Update: 10/21/2016

One year ago... I will never forget this moment... Brodie sedated and responding to my voice... This was the first time I was able to see him after our surgeries... That fight through the medicine to see me, talk to me... That was a sign for me... We WERE making it. Our little guy was going to fight through this - he truly was a warrior. #BGVT #bethegooddolife 
#DOnateLIFE #brodiesgoodvibetribe #TIGUEtough #sliverofliver#biliaryatresiawarrior #thegoodstuff #give2live

Update: 10/20/2016

Calling all Brodie's Good Vibe Tribe check it out our website is live! It looks okay now but will look AMAZING in about 6 months as we compile stories of Transplant - Donor & Recipients, BA - Kasai and Medical Professionals who SAVE us every day. http://www.bgvt.org

Questions for you: Do you know someone who has gone through a transplant and will share their story? Do you know someone who has been a LIVE Donor? Do you know a family that honored a loved ones wishes to be a Donor? Do you have a BA Warrior? Do you have a medical professional you would love to get recognized?

Help us build and be an amazing, inspiring resource!

Update: 10/19/2016

So. We made it. One year. One year. Happy New Liver Birthday Brodie!!!!!!

I am a little overwhelmed, emotional and just absolutely proud of my family, my warrior and my liver for somehow making this year happen.

I am so grateful of the support, amazing love and continuous understanding of the chaotic and crazy life we current live.

I have never been happier. I have never had the immense amount of gratitude in my heart and soul.

I hugged hard. I kissed hard. I cried hard. I loved hard. I laughed hard (this may be hard for some of you to believe). Today and the past year more than I ever have.

Love your people. Find your happiness. Love your life. It is too short not to. Be good to others. Do Life.

#BGVT #bethegooddolife 
#DOnateLIFE #brodiesgoodvibetribe #TIGUEtough #sliverofliver#biliaryatresiawarrior #thegoodstuff #give2live

Update: 10/14/2016

Update: 10/14/2016 As the days tick by closer and closer to our big one year anniversary I just cannot believe it. I mean the first two years of life of a little child are amazing… let alone when they get a second chance at life!

How is Brodie? As stubborn as a donkey, a bull in a china shop, funnier than most 17 month olds, a major flirt and only when he feels like it a total lover. He is awesome. Except if you are Harper, his new favorite things are traumatizing his older sister, pulling her hair, hitting her (cackling laughing thinking it is hilarious), interested in everything that she is doing. Basically on a mission to become or ruin his older sister’s life.

How is Harper? She is as spunky as ever, I feel like she is 14 when I talk to her sometimes and then quickly with the innocence of a child thought or question we fly back to 4 year old mode. She loves going to school and is quickly becoming her own little person. She loves her brother and is begging for a “new baby” they are just so cute and cuddly Mama – Brodie isn’t cuddly anymore. HA! I am having a difficult time convincing her that ALL babies grow out of the cuddly mode.

Brodie’s health is doing well, very well – his liver functionality is 100% spot on. Exactly where it should be AST & ALT levels are within range, blood counts are normal, H&H is on point and then… there is our arch nemesis – the portal vein with the blood clot…

We have been doing regular Ultrasound appointments to check on Brodie’s flow into his portal vein (this is where he had his blood clot and received his stents) everything is measured, evaluated and assessed – sizes, flow, fluidity, etc. Every time things have looked good – this last time there was some concern about the Portal vein area where Brodie’s stents are.

As you all know Brodie is off of his blood thinners (the shots of Lovenox) and is growing so things are changing and as of our most recent ultrasound our team was not 100% happy with some of the measurements of flow into the portal vein.

The only way to get a better assessment of this is by a CT Scan to take better pictures that will show everything much more clearly and accurately. CT Scans are no big deal to us big people, who understand how to lay and stay still and not move, but to littles who hate to be pinned down, told not to move, restrained and fight every single moment there is no way they can work with you.

So alas, sigh they must be put under in order to get the imaging necessary. You all are probably thinking – well in the grand scheme of things – this is no big deal. And there is one side of me says yes, you are right, this is no big deal…

but then there is the other side of me that has to watch my baby once again fight scream and cry for an IV to be put in, rock him as he cries and screams and is put to sleep, once again be wheeled off to undergo another procedure..

And as our baby is in a room alone with the best medical professionals atCleveland Clinic Children's, once again we will live in the parent purgatory of uncertainty while we await the results that may in fact determine that we need to start some other form of treatment that this little warrior just does not stinking deserve or it could tell us that everything is good.

Just another game of cat and mouse.

So until 10/26 when we have our CT Scan I am putting on my rose colored glasses.

I am rocking out with the American Liver Foundation- Heartland Division as their LIVEr CHAMPION this Monday at their amazing event – Flavors NEO 2016 10/17!!!!!!!!!

We are celebrating the heck out of Brodie’s New Liver Birthday 10/19/2016 which is coming so SOON EEK!!!

The best little group is planning the most fun BARN BASH 10/22 – to HELP OTHERS and so we can celebrate life as a tribe and relentlessly pray for our little guy and all of the other little warriors that are fighting their fight every day.

I have told you all about my little obsession with Time Hop and a quotes bounced at me this week that I had saved for myself last year…

“What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.”

I am optimistic and excited for our future, in our life we know that there are never guarantees and always will be uncertainty.

There is a quote that I feel like describes my every day battle with mindset: “Ego says, Once everything falls into place, I’ll feel peace. Spirit says, Find your peace, and then everything will fall into place.” – Marianne Williamson

Now I just have to convince my overplanner, A-driver personality to let spirit lead and ego follow, I let go of a little liver, I should be able to let go of the control stick!

Hope to see you all at the BARN BASH if not send some GOOD VIBES to Brodie on his one year celebration. Gratitude and Liver Love to you all!

Update: 09/26/2016

Last year. On this day. I decided to save my sons life.

My heart was so torn, I was so confused, I didn’t want to leave my 4 year old and husband in distress. It was logic vs. emotion.

When I heard the words. You. Are. A. Match. My emotion won. So did Russ’. There was no question. We were going to do what it took to save our son.

Now, a year later in hindsight. I wish I could go back and let logic and reason know it was the right choice.

If you have a chance. Gift Life. Give Life. It is amazing.

Adult:Adult Living Donor

This is an amazing story about an adult to adult living donor transplant with our amazing team Cleveland Clinic and an incredible family. Cleveland Clinic in Your Community just shared this and I LOVE watching this story unfold from an adult perspective. Our team Cleveland Clinic Children's is amazing and transplant is such a great gift support Donate Life America, Lifebanc, American Liver Foundation- Heartland Division #DOnateLIFE#sliverofliver #BGVT #thegoodstuff #give2live

Update: 09/20/2016 - 11 Months POST LIVER TRANSPLANT!!!!

Update: 11 MONTHS POST LIVER TRANSPLANT!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully you all got to witness our amazing announcement on T.D. Jakes Show last week - We are taking BGVT non-profit.

After reflecting on this past year. We have recognized how much people and organizations have truly allowed us to get through this year in one piece and take a lot of duress off of us.

Whether it was from a food deliveries on our doorstep, fun gifts for the littles, sending GOOD VIBES, prayers, monetary donations, happy cards, wearing BGVT GEAR, educating us or volunteering time to spend with one of our tater tots there is NO WAY we could have gotten through without it. Period.

When you are so humbled and so amazed at the selfless generosity of those who you know and don’t know – it is nothing short of miraculous inspiration.

Those of you who have gotten to know me and have known me for awhile can probably assume that after my whirlwind life slowed down just enough for me to recognize all of the amazing things people were doing for us I started toiling with the fact of how could I, how could we, pay this forward?

How could we help others the way people have helped us? How could we lift others when they are down? What could we do to empower people to understand kindness?

Well we pulled the trigger. We are taking BGVT non-profit.

@brodie's good vibe tribe will be centered around
• Organ Donation / Living Donation Awareness
• Biliary Atresia Story Telling and Education
• Random Acts of Kindness to those in Need
• Supporting 1 - 2 families a year who has a child / adult who is going through a transplant (to start and build from there)

What a better way to have our first fundraiser than one of the most awesome celebrations of my life time – my little warrior, my amazing little guy - Brodie’s New Liver BIRTHDAY!

You are invited to Brodie’s Barn Bash!

We decided to put a family and friend-filled fun day together where we can enjoy each other, families, littles and life – OH and a new little liver that our warrior is JUST LOVING.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: "Brodie's Barn Bash" will be at Spring Mist Farms LLC in Brunswick on Saturday, October 22nd from 11AM - 2PM

It will be a family affair with petting farm, pony & hay rides and of course a major cake celebration - there will be an entry fee - more details to follow.

the proceeds will be going to a family whose little guy is fighting Biliary Atresia (same as what Brodie had) and will get transplanted this week.

We are hoping to raise enough for this amazing family to help them with fuel and parking over the next 6 – 8 weeks. We will introduce you to our amazing family soon so stand by.

We are so thrilled to be doing this and hope to do big things for this new world that we have become a part of.

It started with a boy. Who was very sick. A tribe was formed. It took a whole lotta fight, a little liver giving and A LOT of love, kindness to get us here.

And now, our mission is to give it back tenfold. Biliary Atresia Warriors, Transplant Families, we will help you rise during your fight to get you to the other side where the light is bright, the living is good and the world is a very amazing place.

Update: 09/13/2016

Update: 09/13/2016 - Last year on today. I had the most devastating, sad, upsetting day of my life. Our son was diagnosed with Biliary Atresia. He had a four-hour surgery that day and it confirmed his liver was in cirrhosis condition and that his only means for survival was a liver transplant.

There is no way to explain the feeling when you are told your child is sick, very sick. I remember initially receiving the news – we slumped immediately to the bottom of the barrel – I was so off my rocker I could barely breathe – it was a devastatingly dark moment was when I walked into the PACU and Brodie was laying in the Anesthesiologist’s arms and she was cradling our lifeless baby who looked so perfect, so angelic, so okay and they had delivered the news to us how very very ill he was.

When you are delivered a diagnosis of your child, self or someone you love and it is bad news. It is knee faltering, ground crashing, earth stopping in the moment devastation like you have never felt. I remember for five minutes I felt like the world was ending (and probably many more times after this as well).

I remember so vividly I cried, sobbed, weeped, prayed in between sobs I was trying to choke out a lullaby to comfort my infant son. The hospital walls stark white, the hospital bed unforgiving and no answers on any of the faces around me. As I scanned the faces in the room – looks of question, disappointment and hurt were painted on everyone. These looks were being were traded by my family with glances around the room and the thickening of uncertainty and overwhelming fear. Nobody knew what to say, there was nothing to say.

I could not sit here being helpless, feeling like I could not do anything, we needed to move. What could we do? What could we do? The key to our diagnosis was that it was fixable and we needed to move towards our solution. All I kept saying. We can fix this. We can fix this. We can fix this.

I didn’t think about how hard, how crazy, how much needed to happen in order for that to happen – I just thought very simply. We can fix this.

Last year at this time I was supposed to be celebrating life making it through our new addition to the family - baby #2 and going on our annual girls trip (one that we religiously go on every year destination different each time) – the destination for 2015 - New York City.

As fate would have it I had to cancel that trip and my bests forged on to NYC – but not without thinking and calling me every day and paying one of the first tributes to Brodie on none other than the Today Show. Signs in hand and cameras filming Brodie’s Good Vibe Tribe was captured.

I reached out with my first Facebook post and bore the # #brodiesgoodvibetribe letting you all know what was going on as I shared my heart had broken into a million pieces and was put back together by the strength and resilience of our little warrior.

Little did I know just how much he would teach me and us about life.

Today. One year later exactly from the surgery date to confirm diagnosis and Brodie is doing just amazing.

We just had labs and clinic this week, meeting with our team and he is awesome. Blood levels look spectacular, he is healthy, happy and living his tiny little life – LOUD ;)

Today, right now, I am writing this from a plane – on my way to Portland, Maine to celebrate our annual girls trip and celebrating life in a much different way. I get to go on a trip with my girls and this trip is all about making it through life, life challenges, life tests, just life.

We get to be with one another and laugh and cry and celebrate the fact that no matter what we are going through or what we have gone through – we are doing it together. We have made it together and “my people” have lifted me up this past year through a year that has been more packed with roller coaster highs and lows that would give Cedar Point a run for its money.

But we have made it. We have been TIGUE TOUGH to the core. You see, Tigue Tough is not just for us Tigues – but it is for the warriors of life who fight through every day, who believe in the great good and who live the battles of life.

I challenge you to reflect on how far you have come in a year. If you are going through something have hope for what is to come in a years time. Reflect on how far you have come in a years time.

If you know someone who is going through something try to be “their person” the footsteps poem always rings true to me especially when I reflect on this past year we have been lifted and carried by so many.

Live life. Fight the fight. Don't give up.
XO
TT

#DOnateLIFE #brodiesgoodvibetribe #TIGUEtough #sliverofliver#biliaryatresiawarrior #thegoodstuff #give2live #BGVT