September 11, 2009

Hi everyone, just want to start out with a reflection and a remembrance of all those that were lost on this day in 2001. Mark and I, as I'm sure you all will never forget it. We finally have heard from Boston in an unoffical way. The chief nephrologist is in Korea and will be back this weekend and he gives the final ok, but it looks like the 3 other possible donors are all a match per the attending nephrologist. We are so very happy, but at the same time are not getting ourselves to excited because of what happened with me, we were so close and then got the rug taken out from under us, so we are moving forward with hope. We won't know offically until next week, and then the process starts of all the tests that need to be passsed and completed before the first surgery which is on the 8th of October. This surgery is to remove her native kidneys, and the transplant if all is well will happen on the 22nd of October. We have started the compute from school every M/W/F which is a little more draining than I thought. The time we leave school is 11:30am and it brings us back to Vermont around 6:40pm, which is hard, but with that glimmer of hope ahead, hopefully this will only be for 7 weeks. Bridge is still amazing and actually growing. We started the growth hormone shots, now I know they don't work that fast but she has actuall gone from 132 centimeters to 135 which we are excited about. When she actuall gets a kidney that works, look out!!!! Just wanted to let everyone know that Megan McMahon and her posse have done amazing work for the fund raiser they are putting together on the 11th of Ocotber in Stratton Mountain Vermont. The fund raiser is called "Bridge The Gap". They have worked with Stratton Mountain and attached this event onto another event(The Northface Challenge). You have to register before October 9th in order to be able to receive T-shirt. I will have this link hopefully by Monday the 14th. The most important thing to remember is that even though this event is at Stratton, it is not connected with them. We have to have our own registration form and checks have to be made out to The National Kidney Foundation/Bridgette Eichhorn Fund. If it doesn't state this than it will go to the National Kidney Foundation general fund. I also wanted to let everyone know that if they needed lodging, Stratton has deals right now at The Inn at Stratton for $79 and $99 dollar a night. The # is 1-800-Stratton. I will give everyone updates on Monday, have a great weekend and as Bridgette would say, "Be Safe"
Megan