Edema update

Well, it looks like I am just going to have to learn to live with the edema for a while. According to the transplant nurse, it is a common side effect of a transplant. They have to re-route some blood vessels to get everything hooked up properly and the swelling is a result of that rearranging.

I chatted a bit with KR and she said she experienced the same thing right after her transplant. I'm just going to have to wait it out and learn just how much fluid my body needs to function. It's a tricky balance: too much and I get really nasty swelling and not enough and the kidney starts to hibernate a bit and doesn't work as efficiently. This is also much more hazardous during the early stages of a transplant when the new organ is getting used to its new surroundings.

we'll see how it goes over the next couple of days.

Strength levels

It's depressing to realize that I am so out of sorts that I can't even get through cleaning the kitchen without needing to sit down and take a break... Hopefully, I will get stronger over time and be able to get back to something resembling my former hale and hearty self....

Well, that was interesting...

Not quite sure what happened yesterday, but for some reason, even though I was going to the bathroom regularly, I got all sorts of edema (swelling) in my legs yesterday. The body seems to have caught up overnight (lots of trips to the loo in the dark last night) but I'm not sure why it happened in the first place. I'll have to talk to the folks at the transplant clinic about this tomorrow at my appointment.

Overall, things seem to be going well. I am able to move better than ever and the scar doesn't hurt as much in general. Now if only it weren't a hundred frickin' degrees outside!

Woohoo!!!

No dialysis tomorrow as well! It's starting to look like I may be done with dialysis for good!

My creatinine level is down to 3.1 (from a high of 11.5 last Friday) and dropping steadily. This is very good news for the general health of my new kidney.

The only downside is that I am still low on potassium. Kind of a chronic condition for me, but they are going to put me on a supplement to bring it up now. Hopefully I will react better to it than I did way back when I was first diagnosed with hypertension. They gave me the stuff and about 10 minutes later I projectile vomited. Not a lot of fun, especially not with my surgery scar still in the healing phase.

Things I never thought about...

Just to let you know, the combination of a newly functioning kidney and a long unused (i.e., somewhat smaller these days) bladder is an insanely annoying combination! It's getting better but the last few days have certainly been amusing to my friends as they watch my sudden jaunts to the loo.

Good News!

While it may not be permanent yet, today's blood tests indicate that I do not have to go to dialysis tomorrow! Yay!

More specific thanks

I also have to mentions some specific people in my thanks: Andy and Kaley Rotering. Kaley is the only person I know personally who has got it harder than I do with this transplant stuff (kidney and Pancreas) as well as having a host of other medical problems. Despite this, she has been there to give me moral support during this whole thing and did it all with a gentle smile a quite a few jokes and even offers of help to get me through this. Her husband is a co-worker of mine and we initially bonded while talking about some of the things she was going through, but I think it as developed into something deeper since then.

Thank you both for your love and support, you have made this whole thing a hell of a lot easier for me. I don't know how I will ever repay you, but rest assured, if I can do it for you I will!

Thanks to everybody

I've gotten lots of notes and phone calls from folks telling me congratulations and I can't thank you all enough. It's amazing what a quick call or note can do for someone's spirits in a situation like this! So thank you all!

Current Adventures!

As most of you might have heard, on Saturday, July 15th at about 3:30 pm eastern, I received the call I had been waiting three years to get! The folks from the Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) Transplant Center called and told me that there was a matching kidney waiting for me!

This was great news overall, but it came with a few issues. The main one is that I was standing in front of a barbecue grill in South Hadley, MA cooking for my annual (though somewhat belated) 4th of July cookout. Another issue was that the reason the cookout was delayed in the first place was that I was going to be attending a friend's wedding the next day. Kind of a bummer that I had to miss it, but I think all parties involved understood!

Anyway, after getting the call, I managed to book a flight out of Boston that evening and landed in Minneapolis at just before Midnight. I was picked up at the airport by my friend Eng and driven to HCMC for admission and my (supposedly) last dialysis session. They got me in and dialysed (sp?) by 5 AM and dumped me in a hospital bed to prep me for surgery.

I just have to pause here because I have to thank my friend Eng for all of his support during this. He stayed with me all night during that dialysis session and has come to visit me every day in the hospital and even loaned my girlfriend his car since she can not drive mine (I have a stick). This is the kind of buddy you want to have in the trenches with you when the fit hits the shan, you know what I mean?

Anyway, on Sunday, there was some running around while they got the final cross-match tests done and I finally went into surgery at around 3 pm central. Obviously I don't remember much of the next few hours. All I know is that I woke up with a huge scar on my belly and a whole lot of pain! Fortunately, I was in a hospital and they have drugs for that! They kept me nice and loaded for the next day or so and I was visited by lots of my friends from work and by the time I managed to get my cell phone charged again I had a mountain of voicemails as well. I even got flowers from my brother and sister-in-law. Sometimes the world does try to make you feel a little bit better.

I got out of the hospital on Friday, July 21st and I have been doing pretty well so far. I am still immune-suppressed, so there won't be a whole lot of going outside and visiting with people, but I would appreciate phone calls and the like. I will try to keep this updated so that people have an idea of what is going on with me, but I am going to be a somewhat irregular direct correspondent. I get tired easily these days and even with not working, I think this is going to be a bit of a bear to get through.

I'm going to bed now! Talk to you tomorrow!