PKD Walk

Most of you who read this blog have already received (or will receive) and email saying what I've written below. The luxury of blogs, though, is that I can include links for more information (I hate sending emails with lots of attachments).

On Sunday, September 17th, my mom, kids, and I are doing something incredible and fun. We're taking part in the PKD Foundation's Walk for the Cure in Kansas City. For those who know my family, you know that this walk is not just an event for a good cause. Its for a cause which is very personal to us. Nearly 4 years ago my grandmother passed away. Shirley Morris had PKD, polycystic kidney disease. We know that her grandfather had it. All of her children have been tested. One boy, my uncle Steve, and one girl, my mom Pam, have it as well. My cousins (Paul, Jacob, and Ben), my siblings (Aaron and Lexi) and I each have a 50% chance of having PKD. This disease is genetic, therefore unpreventable, and it has no cure. And its in my family.

PKD is as it sounds: multiple cysts growing in the kidneys. As more cysts form and the existing ones grow bigger, the kidneys increase in size and decrease in function. As the kidneys fail it sets off a chain reaction throughout the body. The speed of kidney failure varies in each patient. The symptoms can make it difficult to diagnose because there are few until the kidneys actually begin to fail. Being relatively unknown can make diagnosis difficult as well. If you want to know more than I can tell you right here....

http://www.pkdcure.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pkdabt_aboutPkd

The PKD Foundation is currently funding many research projects searching for a cure. The Walk for the Cure is a big way to help raise funds. More than that, it is a way to raise awareness. On September 16th and 17th, there will be walks all over the country as a part of this. People all over the country will be signing up and raising donations. I encourage any and all of you who might be interested to go to the PKD website and find a walk near you. Go walk! My main reason, however, for this post is to ask you to sponsor us, Pam's crew. If you can afford to do it, any amount is appreciated. No matter how big or small. Just think, a lot of people each giving a little bit is going to add up fairly quick. And its easy. Just go to this site...

http://www.pkdcure.org/site/TR?team_id=13810&pg=team&fr_id=1450

and click on "Support Pam's crew". If you just can't afford to help sponsor us, there are other ways to help. You could spread the word. Tell people about the disease. Tell them about the Foundation and the Walk. The more people know about this, the more we can do. Most importantly, though, you can pray. Pray for those who have PKD. Pray for the families and friends who love someone with PKD. And pray for good weather. ;)

Let's see what we can do, everyone!

Just Me and My Gal

As most of you can probably tell by now, I'm having a blogger day. This means I found a bunch of pictures that I took, transferred to the computer, then never put up like I planned. The boys are in WI for another week so Kyra and I decided to put some pictures up. Since its just "me and my gal" :) I decided to put up some of just my cutie.



I especially love the ones where she's fallen asleep in the middle of doing something. :-P

Some Messy Kids

I think it was strawberry shortcake ice cream.

But they

got it

EVERYWHERE!

Nate had already finished and DID NOT want his picture taken. :)

Playin' in the Rain

This is obviously not recent. We haven't had much rain and I currently only have one child here. Just more old pictures. :)

Nate's Pilates

I took these pictures a couple months ago but never posted them. Nate loves doing Pilates. He actually doesn't do too badly, either. :) You can actually see the tv a little in some of the pictures. Shows just how close he got.

Temptation

What is it about a scale that we just can't walk past? Is it masochism? Do we just love the pain of knowing that eating half a family size bag of bite size snickers and a pint and a half of ice cream wasn't just a bad dream? Or is it that eternal hopefulness? Maybe the walk to the end of the block did really burn some calories? Whatever it is we just can't seem to do it. If there is a scale there, we must weigh ourselves. People just can't seem to help it! Part of my job as a med tech often includes regular checkup things like blood pressure and pulse. Today it included getting the weights on all the guys on that side. Trying to be efficient, I placed the scale just outside the med room so that I could weigh each guy as he came up to get his meds. The med room happens to be next to a hallway that many staff go through. Without fail, every staff who walked by the med room took the time to weigh themselves. Usually trying to hide the numbers so that no one else could save the data in their memory banks. Person after person I watched walk toward the med room, catch the small white object out of the corner of their eye, and gravitate toward it like a moth to a flame. Some of them didn't really look concerned with their weight. They just wanted to know. Others would step on, then with a look of dejection, step off again stating that unfortunately the scale was probably right. So this set me to wondering. What is it about the scale. The majority of us don't really want to know what we weigh because chances are it isn't what we want it to be. Whether we need to be on a diet and don't want the kind reminder of why, or we are on a diet and know that we haven't quite reached our goal. We just don't want to know. Yet we can't help it.
By the end of the morning I had weighed all of my guys and most of the staff (not all of them had ventured down the hallway) and went to put the scale away. I am happy to say that I avoided temptation today. I weigh what I weigh. Whatever that is. :)