What's Up with Lee?

Ok! This is very overdue.

Many people have seen a Facebook post here and there or heard second hand news from the grapevine.

But we hear over and over... What's up with Lee?

Lets start from the beginning.

About 3 or so years ago Lee had a minor recreational basketball injury that turned into Cellulitis. If any of you know Lee... 1) He thinks he is invincible  2) He likes to wait til the last minute. Therefore, the infection go so bad he ended up in the ER and admitted into the hospital to try eliminate the infection. While hospitalized, they ran some routine test. This is where we found out he had some problems with his kidneys. They even did a Biopsy and found scarring on his kidneys. They were unable to really figure out the root of the issue, and thought maybe it was just due to the infection in his leg. So they discharged him once the Cellulitis was under control and told him to follow up with a kidney doctor. Did he follow up?.... See previous 1 & 2 about Lee above. We also did not have health insurance at the time, so he put it off.

Fast Forward to early last year. We now finally have health insurance, so we got Lee an appointment for a routine physical. Later the next day we get a call from doctor that informed him to go to the ER immediately because his levels were critical. He wrote it off, until several friends and family convinced him. So we headed to the ER. The minute they read his reason for coming, they immediately called him back. His blood pressure was 198/120. EEK! They were surprised he felt so fine. Once again, they ran several tests, but still didn't have a grasp on why. They discharged him and once again told him to follow up with the Kidney doctor. This time he did!!! Yay!!

He started once a month check-ups with the Kidney Doctor. We found out he was in stage 4 Kidney failure. Just short of needing dialysis. We were hoping that possibly he could skip dialysis and just get a transplant, but we were told he could not be considered for transplant until he had less than 10% kidney function.

In January we found out that his kidneys were down to 8% function. We filled out the application for transplant and turned it in. Unfortunately, Lee's blood toxicity was so high that the doctor informed him he would have to start dialysis before he could get the transplant. He decided on Peritoneal Dialysis, so that he could do it at home.

In April he had surgery to put the port access in for dialysis. He had to go through a week of training to learn how to do dialysis manually. He has to do exchanges about 4x a day, around every 4 hours or so. He has been on dialysis now for about 2 months. We have boxes and boxes of medical supplies filling our living/dining room.

Fast Forward to last week. His brother Aaron has graciously and selflessly offered to be a donor. So this past week Aaron came down from Oklahoma to undergo a week full of testing and consultations to determine if he is a good candidate to donate a kidney. So far.... SO GOOD!

It looks like they will be presenting Lee's case to the board on Friday! Prayers Please!! We have been told that if all goes as plan that Lee can hopefully have the transplant mid-July!!!!!

Thank yous are in order!
Thank you for your continued prayers. We know that several of you pray for Lee by name every day! We appreciate it more than you know.
Thank you to Aaron for his selflessness to donate a kidney to his older brother. You have no idea how much that means!
Thank you for the many friends and family that have already helped out financially and those that are still contributing. Lee's Aunt has set-up a donation through First Baptist Wellston. We have had many medical bills. Plus Lee has had to miss work because of surgery, testing, dialysis, etc. And we still are not quite sure how long he will be out of work once he has the transplant. We do know that he will probably be in the hospital for about a week, but not sure of what the recovery after that looks like yet.

Prayers please
Prayers that we can get the transplant done before August. Right now we have finally hit our deductible and out of pocket max, but that all starts over at the beginning of August.
Prayers that all will go smoothly with the transplant. That Aaron will have a quick and easy recovery. The same for Lee as well.
Prayers that his body will accept the kidney and not reject.
Prayers for patience as we are anxiously waiting for the next steps.


I know that many, many people have wanted updates and we are not always the best and keeping everyone informed. Hopefully this helps.
Any questions, just ask =)
We love you all!