Hi Friends, Quick update on Chelsea and to ask for your prayers for her "surrogate" donor!.
First, Chelsea is doing absolutely amazing!  She is back at college and is happy, healthy, and loving life.  She has had a great summer and had so much fun with her friends.  She had a summer job and is basically doing everything you would expect a girl her age to be doing!  She is our miracle girl.

Now to the "surrogate" donor part of my post.  We still don't know who Chelsea's real donor is but we are thankful every day for their sacrifice and hope to one day meet this wonderful family who made such a painful decision that gave Chelsea her new incredible life.

But we have been made aware of another amazing donor that we are going to "adopt" in our thoughts and prayers.  Maybe many of you heard about the 23- year old Deputy from Boone, NC that lost his young life in a domestic violence call several weeks ago.  That brave young man was William Mast Jr.  His wife delivered a healthy boy just days after his death.  We have been told that the family donated Deputy Mast's organs.

There is a scholarship fund set up for his newborn son.  Details below.  Please consider a donation to this deserving family if the Spirit moves you to do so.  But at the minimum, please say a prayer for his young family that must go on without him, and also a prayer for his lucky transplant recepient/s, who like Chelsea benefitted from someone else's tragedy and generosity.

William Hunter Mast Scholarship Fund
The William Hunter Mast Scholarship Fund, in care of Highlands Union Bank, is accepting donations for the deputy’s unborn son. Send donations to:
The William Hunter Mast Scholarship Fund
Highlands Union Bank
1013 N.C. 105
Boone, NC 28607

Love to all, Stacye

Happy Transplant Birthday Chelsea!  It is hard to believe that one year ago today you started on your transplant journey and look at where you are today!  You are healthy, happy and still a heartbreaker! 

For all of the folks following Chelsea, she continues to do amazing.  We just came back from her one year check-up and the transplant team thought she looked incredible.  She had great labs and we are waiting on her results from her biopsies to make sure the organs are doing fine.  Chelsea is working a summer job and having a lot of fun with her friends.  She returns to college in August and will be sharing her first apartment with her pal Amber.  Thanks again to everyone who has had Chelsea in their thoughts and prayers - it definitely shored us all up during her recovery.  God is so good!

Please say a prayer today for her donor family. It would be so amazing if we can meet them and thank them in person for their incredible sacrifice.

Love to all, Bryan and Stacye

Birthday!

Happy 6 month Transplant Birthday Chelsea.  You look as beautiful as ever.  Keep kicking butt and taking names.

Free for the holidays

Friends, Chelsea returned to Pittsburgh for check up and rejection scope. She passed all the checkpoints with flying colors. No signs of rejection and everyone was happy with her overall health! Her energy is back, she just looks so healthy that it is hard to believe that just four months ago she was transplanted!

We can have monthly scopes performed locally in Nov and Dec, and then back to Pittsburgh in January for another check-in.

Chelsea, Bryan, and I want to thank you all for the well wishes, prayers and support! We may post an occasional update but we think the blog has definitely served its purpose. Chelsea now has a log of her "new beginning" that she can print out and show to her children one day. And she can see how very loved that she is by everyone!

We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family.
Love Stacye and Bryan

Almost 4 months down

Hi Friends -

Sorry for lapse in communications but we have been busy returning to "real" life. Chelsea is doing great - she has had good lab reports and another clean scope.

She is taking three online classes through Appalachian and that is keeping her busy. She looks great and has been experiencing minimal issues during recovery. Bryan and I have returned back to work full time so life seems almost normal! We are still keeping a close eye on our girl but we couldnt be prouder of her!

We have another check up back in Pittsburgh in 2 weeks so we hope that we continue on this awesome trend! Chelsea has truly been blessed!!

Thanks to all for the continued prayers for her.
Stacye

Heading Home!

Friends - We had the most awesome news today. Chelsea can go home as long as we return every two weeks for clinic visits and scopes! We are still stunned; we did not expect to be at this point for at least another month. God is so good!

Chelsea's weight is up to 101 lbs; no rejection in sight, and she looks terrific. Dr. Sindhi was very happy with what he saw today!

We will head home tomorrow or Saturday depending on how quickly I can get all of our mess packed up. We have accumulated a lot of stuff in three months!

I want to say a sincere thank you to everyone for all the prayers for Chelsea. It has been a crazy ride but we couldnt have made it without all the thoughts, prayers, care packages, and well wishes.

Back In the 'Burgh

What a super visit home - both Chelsea and I were so glad to be back in our own beds! The house seemed so big compared to our little hotel room. But too quickly it was time to return back to Pittsburgh. We had a great breakfast with Stevie, April, Austin and Carlee then hit the road. What a long and rainy drive! But we made it back safe and sound.

Chelsea had scope on Tuesday; we just got results back and still no signs of rejection! We are so happy that she continues on such a positive path. Because of this, they reduced the steriods further - so that makes Chelsea very happy.

So we continue on the path to recovery! Thanks to everyone for all the notes. Special thanks to Trish, Tom, JT, Kerry and Landon for the care package they sent Chelsea! She loved it!

Jail Break

The warden gave us a "get out of jail free" card! Well at least until Labor Day Monday. Chelsea and I are so excited to be home. It was a really long drive but very worth it to be back home with Bryan and Eric.

Chelsea still has to be careful about being around a lot of people while her immune system is compromised but she was told to do "one fun thing" to report back on. I think she is going to do movie night with her friend Shelly and rent some DVDs. They will make some snack food - and there will be more snacking and talking than movie-watching but I know it will do her so much good to be around her friends again.

This visit home is really a very promising sign that she is recovering well. There has been no mention of when we can go home for good but we are just going to enjoy this long weekend!

Happy Holidays to all!
Stacye

Another Good Scope!

Hi- Great news that this week's scope also shows no signs of rejection! Thank you God! You are so awesome!

Chelsea's steriods were reduced by another 25% as a result and she can now go on a reduced scope schedule starting next week.

Nothing but good news all around. Thanks to all of our friends and family for the prayers!

Love to all, Stacye

99 Lbs!

Hi Friends-

Chelsea had a great clinic visit today. She is up to 99 pounds; which must be a pretty amazing accomplishment because everyone is so happy that she is doing this all on her own without any tube feedings. Apparently it is pretty rare that a transplant patient like Chelsea can adapt to real food so easily. And she is not only maintaining her weight but is posting weekly gains. She has another 5 lbs to gain but they are very happy with her progress so far.

Chelsea also had a completely clean scope last week - no signs of rejection at all. She will have another scope tomorrow, it would be wonderful if this one also comes back clean so we can lessen the steriods and have scopes less often! So tomorrow's scope is an important one.

Will keep you posted!

2 Month Transplant Birthday

Chelsea has her 2 month transplant birthday today and she really has come a very long way during this period. She maintained her weight this week (did not lose further), had a good biopsy last week with no signs of rejection, and continues to improve in exercise and diet every week!

We moved over the weekend to the Residence Inn and that has been a positive thing. We can cook now - which is a blessing for me since I was addicted to the cafeteria onion rings! (Chelsea is not the only one that has stepped up their eating). So I am glad we are away from the hospital for a number of reasons, although they do have breakfast buffet here every morning at the hotel so I may be trading one problem for another :).

Thank you for continuing to pray for Chelsea. God has been so wonderful and deserves all the praise for the healing that Chelsea has experienced. Please pray for the donor family today, these transplant birthdays always bring to mind their loss and we hope that they are in the midst of healing too.

First week as Outpatient

Hi Friends- Chelsea has had a pretty great first week as an outpatient. She is sleeping a little better, has been eating more, and getting more exercise. The only downside that she is currently facing is maintaining her weight. Chels is down to 95 lbs which is over a 10# weight loss. Not sure how the doctors plan to address but she is trying very hard to eat every couple of hours. We should have a plan to address next week if she continues to lose weight.

She had her first outpatient scope, still waiting on the results of the biopsy to make sure rejection is still in check. But overall, Chelsea is really doing well. I think she looks so good and her spirits are much better now that we are away from the hospital.

Looking forward to the move this weekend!