June 15, 2011

The deed is done!

Last Tuesday my life began again with a fresh start and a new kidney!  Tommy and I went through our respective surgeries in the morning, and by late that afternoon/evening we were both in our rooms recovering.

I was actually feeling pretty good after the surgery, some pain but not a whole lot.  Tommy, on the other hand, was a different story.  I felt bad because the nurses kept telling me that he was in a lot of pain and then had nausea from some of the pain medications he was given.  Though, I was having a little fun with my nurses as we were trying to guess how many of his nurses he had hit on since being in his room on the floor.

We actually had an unofficial race…to see who could make it down to the others room first.  At about three in the morning I was awake and couldn’t sleep.  So I asked one of my nurses how mobile I was, as I was hooked up to several machines. She said I could be as mobile as much as I would like and that she would bring the machine along for the ride.  I seriously thought about taking that walk, but then had second thoughts.  Tommy ended up beating me…he made it down to my room by nine that morning.

By all accounts from the surgeon, the surgery went well with little complication, and the best part of all is that it appears to be working, not well, but great!  My creatinine (a measure of kidney function) was 4.0 before the surgery, which is equivalent to about 15% kidney function.  One day later that number had dropped to 1.4 or close to 60% function (this is within the normal range).  The following day it dropped even further to 0.9 (or better than 90% function!) and has remained in that area since.

I have a follow-up with the surgeon on Thursday and I am hoping that at that time he will take out the staples from my incision – I have 22 of them.  I think once those are out much of my soreness and tenderness in the area of the incision will soon start to go away.

If you, or someone you know is interested in organ donation, please contact: www.neod.org; www.donatelifenewengland.org, www.organdonor.gov; www.unos.org; www.donatelife.net; www.organtransplants.org; or  www.thewaitinglist.org