Tess's Page

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10/15/07 Tess has completed her home dialysis training and is now able to do dialysis daily at home. No more driving to and from Bellingham every other day! The home dialysis schedule is a bit different than at the dialysis center. Instead of 4 hours every other day, Tess only has to dialyze two hours 6 days a week. The more frequent and shorter time on dialysis keeps Tess's blood levels much more even resulting in her feeling much better than she has in years. The four hour dialysis schedule along with the drive time to Bellingham took up nearly 6 hours of Tess's time each trip (not to mention the gasoline costs). So the home dialysis has proved to be very beneficial. Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers, your contributions and expressions of your concern. It has been very encouraging. Your prayers for an available kidney to come up soon are still coveted. When this happens, Tess will need to be away from home and work for 6 weeks. During this time she will need to stay within minutes of University of Washington Hospital in Seattle. It will be a costly time for the family. Your continued support will be much appreciated.

9/17/07 Tess is now training for at-home dialysis. This requires her to drive to and from Bellingham 5 days a week. That is a lot of driving and a lot of gasoline. After the three week course, it will pay off though as she will be outfitted with a dialysis machine at her home and she can be home with her family while dialyzing. NO Driving! Thank you for keeping Tess and her family in your thoughts and prayers as she waits for that phone call that says it is her turn for a new kidney.

4/6/07 Tess has been involved with an immune system suppressant study. This is necessary because her immune system is a bit stronger than the average person and the immune system is what causes the body to reject a transplanted organ. The first study, as we have told you before, was not working so they have changed Tess to another study. This new study requires Tess to drive to Seattle once a week for several weeks. The first time Tess underwent this new treatment, she had a very adverse reaction. So this time she will do some pretreatment with steroids and antihistamines. These things can cause very adverse reactions for a couple of days afterwards, which happens to be days that tess works here at the Ranch, so please be understanding with her while visiting the office. Tess is scheduling these trips so that she does not miss much work, but the cost of the trip to Seattle and back each week is adding up, both monetarily and in energy for Tess. Thank you for your continued support in thoughts and prayers. Please consider purchasing a BMR calendar at the Ranch Office.

2/22/07 Tess would like to express her appreciation to all the members and their show of concern for her health and the struggle she has been going through the past year plus. Tess is on the transplant wait list as there has been no one in her circle of family or friends that are able to donate a kidney to her. It is difficult for Tess to answer questions regarding when she might be receiving a new kidney. Tess would like to share this poem with you to explain why this is such a difficult thing for her to answer. Click here to read the poem. Thank you for your continued prayer and concern for Tess and her family. Please also keep the family and friends of the person that will ultimately be giving their life for Tess' in your prayers.

1/26/07 Tess has been traveling to Seattle once a month to participate in a medical study involving the immune system. For transplant and potential transplant patients the immune system plays an intricate role in whether or not the transplanted organ is rejected by the recipients body or not. Tests show that Tess has a higher than normal immune system, which could contribute to her body rejecting a new kidney. The test she is involved in at this time focuses on reducing the immune system to a safe point for her health, while repressing it enough to reduce the odds of rejection of a donor transplanted kidney some time in the future. The study Tess has been involved in has not proven effective in reducing her immune system, so starting in the next couple of months, she will become involved in an alternate test for the same thing, to see if a different treatment will work better. Please lend your prayers and positive thoughts towards Tess for her to stay safe and healthy during this test treatment and for the results to be successful. Thanks a Bunch.

12/18/06 Tess has continued dialysis in Bellingham three times a week after work. She has experienced some difficulty with upset stomach after dialysis, as well as leg cramps. But she is handling everything with a very good positive attitude. John and Mariah are also handling the stress of things well and are being supportive for Tess. Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers for the Family.

10/21/06 - Tess has had surgery to remove her gal bladder. She will be off work for 10 days to two weeks. She should recover from this just fine and be back to herself in no time. Thanks for your Thoughts and Prayers.

Thank You to all that participated in the fundraising for Tess, the Scarberry family and all the staff are truly grateful. We would like to give a special thank you to the Riding Club, the Florio's and the Entertainment Committee (especially Vern and Judy Sawyer) for providing the fun ways of contributing to Tess's Kidney fund. Remember that Tess's treatment is ongoing and expenses are still adding up. We will continue to accept donations and would be extremely grateful if you would like to help out more in the Future.

We have BMR Calendars for sale at the rAnch Office $10 donation.
We also still have a donation jar in the Ranch office lobby.
There is an account set up at Industrial Credit Union in Deming across the Highway from Dodson’s IGA, you can donate at the local ICU branch (across from Dodson’s IGA) or send the donation directly to the bank addressed to;

Tess Scarberry Kidney Fund P.O. Box 1767, Bellingham, WA 98227

Thank you very much for your compassionate gift to this family of dedicated staff members.