Kurt

Hello Folks, Welcome to the PBSN. I am currently going to seminary at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Massachusetts as well as work part-time as the network administrator for the Cardiology department at Children's Hospital Boston. I've been here 9 years and I take it as Divine providence more than any planning on my part. Children's is the hospital that gave me a chance to live so I find it remarkable that I'm actually working for the institution now and is one of the reasons why I have felt called to Seminary. I am currently singing in the Tanglewood Festival Chorus with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Boston, Tanglewood and Carnegie Hall.

I toured Europe with TFC the Summer of 2001 hitting London, Edinburgh, Zurich and Lubeck. A lot of fun.

I like to refer to our eventual pregnancy as the "6 and a half year pregnancy". Initially being told that I had NO sperm we floundered for a couple years and tried donor sperm and contemplated adoption until my lovely wife finally convinced me to have a testicular biopsy which, lo in behold, actually discovered sperm. It turns out that I had too much scar tissue and that's why it wasn't making it's way down. We froze the sperm and got lucky on our second ICSI cycle.

With a less then 60% chance that it would work at all and less then a 2% chance of twins, we hit the jackpot with one of each! They were born happy but not so healthy at only 28.6 weeks. They spent 3 months in the NICU at the Beth Israel Deaconess and came home happy AND healthy. No symptoms of PBS or anything else. Completely healthy.

I've had about 20 surgeries since birth. The major defining surgery I had was in 1972 by Dr. Robert Gross here at Children's. It essentially consisted of connecting the left ureter to the right ureter, attaching a small piece of intestine to the end creating an ileoloop stoma and bringing it to the surface on the right\front of my abdomen. I have been wearing a urostomy ever since that time (5 years of age). The major symptoms I was born with were: No bladder, insufficient stomach muscles (3 instead of 7), slight curvature of the spine, chronic kidney infections and the propensity for developing staghorn stones.

My parents were originally told that I would never walk, and I would only stand with the help of two walls to prop me up, I would never be able to ride a bike and that I would be mentally handicapped as well. Yet, here I am. Played sports all my life, had many girlfriends before settling down with an active sex life, I never met a girl that I was truly interested in that ever had a problem with my scars or my ostomy. I was very surprised by that at the time and it still amazes me. Those experiences taught me a lot about women in general and how understanding they are, even during the teen years. Graduated from college with a 3.5 GPA and a BS in Psych, have had two successful careers (first as an Adolescent Psych Conselor for 7 years and then in the computer industry), own a home and have a wonderful family. Not sure of my life expectancy but I'm not worrying about it. The only consequence of that had been some reckless behavior as a teen but I think I've grown out of that. I'm chalking it up as typical teenage behavior.

Toured Europe twice in High School playing soccer (played Full-Back and Goalie, no less), twice in college with a Chamber Singing group, twice for vacation and once with the TFC. I've sung in some of the most famous venues in the world with some of the greatest conductors in the world and consider myself blessed every time I step on stage.

All in all a pretty GREAT life.