Week 6 Come on 8!

For the purpose of putting some of my thoughts down I figured that I would write an update as to how progress is being made post-op.

So I really thought that I would be running up Blood Mountain by now but that's not true. Yet. There are still a few things that are not back to normal. My eating and sleep patterns are still pretty bad. And the energy, dude! Talking about strange. I had read a blog that a gentleman wrote last year about his donation and I didn't understand the part about even a month out, he was having problems with the ebb and flow of his energy. I now understand that. Believe me, it's a struggle at times to get up and get going. And at times, even going to bed and staying there is difficult. But alas, this is part of post-op and it will pass.

One of the crazy things that really throw me off is how I can feel like I'm 100% at one moment and the next I'm down to 25%. There's no real pattern to it. But learning to be mindful of when that is going to happen really helps.

Q: Do you have any regrets yet?
A: Oh no. I don't have any regrets of going through with the donation. As a matter of fact, this has really helped me to grow in so many areas of my life. I've grown in various relationships, made new ones and actually have had a few relationships severed.

Q: What has been the hardest part during all of this?
A: There's actually a couple of hard parts. The physical hard parts is getting my digestive system back on track and my energy levels back up. Another one has been the times where my body and mind head into the dark places we call the 'blues'. I didn't believe it at first, but though my other kidney is doing a great job picking up the work of 'Lefty', my body and mind knows it's gone and they are still not happy with it. Fortunately my heart knows the score and I'm reassured that the sacrifice made has been worthwhile and beneficial to a young lady who doesn't have to be tethered to a machine in order to live.

Q: Would you do it all over again?
A: Yes.

Released

Good news! The follow up went well and I'm good to go back to my desk job next week. I still have to take it easy for several more weeks, but I'm no longer confined to my domicile. I can't begin to express how happy I am with all of this. I may not be ready for full days, but I'm looking forward to doing what I can.

My doctor shared with me that he saw the recipient and she is still doing well. So I guess that bit of info will be the last I hear about her. Won't lie, at times I wonder  if she thinks about me. Just imagine beginning connected to someone whom you will never meet. And knowing that two lives were made better because of one person's choice.

Quasi Freedom

Well, I'm back at my desk! Gonna try and work a few hours this afternoon and see how it goes.

The past week has been much better than the previous ones and for that I'm extremely thankful. I do find that I get tired quickly still. So I'm already planning on some serious couch time when I get home after my last appointment today.

Those who know me well, know that I'm aching to get back on my feet. So hopefully today will go well and hopefully my follow up appointment tomorrow will go even better!

The Recipient

I haven't written anything lately for a couple of reasons. The past few days have been pretty hard on my body and mind. I've had dreams that have caused me to hit myself in the larger of the wounds. And yes, yes it hurts! I've had pretty bizarre dreams even by my standards. The physical part has been hard as well. From freaking out while throwing up to loosing my appetite for a couple of days. And oh, it really bites when short walks wear ya out. But the more I get out, the more my stamina builds back up. One day it will be OVER 9000!

So about the recipient. I think I may have mentioned earlier that the person who got Lefty is a young adult female. The last update I got about her was while I was in the hospital. And that was that she was doing fine with the kidney. I also learned that they go through as about much if not more testing than the donors do, plus their lifestyle choices makes a difference as well in the decision process. This really reassured me as well.

So why didn't I donate the kidney to a relative or friend or sell it on the black market or even wait until I die? Well honestly I'm sort of a recovering control freak. Yes, yes I wanted a little bit of say in who got the organ. My only choices were a child recipient or adult recipient. I had no say in the sex, definite age, race, religion, sexual orientation, political ties, social status, etc of said person. What that left me was the chance to envision the person in my head the way I want to. The little part of me that judges people (its in all of us) could not be placated by going this route.This made the other part of me happy.

Yes, I could of probably held out until a family member or friend needed a kidney, but what would have given me the guarantee that it would be healthy enough when that time comes? This way, an immediate need was there (there are thousands) and it could hopefully be met with better success that a living organ donation offers.

Roller Coaster

This is some crazy stuff. One minute I feel like I'm on cloud 9 and the next minute it feels like cloud 9 is raining on me. Ok, I must say that it did rain most of Saturday and Sunday up here in NEGA, but today has been beautiful.

I'm reminded of times where I've been on roller coasters that I didn't care for too much. When that happens I usually sit back and ride it out until I get to the next ride. Man, I don't even want to imagine what the next ride is gonna be like after this one. No sir!

After lunch today I thought I'd check the mailbox and then take a very short walk. Apparently it wasn't short enough. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Did some time on the front porch with my neighbor dudes as well. Nothing like bro-time on the front porch and comparing scars.

I tell ya, I really can't wait to get back on my game. Having the small things wear me out fast can be disconcerting, but having people encouraging me along the way is reassuring.

ps. Thanks Uncle Jon

It never hurts to help

Just when I thought it would be easy to forgo a social Internet presence, I decided to blog again. I tried in the past, but Facebook got in the way.

To bring anyone who is interested up to date, after a mountain bike ride in the fall of last year, I had sort of an epiphany while sitting and overlooking Nancytown Lake. "Wow, I'm so fortunate and able to enjoy all sorts of experiences in this world. It would be great to give in a way that would help someone else enjoy life to the fullest."
Then it hit me! There was a radio ad about living organ donation and from that moment on it was pretty much set.

Much research was done on my end to educate myself on the subject and I decided that a kidney would be the most suitable way for me to go. Looking around for organizations who specialized in this field began and I settled on Emory here in Georgia.

Fast forward through more research and some prelim work on this end and my time at Emory was here. I would spend about two days undergoing tests and speaking with a wonderful team of people who would be part of the process. There's more to this than a lot of folks realize and I was truly impressed with how much they value the health of the recipient as well as the donor. What really got me was that they assigned a social worker to me, a donor advocate of sorts. This was reassuring to say the least.

The scare.
They say that during this stage of the process, donors sometimes discover that they have underlying medical issues as well. And yep, they noticed that something might be up with me. Tests found that I have an extremely low white blood cell count. Not having WebMD handy, I had to ask what causes low wbc. So after picking my jaw up off the floor what some of the causes could  be I was told that they would wait a week and I could have another test because it could fluctuate. Thankfully I have several friends in the medical field and the internet and after some digging, I realized that my diet and ethnicity plays a role in my wbc. So after the next test I was relieved to hear that I was not HIV+ and I am just one of those who just don't have a normal wbc. But what is normal about me?

On to the next phase! The search for Spock, I mean a Match.

Please forgive me for leaving out chunks of stuff, and I could kick myself for not starting this months ago, but I sort of felt that it may have not gotten this far. But oh wow, it did.

I received a call from my nurse coordinator yesterday with the news. It was surreal. They have a match! When asked when I wanted to do this I was like now! So I tried for the 19th of this month, but I have since then learned that that date isn't possible. So the next date on the list is the 26th. This within itself is a blessing. A little more time to wrap things up here at the hall of justice (City Hall) and some more quality time with family/godfamily/friends/fishing/hiking/biking is always welcomed.

Yep, that's where we stand. Stay tuned for a Q&A.

Humbleness and lessons learned

Part of me has always confused humbleness with a sort of dependency. Oh how wrong is that? Laying here on the couch for a few days have taught me that the two have nothing in common and how flawed some of my thinking was. Many friends have came to my aid this past week in so many ways. And many more continue to ask how they can help. This is very humbling. This is causing me to grow as well. To be 42 years old and to finally begin to get a hold of what it means to be humbled, well I'm humbled.

So here's a few updates. I don't mean to cause anyone any alarms, but let's just say that I'm trying to keep it real. The past few nights have been very interesting. Two nights ago I had a dream that something started jabbing me on my right side. Well, I was sleeping on my left side. This feeling caused me to jerk suddenly towards my right like I was dodging something. Yes, yes it did hurt. Let's just say that that morning I didn't get out of bed until 9:30AM I think. That left me with a whole day where I had very little to none in the area of an appetite. It's very hard to tell when one is hungry or if the pain is coming from the incision.

Last night was sketch as well. In my discharge papers I have instructions on what do if certain things happen. I still wasn't feeling well after a long day and I was feeling some slight nausea and so I thought I'd take my temp. 99.1F Well, if my temp reaches 100F I have to call Emory. Yes, yes I was freaking inside. It was just about time to take my scheduled meds and I figured I'd take the temp again after I took my meds. This brought my temp back down to 98.7F and gave me some relief. Fortunately I had some motion sickness pills from my last trip and so I took one of those as well. Oh let me back up. I wasn't doing a stellar job of keeping up with my meds at night/morning, so I set alarms to go off every 4 hours. This has helped dramatically as well! That being said, outside of the crazier than usual dreams I've been having, last night and this morning was much better!
Oh yeah, there was an angel at my door this morning with some delicious waffles and syrup.

Next goal: A healthy BM