Last Saturday, our friend and musician Kat Edmonson was in town. She was participating in the public radio program, Wits. Travis, Dana and myself attended this hilarious taping. The other guest on the program was Cary Elwes. You may remember him from playing the main character, Westley, in The Princess Bride. He was also in the movies Twister, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and Saw. Both of them have the best sense of humor and did a fantastic job ad libbing with the skits. Kat, as always, sounded amazing as she sang a few of her songs. You can listen to the show by clicking on the link: Wits.

Afterwards, we were fortunate Kat had some free time. We drove her back to her hotel and spent some time enjoying her company. She is such a sweetheart. If you are interested in seeing and hearing her live, she will be performing at The Dakota Jazz Club in downtown Minneapolis this fall on October 26th.

Me, Kat, Travis, & Dana

I want to give a big congratulations to my buddy Bill. He just celebrated six years since receiving a heart from his donor, Tommy! Six years of feeling incredible. Bill suffered from congestive heart failure. Before Bill’s transplant, he had to have surgery due to his failing heart. When the surgeon went to repair his heart, a piece of it came right off in the surgeons hand.

Now he volunteers at University of Minnesota Hospital Emergency Department and spreads the word about the importance of organ, tissue, and eye donation all over the state of Minnesota. Bill and I speak frequently together about donation and transplantation. I am grateful to have Bill as a friend. Way to go Bill!Health update: I met with my ENT on Monday. I know we had discussed not even talking about sinus surgery until November but it looks like we will be scheduling surgery at the end of summer. I have some polyps in my sinuses which indicates the inflammation that is deep in the sinus is so bad it is pushing out to the surface. We need to address this so I don’t have any major issues. We tried to hold off as long as possible but it looks like it’s time to take care of this.

Tuesday, I met with the nephrologist. It turns out, I have three things going against me. I have diabetes, I have had a transplant so I take immuno suppressive medication, and because of my surgery I am also taking blood pressure medication. All of those components can cause kidney damage. One of the levels they checked should be around thirty, mine is over three hundred.

Tomorrow, I am going to have a test done that will give a very accurate reading on exactly how well my kidney’s are working. It takes around five or six hours. I will have a dye injected and then every hour they will take blood. The blood work will measure how well my kidney’s flush the dye out of my system. The good news is, my test is in Dana’s department. She won’t be my nurse during the procedure but I will have the opportunity to chat with her a little.