Prologue Bradstat

This blog is being written to family and friends who chose to keep updated on Brad's journey to health.
Written by his wife, with at times, interjection from Brad, himself, either as a critique or to emphasize some content in the post.

Not gifted as a writer, you will need to make allowances for the lack of literary eloquence. Also you must know that we are believers in the Salvation Message of Jesus Christ.  This is foundational to the undercurrent you will often notice as you read along.  Also for structure, I plan to have the first section of the post to be "Just the Facts"  as I am a bottom line type person and want to know the "gist" quickly.  For the rest of you, there will be a commentary section below that will give more of an emotional bend to the update, to help those reading to really be in tune with the temperature of the day.

So, how did we get here?  Last February 2010, B, (short for Brad) was diagnosed with a rare blood condition.  He spent 5 days in the hospital and received 9 bags of blood. This was a lifesaving visit.   Always a healthy, active person, this new revelation has slowly unfolded new terms for his life.

This is the first of what I envision to be several postings of the journey B will be on as he continues to reach for the best possible solution to keeping blood in his body.  To date he has had 21 infusion sessions, receiving approximately 60 bags of blood to keep his body at half the normal level for male blood volume.  You may be asking why so much blood, and here we begin learning more about how our bodies work.   A blood cell has a longevity of 120 days and then expires.  So if you have trouble making blood and the blood you have expires every 120 days, you will need to get more blood put into your body, hence the blood transfusions.  This equates to approximately 2 bags of blood about every 2 weeks.  In all this time of getting this new blood infused into his body, B has been exceptionally healthy.  He is not ill or weak feeling, he can do all the normal things he did before his diagnosis, but he is more careful as to when he surfs and tends to keep those sessions to his "up" week rather than his "low" week.  Thank you B!  We have had a few interesting side issues from time to time, but those will come up in later posts.

So this is the introduction to this blog to help you have the background as to where and why we are heading in the direction we are.  I want to take this time to thanks all those who have been a great support to us, in prayer, advise, concern and helps.  These gifts are coveted and appreciated so much more that these simple words can convey!  Until next time,
Hopeful Believer