Someone to Lava

This is Courtney. She is 13 years old.

One evening in July last year, she felt a pain in her abdomen and instinctually knew something wasn’t right. Her appendix was enlarged but hadn’t burst yet. The next morning she had surgery to have it removed. While she was recovering in the hospital, a music therapist came to her room and shared a song to cheer her up.

Even then she thought, “I wonder how Auntie Doris is doing with her kidney disease.” So in the days following when she came home, she decided to share a song with me to cheer me up. After watching the Pixar short film, “Someone to Lava,”  she was inspired to pick up her ukulele and dedicate that song to me. Here she is singing Someone to Lava.

I love that this young lady knows how to pay it forward. Even in the midst of her own pain, she found someone to “lava”. Thank you, Courtney! Happy Valentine’s to you and to everyone out there! May we all learn to pay it forward as we have been blessed.

Speaking of which I’m spending my Valentine weekend with dinner out with my honey at Shakewell restaurant in Oakland. Thank you for being my biggest cheerleader and champion.  I love you with all of my being, kidneys and all.

And on the kidney front, my doctor says I should wait for UCSF to open back up rather than stay with UC Davis as my designated transplant center.  If I go to Sacramento for surgery, that’s a lot of road trips for all those followup up appointments.  We’re all hopeful that the UCSF suspension will be lifted soon.  Then we’ll be moving forward with finding a match in the kidney exchange database.

Happy Valentine’s Day!  And stay heart healthy!

If you have a second give Courtney a shoutout in the comments below.