Come on 2010

Looking back over the past year, there have been so many wonderful things that have happened in my life, but with the good comes the bad. The first half of the year, I finally got a job that I loved. How many people can say that, but I did. Then just 3 months into the job I get sick again. The one thing I didn't want to ever happen again. But I have come to terms with it. I mean why always be down, that just brings everyone down with you and what fun is that. I will overcome this, if it is with a transplant or by the grace of God he heals me.

Josh and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary, the twins turned 4 (tear). Two of my best friends had new babies, Myleigh Lou and Peyton Joe! So all in all I believe 2009 hasn't been so bad. I am looking forward to 2010 with a new outlook, praying everyday for more patience and that God will continue to put me on the path in which HE want me to be on.

Merry Christmas

We started last night with the first stop at Josh's mom and dad's then on to his grandma's for the rest of the family. Needless to say we all had a wonderful spread of gifts. But I got the best gift from Josh, he had taken the kids and had their picture made without me knowing and had them made into 3 foot long photo boards. There is a big picture in the middle and four 4x6 around it. Each of them have a different saying. I cried, there is nothing more important to me then my kids. I can't wait for Emma to get here and see hers. We got up this morning and the kids were very pleased with what Santa brought. Then we went to meme's and got even more goodies. I just hope everyone remembers the real reason it's not the gifts, but the who was born on this day and how he changed our lives. Jesus is the reason for the season.
Emma gets here tomorrow, and she will open all of her Christmas from us and that is always fun. She got a cell phone for Christmas, and sent me a text message earlier, needless to say I saved it, I love that little girl like she is my own. That is why I am so excited Josh made sure to get her pictures done the same as the twins.
Well I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Just another day

I had dialysis today and once a month they take lab work. Well I got this months results back and they were all good. YAY Praise God. For those of you who don't know a lot about dialysis, I have to limit my fluid intake, I can only have 40 ounces of fluid a day and that includes foods like pudding and such. Then when I get to dialysis I have to weigh in and they take off the fluid that I gained. Well today when I weighed in, I didn't gain anything, which means they only had to clean my blood. And that is really good. God is good and I give all the credit to him. Just wanted to share the good news, I am really pleased!
Keep praying for healing and strength.
PS When we were in Chicago last time Roch (josh's mom) got tested to see if we were a match for the transplant and we have the same blood type which is the first step. I have a couple cousins that are getting tested along with my mom and dad. So they will go with the best match.

Chicago and why

Well after sitting on dialysis for over 5 months and the doctors down here doing nothing else I decided to seek a second opinion. After we went to the NICU reunion in September and spoke with Dr. Lemons the head doctor over the NICU he told us he would look into some doctors for us. After just a few short days he had us a name of a doctor, Dr. Ramsey-Goldman at Northwestern in Chicago. I got the referral that I needed and made an appointment in late October. This doctor was a lupus doctor. Th first thing she did was take me off of my chemo treatments. We figured that I had about 30 and that they can after so many do more harm then good. She also put me on a new medicine that was going to keep my lupus under control. She also refered me to a new kidney doctor up there that she worked close with. The most important thing she said was she could and would keep my lupus under control without the chemo treatments and that is what she had done. I go back and see her in January.
I went a few weeks later back up there to see the new kidney doctor. They ordered an ultrasound to see what my kidney's look like. The results weren't good. They said my kidney's were mainly scar tissue and wouldn't regain enough function to be able to live off dialysis.
They then refered me to the transplant unit.
We went back a few weeks ago to start the process of transplant. I had to have a bunch of bloodwork and a couple of heart tests, echo stress test, ekg, and few other things. All of these tests have to come back ok before we could even be put on the list.
I did all of these tests last friday so please pray for good results.
I have got the echo results and they were good.
Pray for healing and strength!
more later...Ashley

back ground

Well for those of you who don't know me, my name is Ashley (Rister) Griffin. I grew up in Harrisburg and graduated from HHS in 2001. In September of that year I meet the love of my life in a parking lot of KFC. His name is Josh Griffin and he was from Eldorado, we dated over 3 years before we got married in August of 2004. We lived in a small house in Eldorado just big enough for ourselves and his daugher Emma when she came to stay with us. Emma lives in Bourbounnais with her mom and we get her every chance we get. She is currently 9 years old(2-17-00). We lived a simple life for awhile, until October 19, 2005. That is when our wonderful twins were born. Alex Cole and Olivia Erin came 12 weeks early due to my kidney's starting to fail. They were both born weighing only 2 pounds 10 ounces and that is our whole lives changed.
Alex was lifeflighted the next day to Riley's Children's Hospital in Indianpolis, In. He needed a special vent to help him breath. It was very touch and go with him for the first few days. One the 3rd day we were told he had a grade 3 brain bleed and would need a vp shunt placed to help drain the fluid. At a week old he had a hole in his small intestines repaired. He was on oxygen and a feeding tube due to his prematurity. But Alex was a fighter from day one and still is to this day.
Olivia was just what they call a normal premie, she was small and needed to be on a vent with a feeding tube. She stayed Evansville where I had them until a doctor at Riley thought it would help Alex if she was up there. Which helped us out because we were driving back and forth between the 2 all while Josh was still trying to work. Josh's mom stayed with me the whole time we were in Indy so I didn't have to be alone.
After many ups and down with both of the babies to say the least at the beginning of January 2006 they let us take Olivia home which at that time was the Ronald McDonald House. Alex came home closer to the end of February.
We brought both of the babies home on oxygen and feeding tubes. Don't get me wrong it was rough, but it was all worth it.
After the babies were home for about 3 months I became sick. I had been put in the hospital to have my gallbladder removed and while in there my kidney's stop working. After a lot of tests, the discovered I have lupus. Lupus is a blood disorder that can effect any organ, mine picked my kidneys. I was put on Cytoxin treatments, it is a form of chemo to help put my lupus in remission. I was also put on dialysis for about 5 to 6 months in which that time we had to live with josh's mom and dad, because I couldn't handle to babies while he was at work. After the 5 months my kidney's started working again and I was taken off of dialysis. I continued to do the chemo treatments for the next three years (up to Feb. of this year). I had stopped the treatments in Feb. and was doing ok for a couple months then in May I started getting sick. I ended up going to the kidney doctor and my lupus had flared up again and my kidney's were starting to shut down again. They put me back on diaylsis where I still am today.
I wanted to start this blog, because I have just started a new journey with starting the trip to get a kidney transplant. This is where I can keep everyone posted.
On a happy note the twins are 4 now and doing wonderful. They both are in school (pre-k) and doing wonderful. The doctors are amazed on Alex's progress, but we always knew he was something special and Olivia is a sassy little missy.
I'll start tomorrow with information from our first couple of trips to chicago with the specialist that are helping me with the transplant.
Please pray for total healing and strength!
thanks for reading,
love ash