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

The Emory Experience

Going home!

A few days have passed since the surgery and I believe I'm at a good point to share the experience at Emory. Let me start with saying that they took very good care of me and my friends who were there with me.

Q: Why donate a kidney while you are alive when you can do it in death instead?
A: There's a much higher success rate in transplants with living donors. To get word that the kidney began functioning almost immediately in the recipient was such a blessing to hear. Plus there's no guarantee that one's organs will be useable after a fatal accident.

My buddy Matt B stayed over so he could drive me down to Emory Tuesday morning for the 5:30AM appointment. I had no clue what to expect. I'm so glad that he was there with me though. It's much easier to stay grounded when you have another person with you. At 5:30 the cattle-call started. They took a group of us back to pre-op and it rolled on very efficiently and quickly from there. Matt did a great job of keeping my anxiety levels low and my laughter high. He traded off with Cindy who did an excellent job of continuing that pattern.
Due to a technical problem with an IV in my hand, I didn't start the sedation process until I got into the OR. Yeah, not too good. But I tell ya, the tech was on his A game. I went from thinking about my last hike up in TN last weekend to waking up in what I thought was a scene from The Walking Dead. I wake up every morning at home alone, but waking up alone in a room with other people around you waking up as well was a bit much to bear. And feeling groggy with very little control of ones body didn't make for much for festive moment.

From there I was moved into another room with Cindy and Matt while we waited for a room in the transplant unit. They are such troopers! They along with everyone who visited, texted, and called made this fly by so quickly. I'm forever grateful for everyone in my life!

The time in the transplant unit was amazing to say the least. My daytime nurse, Allison, is a donor as well. She went through the process last January of 2012. Seeing her back at her job with so much dedication and passion assured me that I was gonna be alright. Allison also offered me a lot of insight and advice and encouragement. And the opportunities to share with others in the hospital as to what led me to do this was great as well.

Listening to what the doctors and nurses tell you to do pays off. I was figuring that I would be out of there on Friday, but considering that I'm typing this at home, things changed. They had it in their minds on Wednesday night to probably let me go on Thursday afternoon. There was one obstacle in my way. Lack of flatulence. Yes, what every 12 year old boy takes for granted was distending my belly and hurting like heck. And the only way to help with that was to walk around. And walk around I did. I finally found a sleeping position that helped that night with the moving of the gases. Seems like the fetal position isn't just good for curling up into after a crazy day of work, it's also good for working out flatulence. When I told one of the nurses about this she was surprised to say the least. But hey, if it worked then keep it up. And yeah, you can't fake not farting. These ladies know their stuff. Next hurdle? A good old fashioned BM, but they are letting me work on that here at home. Hopefully today will be the day that I drop the kids off at the pool.

Thursday morning I got the word that I was going to be discharged and I quickly arranged a ride to come and get me after lunch. I made a few more laps around the unit and packed up and waited. And yes, that's when time slowed down to a crawl. But isn't that usually how it is? Nurse Allison came in around 12:30 and proceeded to process me out the door! I decided to walk instead of taking a wheel chair to the car, in hindsight that might have not been the best idea, but it made it faster getting out I think.

Balloons and wonderful neighbors were at home to greet me when I arrived. The food has already begun to pour in as well. I'm going to gain so much weight in the next few weeks! Sometimes we single folk wonder if we are really loved. I have no doubt that we are. I'm truly blessed by all who are around me and even blessed by those who aren't able to visit. Just knowing that everyone is there is satisfying enough.

Now I have to relax into the chill and heal phase. I can do most things except for heavy lifting and driving for two weeks. Then I go back down for a checkup and hopefully I will be released to desk duty at work. This waiting is going to be the hard part for me I think. Yeah, there's some crazy pain in my abs, but all this great weather is killing me!


A lot has been left out in this entry because so much has happened this week, but hopefully the message in my medicated mind is coherent to everyone. Thanks to everyone who has been a part of this. In our own very special way, we have all helped to save another person's life and enrich it as well.


Q: Would you recommend living organ donation after this experience?
A: Yes! But do your research and ask lots of questions. Its not for everyone for many reasons and there are so many other ways in we have the ability to enrich the lives of others around us.

Home

It's all but over, but after coming home to some love and hugs (and balloon and peanut brittle), there does seem to be some sense of closure to all of this. I have a few more goals to reach, but if things go as well as they did in the hospital, recovery should go smoothly. Albeit lengthy with no short cuts and if you've ever hiked with me, you know I'm not big on short cuts. They can be very damaging to the environment.

Being home is great and I'm very thankful to everyone who has helped me and prayed for me through all of this. I was gonna write about the last couple of days in the hospital, but after the ride home, I'm feeling pretty worn out so that will have to wait until later. A nap is in order.

Date Set

Just got off the phone earlier with the nurse coordinator. The date has been set for April 23rd. Not the weekend date I was wanting, but at least its concrete.

So my mind is begining to race. How much fun in the sun can I squeeze into now and the 23rd? Oh yeah, there's other stuff to do as well.

Q&A

So I figured that I would tackle a few questions that have come my way since this journey began. A few comments from folks will be sprinkled in as well.


Q: Why would you want to do this?
A: This is one of the more popular questions. Oddly enough I sometimes go blank when asked this. But keeping it simple all I can honestly say that I have an overwhelming built in desire to help others. I'm grateful that during my life, there have been a myriad of people who have helped me to get where I am today. During this time, I have made sure that I have taken every opportunity to pay it forward as well. Added that the only thing that I ever desire of those that I'm able to help is that they help someone else when they are able to do so as well.

Q: Don't you know this will only leave you with one kidney?
A: I really dig the obvious. Yes, yes I do know this will leave me with one kidney. The sudden departure of Lefty will cause the orphaned one to pick up the slack.

Q: (more of a statement) You do know that they can do this when you're dead.
A: This one left me laughing. Oddly enough, I'm not listed as a donor on my drivers license. I tend to be somewhat of a control freak at times. And what happens if nothing in my body is useable by that time? Yeah, I like the idea of tipping the odds in both mine and the recipient's favor.

Q: Can you afford this?
A: Heck no! Ok, sort of. I have enough time saved up at work and I wonderful boss who is willing to work with me on this. Other coworkers are stepping up as well. And all the medical stuff is covered by the recipient's insurance. I do have coverage of my own in case anything happens down the road.

Q: How long will you be out of commission?
A: This time varies from person to person. It could be as long as 6 to 8 weeks or shorter. I'm shooting for shorter. Though I won't be able to do any strenuous activities for at least 8 weeks. Yeah, this is really going to put a damper on my outdoor activities for a while, but that doesn't mean that I can't live vicariously through others ;-)

Q: Are you crazy?
A: Depends on what day you ask me that question.

Q: Are you scared?
A: I have a crazy fear of being sedated. But I hear that Valium is made for that. So I've been watching videos on youtube about laparoscopic kidney removal. Fascinating stuff. So if you are with me when I wake up. None of the crazy stuff I may say is true. No matter how juicy it may sound.

Q: Couldn't you die from this?
A: Yes. But I could also die from crossing the street. Hwy 441 in front of city hall can be sketchy at times.

Q: Can you change your mind?
A: Yes. Up until the very last minute. From what I've been told, this has happened.

Comment: You're a better person than I am.
Reply: No I'm not.

Comment: Wow.
Reply: Yep.

Q: Who is the recipient?
A: I'm clueless. I will remain clueless. The only say I have in the matter since I'm donating to someone I don't know is whether or not that person is a child or an adult. My recipient is an adult. I will not know anything else about this person. I won't even know if their body rejected my kidney. For me this is comforting. I can go through life with this picture in my head of a person roaming through the mountains with a healthy body and able to take advantage of all that I've been blessed with. On the flip side, they will be clueless about me as well.

This doesn't cover all the questions/comments that I've heard, but if anyone has any questions, by all means ask!