Breathe, Just Breathe

I felt like someone had punched me in the gut. It was one of those stop breathing moments - two seconds until telling myself to breathe again.

I knew when I adopted Ronnie that he had a lot of medical issues. Among those issues is kidney disease. He takes a handful of medications three times a day which supplement the job that his kidneys should be doing for his body. I had even heard from his foster mother that his last visit with the nephrologist in their town went well - that Ronnie was improving and probably would continue to improve.

Yet on Wednesday, the nephrologist here in my town - a highly respected and very experienced man - said that Ronnie was holding his own, but that medicine was not going to be a lifetime solution. He said that the future held dialysis and/or a kidney transplant.

Ronnie's world and mine took on a whole new dimension with those words. We've got to continue to work hard to keep him healthy, to do everything all the doctor's tell us, to be aggressive with treatment options, and through it all and most importantly, we've got to keep positive attitudes.

But I'm putting you all on notice right now, if my beautiful boy needs a kidney transplant, I will be asking each and every one of you to consider donating.