Starting out with a bang!

This is how the Johnson's do it!

For those of you who don't know Todd has diabetes, has had it for about 18-20 years,, hasn't always looked after himself properly because let's face it, who wants to prick themselves 3-4+ times a day with a needle?

He went to see a dr here in Nevada for a torn tendon or something about 18 months ago, and was prescribed prednazone, a steroid, to help with the swelling and achiness in his leg.  Wal-mart pharmacy, being the high class pharmacy they are, made a huge mistake on his prescription bottle, instead of writing on the bottle, 20 mg, two times a day, they wrote, 40 mg two times a day.  It was about 4 days before we caught this mistake, so yes he was doubling the amount of prednizone he was taking.

Long story short, this prednizone sped up his diabetes about 15 years. (it really didn't help that he didn't take care of himself the way he should of, but 15 YEARS?, I'm now married to a 65 yr old man! GREAT TIMES!!)

He went in for a check up with his dr in st george just after this and he confirmed that the prednazone sped up the diabetes and we needed to get his blood sugars under control and the swelling down in his legs.  He went for another check up about 6-7 months ago, and was told that he had developed an enlarged heart, and the swelling in his legs had gotten worse.  He became very diligent in testing his blood sugars 3-4 times a day, taking his insulin 4 times a day and cut out all sugars and most carbs. (We all like carbs!so this was a hard one!)  I was so proud of him, his blood sugars were under control and regular finally, but the swelling in his legs hadn't gone down and they hurt so much, he struggled to get in and out of the car and by the end of the night his legs were painfully large. At this time the dr did a blood panel and the results showed that his kidneys were at a 1.5, which is the danger line for diabetics.  So we became more diligent in his diet and his insulin. The dr was happy with his blood sugars so we knew we were doing something right.

A week and a half ago he went back to get checked out for a cough that was floating around our house, and they did another blood panel, this time his kidneys were at 1.7,, starting to get worried at this point, the dr asked him to come back again, that brings us to Thursday, Jan 17, 2013,,,,,

After another blood panel, his kidneys were at a 2.2,, time to go to the hospital,, NOW.  Which puts us at my (rhonda's) recent facebook status'.  They have done a ECG, EKG, Sonogram of his kidneys, xray of his heart.  The dr, sent in a cardio vascular specialist because his heart has enlarged even more.

We are still waiting for the results of the ECG which we should get tomorrow, Saturday morning if the dr is on time.

Here is where we stand....

Kidneys are failing rapidly,
Todd is in Heart failure.
The Kidney specialist says he can fix the heart but it will kill the kidneys, *tears and scary thoughts here*
If he looks after himself with diet, exercise, weight monitoring, and maintaining his blood sugars and blood pressure he will be able to get a kidney and a pancreas transplant!  (a broken pancreas is what causes diabetes, so this would fix that!)

For now, he is in the hospital to get the excess fluid out of his body that his kidneys are failing to help dispose of. The dr's have him on a very limited fluid intake, no\low carbs, diet.  They are, in the dr's words, trying to put a bandaid on the kidneys so they can then get that bandaid to stick and fix the heart, then remove the bandaid and replace the kidneys within two years, if they last that long.

Our goal, get him home, active, and as healthy as we can so he will be able to get the transplants.  We are waiting to see if the heart can be fixed and how/what we need to do that.

I will keep you updated as often as I can.  Sadly I had to come home tonight to be here for our boys for a few days, I will be on the phone with Todd when the dr comes in with the results of the ECG and will update shortly after that.  I am heading back to St George on Sunday to be with Todd until he can come home, which we are hoping, and the dr's say at the earliest, will be Tuesday.

Please keep him in your prayers.  Thank you all so much for all your love and support.  You have no idea how much it means to both of us to have so many wonderful friends and family members surrounding us at this time.

WELCOME 2013!!!!!!