Andrew L.

Send Message

Block

Add Friend

My best friend had Polycystic kidney disease and less than six weeks ago had a kidney transplant.  For those who are unfamiliar with the disease, cysts grow on the kidneys reducing the kidney function which causes the kidneys to grow and the cycle to repeat.  At the time of Dave's surgery this kidneys weighed over eight pounds a piece...concidering that a healthy kidney weights around four ounces(a quarter pound) it was like giving birth to twins.  Luckily both my brother and a friend of ours were a very close match and he was able to have a transplant....most are not so lucky and are stuck on dialysis looking for a donor for years.  He was in good hands as his doctor is renounced as one of the best in the country.

Dave's new kidney from his donor.

The new kidney inside Dave

The diseased kidneys they cut out of him....nasty.

Today Dave and I went for a mountain bike ride to feel out his progress...we love to ride and are blessed with such good trails in town.

We had a great ride and an even better time.  He was starting to get a little tired about 3.5mi in so we headed back to the truck and called it a day.  He did dammed good for being a month and a half out from a MAJOR surgery like that!!  I pushed myself and waited for him at different points so we both got a good workout in.  With his new kidney and my RNY we are as active and feel as good as we did 20 years ago...which is awesome.  It feels like we both have a new lease on life.

Here is to good times and even better friends.

As some of you know I train in Submission Grappling, what we do at the gym is mostly BJJ, Wrestling, Sambo and Judo. This past weekend we had a great opportunity to have Nicolas Gregoriades and Alex Aftandilians from the Jiu-Jitsu Brotherhood come to our small town and train!!! Below is a short bio of Nic.

http://www.bjjheroes.com/bjj-fighters/nicolas-gregoriades

It was truly a great experience and one heck of a workout. We trained for four hours on each day and I have to tell you last night at our regular training we were whooped! The last hour or so Nic and Alex would roll with all of us and coach us as we went. If nobody had ever had an opportunity to train and or roll with a world class Jiu Jitsu player or Olympic level wrestler it is a humbling experience.....this stuff looks much easier on TV. :-)

I have rolled with Alex in the past when I weighed 370lb and afterwords we rolled this weekend his praise in my improvement was very rewarding. These guys were great and their words of encouragement have really fueled me to push on and drop that last 40lb to my goal that has been frustrating me the past month!

Here are a few pictures of me rolling with Nic G....an honor for me.

We all knew how this would end!!

Tap or nap!

I can't put into words the encouragement and motivation I have now. These guys are great and for Nic to take time out of a personal vacation from England to drive to rural So. Oregon to train with us was special. We had a great conversation Saturday night at dinner which has just what I needed...even though I didn't know at the time I needed it. I am looking forward to his return, he challenged me to reach my goals and I am reinvigorated!