A History Lesson...

It has come to my attention that even some of our closest friends may not fully understand how Kenny arrived at this place of needing new lungs. Many of you have gotten to know Kenny at different stages of his life and along with it, varying degrees of health and vitality. So here's a little bit of history and hopefully answers to the why's, what's and how's.
Kenny was diagnosed with his extremely rare disease at 3 yrs of age and has been on his 50 ft. leash ever since. The illness is known as pulmonary alveolar proteinosis and is essentially a build up of fluid in the small sacks of the lung wall, creating chronic breathing problems, including shortness of breath, and frequent infections. His brother Kevin was born with the same disease only worse. (That goes beyond extremely rare and into ubsurdly rare.) Unfortunately, Kevin's disease took his life at 18 years of age. This was the catylst for Kenny to come to know Jesus as his Saviour and Lord. That was 21 years ago and the doctors are ever so surprised to see this man marry and father 4 healthy children!!
But now...
When Kenny and I married 16 years ago he was only on 2 liters of O2 and he could even take it off for a few minutes for showers or other various activities. Now his liter flow is bumped up to 8 liters 24/7!! His ability to preform otherwise simple tasks has been completely compromised. Kenny's condition has been further complicated by time. Past pnumonias and bronchitis, etc. have left scarring behind. This fibrosis has caused his lungs to lose their elasticity and he has lost lung volume. In fact, he is operating on less than 23% of his lung capacity. So getting sick is scarey. Walking from the house to the car is a marathon. Showering is enough activity for the whole day. Compounding these issues is the stress on his heart, also know as pulmonary hypertension. Kenny commonly feels a varying degree of chest and or back pain because of this. The hypertension issue is a serious one, but also fully curable by transplant.
So this is where we stand today.
In past years, transplant surgery was offered to Kenny, but it was never considered because of the odds and because his general health and quality of life were high. We aren't getting those same reports anymore. We've had doctors project some fairly crummy odds for Kenny without the transplant. And so, here we are. We thank God He doesn't pay much attention to odds the way doctors do. However, here's some of the reality we are facing:

*Without the surgery doctors don't give him a greater life expectancy than 1-3 years. They also said the last days wouldn't be pretty. This information was given to us last fall!
*The success rate of the dual lung transplant surgery is much higher now than recent years. The first year is greater than 80% and 5 year life expectancy drops down to around 50%.
* We are acutely aware of the necessity to keep Kenny healthy and strong until the call for transplant comes. It would be unimaginablely devastating for him to come this far and be passed over because of a strange fever or cold.

That said, we are still hopeful and will remain steadfast in our confidence that God is bigger than all these details. He holds us in the palm of his hand. We have our moments of weakness, but right now even some of that is healthy. There is a delicate balance to be learned in facing the gravity and reality of your circumstances without forgeting the ENORMITY of the God who stands behind you every step of the way. GLORY BE TO GOD ALONE!!