Pacie's transplant

Thursday morning started out with the doctors making their rounds at about 5:30 am. Every team that saw Pacie said that he looked great and that the positive results of the surgery were already evident. He had bouts of pain which were treated with morphine but other than that things were Boruch Hashem great. As time went by he seemed to be getting better and better.

Aliza who was resting on the sixth floor was having it a little harder but still managed to come down to see Pacie. This was a big deal for Pacie as he was worried about his Mommy. It was also a big deal for Aliza as she could see first hand how he was doing. It was a great meeting.


All that day I shuttled between the sixth, Aliza's floor, and third floors. I used both the elevator and the staircase. I will let you guess which direction I used for each one.

Aliza had some trouble after her visit with Pacie, all of the activity was a bit much. It was bed rest from then on. Pacie was beginning to get bored with the PICU and wanted to be in a regular room. He did not like the fact that he needed to be connected to so many monitors. Same with the tubes, he hated them from the minute he saw them. He begged to have them removed. To me this was a good sign, Pacie was being Pacie, a sure sign of recovery.

Savta came in the afternoon and Zaidy and Grandmommy came in the evening. Menachem Litinansky came by with regards from the Etta Israel staff. Chaim Tolliver and Hershey Fellig came by during the afternoon. A very special mention about Hershey he picked Dovid up from School every day and even drove out to Simcha Monica on Wed. and Thurs. to pick up Yehudaleh and take him along for the ride. He is a real great friend. Pacie loved every minute of the visits they really were great mood enhancers he always cheered up when a visitor showed up.

At about 8:30 Pacie fell asleep. Sometime after 9 pm Howard and Tzvi showed up with a big box of all kinds of food. I had everything that I could want for Shabbos, from the wine for kiddush , a great Bordeaux and a Galil Cabernet, to a Havdalah candle, I mean everything. They are truly great! May Hashem fulfill all of their wishes. They left at about 11.

As I did the night before, I spent the first half of the short night at Pacie's bedside and the second half at Aliza's bedside. Pacie had a not too bad night he slept on and off. Aliza slept the whole night. As was the case Wed. I dozed in a chair while my head rested on a pillow propped against what ever was closest.

Thank G-D, I have only good news to report.

At 5:30am Aliza arrived at the hospital and was admitted for her prep. It took about a half hour for the surgery team to come to get her. After Aliza was taken away it was time to wake Pacie up so that he could put on tephilin and daven. He woke up said modeh ani and washed negelvasser. Half way through davening they came to get him. They needed to wait about 10 minutes until he was finished. We packed up our stuff and headed down to the surgery prep. Room. As soon as the implant team got word that Aliza's kidney was ready to be removed Pacie was taken in for his surgery.


At about 12 noon we got word that the kidney removal went well and that the transplant was now proceeding. By the time that Aliza got settled into her room I got called down to meet Pacie in the recovery room. At some point I needed to leave the recovery room and go get something from the car, sure enough I hear a page for "Dr. Howard, Dr Fine, Dr. Howard". I turned to see who these great doctors were here to see and sure enough they had come all the way from Odessa to see Pacie! Howard and Tzvi were able to convince the nurses to let them attend Pacie. Their well known medicine helped Pacie get well enough to be transferred to PICU.

After getting settled in, Pacie's new kidney began to function as was hoped for. His creatinine began to drop almost immediately and as of this time his creatinine is almost at normal. If I am not mistaken his kidney function is now better than it has been since his problem was diagnosed in 2000.

At about 5 safta came and sat with Pacie and at about 7:30 the famous Drs. arrived again. Zaidy and Grandmommy visited also.

Pacie rested after everybody left and has been doing great.

Aliza has had a pretty much parallel recovery. She got out of bed today and began walking in the hallway. She hopes to visit Pacie sometime today.

I have some pictures which I will post when I get the camera's cable from home.

I adjusted the settings on the blog so that you don't need to register in order to leave a comment.

Thank you for all of your blessings and good wishes.

Pacie is in great spirits today. He woke up and went to daven at Chabad house. After he got home we started to get ready to leave. He carried his bags to the car loaded up and off we went.

He got admitted and was given a room on the 9th floor. The rooms on this floor are all private and as you can see from the picture his has an ocean view. He got settled down and started to watch the DVDs he brought. The player is a loner from Chai Lifeline who also bought him two DVDs as a gift. They are really great.

Uncle Lev and Cousin Michael will be staying with Pacie this afternoon and Chaim will be with him from dinner until I come for the night.

Aliza hasn't had any solid food since yesterdays breakfast and will start some other preperations this evening. She will be driving herself to the hospital tomorrow morning and I will meet her at the admitting office.

A little over a year ago plans were begun for the possibility that Pacie would need a Kidney transplant. At that time Aliza decided that she would be the donor. Although I had prepared myself to be the donor for Yehudah I wasn't in as good shape as Aliza to be a donor at this time so I agreed to her wish. We always prayed that Pacie's condition would stabalize and that a transplant would not be needed but alas G-D had different plans. On Chol hamoed Succos the doctors informed us that Pacie's condition had come to the point where he would need to be dialized. Here is a small video of Pacie being dialized.

That was the signal that we needed to make a date for the transplant. After consulting with our calanders and those of the doctors and surgeons November 29 was chosen.

The three weeks of dialysis have been uneventful. The surgery to implant the catheter
went well and the dialysis so far has been without a hitch. Pacie was nervous about the surgery and treatment but he overcame his fears and has been in a good mood about it.

The doctors and nurses at UCLA have been very supportive and informative. We have met with both teams, the harvest team and the implant team. We know some of the staff from our previous experiance at UCLA so we know who to address our questions and concerns to.

I will try to keep an ongoing blog of what is going on so you will be informed. In the mean time please add Aliza and Pacie to you shul Mi'sheberach list (Aliza Chana bas Yaffa-Pesach Nissim ben Aliza Chana) and say Tihilm and give tzedakah for their complete recovery.

Some links fyi:
http://www.kidney.org/atoz/atozItem.cfm?id=86
http://kidneydiseases.about.com/b/a/007067.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidney_transplant