Good News!

Further to the post I did yesterday on the blog, we got a call from Tim at lunchtime today. He'd heard the result of his latest heart biopsy and it was a zero which is the best possible result on a scale of 0-4. That means there are no signs of heart rejection in his system now.
We continue to give thanks to the Lord for this and for the fact Tim is feeling more and more like his former self. We hope and pray now that he can get back to living his life, enjoy being a father and husband and be back at work in the near future, though we have no definite news of the latter.
This picture of Tim and Charlotte was taken at the aquarium in Stanley Park in Vancouver when Tim was over at St. Paul's Hospital for treatment a few weeks ago. 

Update On Tim

This past Sunday, Tim and Andi traveled to Vancouver to stay overnight. They had to be at St. Paul's hospital for Tim's heart biopsy at 0745 on Monday morning. The journey over went well and they arrived intact at Roland and Leisau's home in N. Vancouver.
Tim told us that all went well with the biopsy procedure and we now await the result of the biopsy which we hope to get in a day or so.
Tim also told mentioned the doctors are now speculating that the reason he has had this awful year of feeling ill and being unable to work is because his dosages of immuno-suppressants have been too small! We are all letting this gradually sink in. We have to get over this news, and move on for there is nothing we can do about what has happened, or the possible damage which has been done to Tim's heart.
During the time Tim and Andi were away, we (well, mostly Cynthia!) had the pleasure of caring for Charlotte. In this picture, Charlotte's about to lay a low five on Grandma!

Visit to Whistler

On Wednesday May 24th, we took Jean, Ron and Claire their grand-daughter to Whistler, B.C. which will be the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. We had a fine trip over there, for the ride to the ferry, on the ferry and to Whistler all went smoothly.
We broke the journey once at Squamish, a small coastal community where we stopped for afternoon coffee and goodies.
We arrived at our accommodation in Creekside Village at about 5PM. We had booked into The Legends, which is owned and operated by Intrawest, which in turn owns most of the property at Whistler/Blackcomb mountains. We spent that evening playing games following dinner.
The next morning Cynthia and I attended a short sales meeting at the Whistler Village, then with Jean, we toured the village itself eating lunch there too. We also had a stroll through the Chateau Whistler, the magnificent main hotel in Whistler. Claire and Ron opted to remain at the hotel, for Ron wasn't feeling too good and Claire stayed with him. Eventually we took Jean back to the hotel too, where she had a rest. Cynthia and I did a tour of a local microbrewery and enjoyed the talk and the samples which came after the tour. That evening we ate dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Whistler and then I drove the crew around the Village at night to see some of the buildings all lit up. By the time we got back from dinner, we all felt like an early night.
Next morning, Cynthia and I went for a swim in the hotel pool which was a heated outdoor one. We also enjoyed the hot tub. Around 10:45AM we left the room, checked out and were on our way back to the ferry. We stopped again in Squamish for elevensies and then headed on afterwards. We were once delayed for about 20 minutes while some blasting was done on the new highway. We arrived at the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal about 1PM hoping to catch the 3PM ferry but to no avail. Eventually we caught an extra sailing at 4:45Pm and arrived home at about 9:00 PM.
It had been a good trip as far as I was concerned, and I enjoyed myself.

Tim to St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver

On Sunday, May 14th, Mother's Day in Canada, Tim was transferred by ambulance from St. Joseph's, our local hospital, to St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver. (This was the second year in a row Tim had been in hospital for Mother's Day and Andi and Charlotte must be tired of this!)
During the previous week, Tim had been in and out of our hospital with fluid retention problems. He was admitted for the second time on Saturday night, the 13th. It was then decided to move him on Sunday to St. Paul's so that doctors in the transplant field, and familiar with his case, could check him out and treat him.
Tim and Cynthia traveled together in the ambulance and I followed them a little later by car. When we arrived, we were told to prepare for Tim being there for a week. Cynthia and I stayed in a local hotel for the first night, then with friends for the remainder of the time.
Tim was treated with intravenous steroids and a new drug called Zentrac. The latter, in the words of one of the attending physicians, was "intended to blast the low-grade rejection out of Tim's system."
Fortunately Tim suffered no side effects from this drug and we were allowed to return home to Comox on Wednesday 17th. Tim has to have a second dose of Zentrac in two weeks, but this will be administered in the Jubilee hospital in Victoria, on Vancouver Island. We hope to see him gain in health now as the days go by. Please keep us all in your prayers.