The Gory Details

January 24 00. Pre-op for Mom and I at the University of Washington Medical center no surprises we spend all morning there being checked out by Drs. And then have just enough time to go to lunch and get to the Puget sound Blood bank for a donor specific transfusion to sensitize me to mom' s blood. We go home to rest.

January 25 00. We spend the day resting and talking. At 3 PM I have to be at U for the Donor Specific transfusion, it ends up taking 4 plus hours but no reaction at all. The nurses seem surprised but say it is a very good sign.

January 26 00. T Day. We head out for the hospital at 4:30 AM. Mom and I have pretty much been up all night due to pre-op prep i.e., laxatives and enemas. We take anti bacterial showers, dress, and show up at the U at 5 am. They check us in, we change and put on surgical support hose and these "breathing" leg bands to keep our blood pumped into our trunks and to prevent clots. About 7:30 am they come to get Mom. This was when I started to worry. I finally fell asleep and they came to get me at about 9. In pre-op the anesthetist was setting me up with the IV when her boss came by, he said he had put my mom to sleep. I laughed and asked him if this was a GOOD thing? He said yeah she was doing good. I wake up 6 plus hours later in recovery next to Mom, my dad is sitting there and mom is doing okay. I feel tired and sore but have a PCA button which I use as much as I can. Mom and I both talk a little and drift in and out of sleep. They come to get me and I finally get in my room at 7:30 PM. I am sore and kidney is peeing up a storm for now I am glad I have a cath.

Jan 27 00. Wake up and weigh in at 27 pounds heavier than YESTERDAY! I nearly faint, it's the most I have EVER weighed in my life. I take all my paraphernalia and walk to my mom's room to make sure she is okay, much to my relief she is, by the time I get back I am maxed out and the Drs. decide I shouldn't do that again too soon. They begin a series of IV drugs for anti-rejection, some of which cause me to be stressed, others have various side effects they attempt to prevent.

Jan 28 00. Wake up with a severe shake, I cannot stop vibrating. Drs (they are the residents), I call them the Baby Docs, begin to try to figure out what is wrong. They begin thinking I am having nicotine withdrawal. I said I have only smoked like 4 this month so I doubt that! They finally figure out my parathyroid has my calcium completely whacked out. They give me IV calcium and vitamin D for 2 days.

Jan 30 00. Finally the shaking has stopped and I can think again. Spend a lot of time sleeping and drifting in and out, cath begins to irritate me. I ask to have it taken out and they say ok but if you can' t pee it goes straight back in. This turns out not to be a problem since new kidney drags me to the bathroom every hour on the hour around the clock.

Jan 31 00. Blood count is way the heck down. They decide they are going to give me two units of blood, I am okay with this now since I don't have to worry about the anti-bodies like I did before my transplant. Blood shows up about 9 PM and they have to give me a powerful diuretic with the two units. I am up all night between the bathroom visits and the IV alarm.

Feb 1 00. Feeling better, no sleep and grumpy, ready to get the heck out of the hospital but have to get my drug regimen down and my bowels are not cooperating. Drs still watching my electrolytes and my creat is coming down slowly but surely. Have set up my pill box and know what I have to do and take. Start warming them up to me going home soon. They say one more day, ARGH!! I always know when I am better because I want out. Ask the Drs. To put me on "Do Not Disturb" mode and I get a very good nights sleep.

Feb 2 00. Tell the baby docs in no uncertain terms I want to go home and they say OK!! Begin the process at 2pm and finally get out at 8pm that night. Was so happy to see my water bed and my Mom who has been home since Saturday. And sleeping with my baby helps immensely.

Feb 4 00. First lab visit and clinic. Sore from the surgery, other wise feeling pretty good. Labs are looking better, they make some small changes in meds. Lab visits continue 3 days a week and clinic twice a wee. The drive is a minimum of 45 minutes and I cannot drive so my long-suffering Dad plays chauffeur. Mom gets released from the U on2/10, she is doing wonderful. I still have to do labs 2 days a week and clinic also. YIPPEE!!! Released on 2/18 to my nephrologist, all labs are normal and feeling great. Still have very little energy but it is building up slowly. I am walking a tiny bit more each day. Biggest problem I have is the hangover of PD fluid left in my abdomen, it presses on my incision and all we can do is wait it out because they took the PD cath out to put the kidney in.

2/23/00. First visit with my nephrologist. He is very happy with the results. I will see him once a week and do labs in his office twice a week for the next three w eeks. Still fine tuning drugs and I think he wants to get an idea on his own how things are going before he makes any changes. Creat is up to 2.5 due to the diuretic and they are watching the other drug levels. He releases me to drive finally. That will help me a lot since so many people have had to help out there. Fred's work has just been awesome about giving him time off for the Dr. appointments. Thank God and of course my dad was there from day 1. Transplant coordinator called today and we agreed we don't plan to see one another for a year! I can hope! At this point only rejection, abdominal surgrry or bladder problems would send me back to the U. None of which I am really interested in experiencing. I got my van back yesterday and in reading over the break in procedures something came through. I am such a 0-60 person I think I am going to take it easy and do a little break in before I hit and maintain the 60-70 miles an hour I have always spent my life at. Maybe it is time to take it just a little easy and see if my body can come back slowly and surely. I have had three MAJOR surgeries in 6 months. They say it takes the human body like 2 years to recover from one major surgery. So it might be time to heal and stop and smell the roses, do some things for me and the kids and spend some time. I want JJ and I to work one on one on his reading this spring and summer. I can't see holding him back, but he does need some help and I think Mom can do it. In addition, this has been a physically and emotionally challenging hell of a year. Today is 51 weeks since the day I met Dr. MacNamara, and when I first met him I told him in no uncertain terms I was not sick! He teased me about that today, I told him I wasn' t sick but I feel a lot better now!