The Adventures of Gavin

Gavin Anthony Dahms

Born: January 8th 2005

Weight: 5 pounds 11 ounces Length: 18 inches

Thank you for all the prayers...they have obviously been working because Gavin continues to get stronger every day! Gavin was diagnosed with End-Stage Renal Failure (Bilateral Hypoplastic Kidneys) on January 10th, 2005. He was born with kidneys that are about 1/4 of the size that they should be. He will need to be on peritoneal dialysis until he's big enough to have a kidney transplant--which is when he reaches 15-20 pounds.

From the "Donate Life" website:
17 people on the organ transplant waiting list will die today because not enough organs are available. One organ donor can save or improve the lives of more than 50 people. Give the gift of life; be an organ donor.









Gavin received his most precious gift, a new kidney from his hero (and ours) his dad on December 7th, 2005!!!! NO MORE DIALYSIS!!!!



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"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."
~Albert Einstein


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Journal

Saturday, October 4, 2008 3:04 PM CDT

I know it’s been way too long between entries again…I’ve started getting emails from Gavin fans!




As you can see from the slide show of the Kidney Walk, we had an amazing time. The final total for Gavin’s Groupies:

$4,028.36!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


All of that money will help the National Kidney Foundation promote organ donation awareness, provide kidney screenings to help prevent chronic kidney failure, and help the NKF to better the lives of current kidney patients! Again, we are so grateful to everyone who donated on Gavin’s behalf and/or walked with us in Mankato! It means the world to our family!

On to the medical side of Gavin—

We are still waiting for some of the lab results regarding specific meds that Gavin is on. Most everything else came back normal. We’re hoping to hear on that drug level soon as that could be playing into the sleeping issues that we mentioned a couple of entries ago. We had instructions from Dr. Nevins to keep a sleep log for 10 days to document Gavin’s night wakings, reactions, and how long it took us to get him calmed down. That was complete on Monday, so it was emailed off to the U Monday afternoon. We should be hearing from the Transplant Center (hopefully) early this week with some ideas on what we can do to get everyone in this house a full night of sleep (Halleluiah!) . At this point we aren’t sure if we’ll have to make another trip up there or not…I guess we just have to wait and see—and Lord knows we’re used to that!

Gavin has been going to preschool 2 days per week and is loving every second of it. He’s met a buddy who is just as in to “Thomas the Tank Engine” as he is. Every weekday morning Gavin starts the day by asking, “Do I get to go to school today, mom?” It makes it so much easier to put him on the bus when I know that he’s enjoying it!

The fall is always a busy time of year because I’m gone 2-3 nights per week announcing volleyball games on the radio, and Tony is gone Friday nights doing the same for football. Sometimes it feels like we’re ships passing in the night, but we always look forward to the weekends when we can relax and unwind together.

During the week, Gavin has been my big helper in the kitchen. Our latest project has been peeling and slicing apples to make apple crisp to freeze. Gavin likes to “help” by playing with the peels and cores. He’s also really good at helping me put the finished product in the freezer.

Olivia is growing like a weed and is crawling all over the place. She’s getting so big so fast. Gavin does like having her around to play with, but he isn’t too crazy about her getting into his toys—I don’t know many kids that would be excited about that.





Gavin is really looking forward to Halloween. He can’t quite grasp why it’s just too early to carve our pumpkins. Gavin is going to be Buzz Lightyear, and Olivia is dressing as Tinkerbelle.

Other than that, we have our flu shots scheduled and are trying to prepare for the cold and flu season.

We’re nice and boring, and that’s just the way we like it!

XOXO,
Tony, Jessica, Gavin, & Olivia

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Hospital Information:

COPYRIGHT 2005-2007
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TO ANTHONY & JESSICA DAHMS

University of Minnesota Children's Hospital, Fairview
420 Delaware Street S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612-273-3000

Links:

E-mail Author: Jessdahms@hotmail.com

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