Karen Crumpton Lowman

Welcome to our CaringBridge site. We've created it to keep friends and family updated. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement during this time when it matters most.
Karen received what we believe was the first transplant of the "new" millennium.  Her surgery was a little after midnight on Jan 1, 2000, at Emory.  The transplant was a result of a life long adventure with Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD).  
After her transplant, she had a new lease on life and was determined to make the most of it.  She lived life with her loving, devoted husband, Doug.  Watched her children, Maranda and Wade, grow into loving, successful adults any Mom would be proud of.  And NOTHING made her prouder than when Maranda made her a Nana, not once but twice!  
After several good years, Karen suffered the first of numerous health hurdles.
She is a determined fighter....the ROCKY of PKD!  In the last several years, she has battled back from strokes, TIAs, digesting/GI issues, along with other "mundane" illnesses that are battles for PKD and transplant patients.
Late 2015, Karen's transplanted kidney began to show signs of failure.  She and her medical team have been aggressively monitoring it on a regular basis to keep on top of the failure in an attempt to not be caught of guard by a rapid decline in kidney function.  
How we ended up here:
Early May 2016, she had a sinus infection; which morphed into a couple more issues.  On May 22, she was admitted into ICU with severely elevated glucose, low blood pressure and a bacterial UTI.  Those issues just compounded the kidney failure and she fought very hard to overcome these issues.  On May 26, she was moved out of ICU into a regular room and we all thought the worst was behind us.  The next 24 hours, all progress she had made in last 4 days was lost and she began to get even worse and she was moved back into ICU May  27.
Today, May 28, she was intubated for ventilation support and also had her first session of dialysis.  This will give her body ability to focus on the issues at hand rather than the fidgeting and agitation that she had been exhibiting since moving back into ICU.  
As of this writing (5/28 at 11:54pm) she's had a better evening after the procedures were done.  She was resting and looked very relaxed and peaceful when we said good night.  We know that God is still in the Miracle Business and that HE is in this....SHE IS NOT ALONE.
We have started this Caring Bridge site so that all of the people she's touched can have a common place to post their memories, funny stories, and encouraging words for Karen and her family.  We will ready these posts to her as she rests and heals in hopes that she will hear them and know she has a multitude of friends and family in this fight with her.
Thank you for taking time to read this and please share a note to be shared with her.
We will also be updating this site on a daily basis (or more often, if needed) so please check back often and leave messages, antidotes, jokes, etc.  Anything we can read to her to let her know people have her in their thoughts and prayers.
We covet your love and prayers.
God bless!
Tressa Jacobs Street