which tells about a wonderful gift he gave to a friend of ours. Happy birthday, Hiram!
Good News at Our House
I don’t care that it’s snowing outside when the weatherman predicted rain. I’m not wearing sackcloth and ashes, though the latest news from Iraq warrants it. I’m not even fretting about our stocks and bonds, though the latest economic news is dismal.
In spite of those things I’m dancing because we had some very good news at our house yesterday. My husband Hiram, he’s the one on the right, had an appointment with his nephrologist (translation: kidney doctor) yesterday. He and the doctor were pleased because his creatinine (translation: amount of protein in urine which measures kidney function) was down from 1.9 to 1.6.
For those of you who don’t know, almost two years ago Hiram donated a kidney to our good friend, Brian. He’s the one on the left in the picture. Hiram passed all the screening tests with flying colors, though his creatinine was high normal, at 1.3. The Mayo doctors thought that was because Hiram has lots of muscle mass, which produces lots of protein.
The transplant went well, and Brian’s creatinine dropped to 1.2. However when Hiram went for his Mayo check up, three months after the surgery, his number had risen to 1.9. And the doctors told him that the biopsy done on the donor kidney revealed that Hiram had a kidney disease. Very surprising, because people with the disease exhibit symptoms before age 40.
So Hiram had to start seeing a nephrologist in Ames. The doctor believes that Hiram had a childhood version of the disease, now dormant, that affected his kidneys slightly. He predicts that Hiram’s remaining kidney will bounce back, just a little more slowly than expected. Yesterday’s numbers support that theory, so we are happy at our house today.
We’ll see if the trend continues after Hiram’s next check up in three months when the lab tech hands him another little cup. Until then, I’m focused on the silver lining accompanying this little cloud: since Hiram is a guy, peeing in the cup is a piece of cake.
