Friday, February 19, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
I know it sounds strange, but it's true! I am on the waiting list for a kidney transplant and seeing as how I've already had two transplants, another one will make 5 kidneys total. I always was unique.
I went to my doctor yesterday and had a good visit. Nothing wrong, chemistries great, no infections, and no weight gains (thank goodness on all counts!) He asked me about getting a transplant and almost immediately said that he has several patients who have gotten kidneys from their church members. He said, "Giving a kidney to someone is like getting a Fast Pass into Heaven." I had thought about it before and figured that I wouldn't want to put anyone through the surgery. He assured me that it's all done laparascopically(sp?) now and the whole procedure keeps the donor in the hospital for about 2 days and back to work in 5. When my sister, Carol, gave me one of her kidneys, she was in over a week and off work for 5 more weeks, with a HUGE painful incision. Guess science and medicine have been hard at work since my first transplant in 1977. I wish I had the courage to ask if there are any donors out there, but I still have a problem with taking SO much from someone. That's a lot to ask.
Anyway, I'm glad the doc is happy with my progress so far. I got so sick with stupid infections in the past that not having any for the past year or so has been a pleasure. Nothing gets me down more than an emergency trip to the ER.
I always tell people that dialysis is more of an inconvenience than anything else. I have to sit there for 3 hours 15 minutes three times a week and that's really hard for squirmy MJ to handle. I go early in the AM (on time 7:30) so I can actually fall asleep for part of most of the run. I was telling my doctor yesterday that I'm thankful for what health I have, because I see other patients who are blind or missing limbs because of their health issues. Having Diabetes as well makes me aware that it could be me in the wheelchair. I think about that every time I go to get icecream. You have to be aware constantly of where your blood sugar is at.
When my last kidney failed (2+ years ago), I got taken off most of my transplant medications. No need for them any longer. The docs said that it might be difficult getting off Prednisone (nasty steroids) but they told me I could try by very slowly tapering off. Well, I did manage to wean myself off without any difficulties and actually got completely off the medication. A nice little benefit to that is I started to drop copious amounts of weight. I'd go in to weigh at dialysis and be down another 1/2 kilo or so (about a pound). This happened for several months causing me to go from 303 pounds (yikes, even seeing that number makes me shiver!) to around 230 or about a 70 pound weight loss. I'm in Heaven! UC Medical Center (where they have done my transplants in the past and will be doing my next one), asked me to drop 70 pounds before they would do the surgery. I lost the 70, but when I called them, their baseline was different than mine so the Coordinator told me that I needed to lose another 20. Not an easy task now that my body has stopped dropping weight. Guess I'll just have to knuckle down and do it.
That's all for now. Just wanted to get some thoughts down. Next time...
I went to my doctor yesterday and had a good visit. Nothing wrong, chemistries great, no infections, and no weight gains (thank goodness on all counts!) He asked me about getting a transplant and almost immediately said that he has several patients who have gotten kidneys from their church members. He said, "Giving a kidney to someone is like getting a Fast Pass into Heaven." I had thought about it before and figured that I wouldn't want to put anyone through the surgery. He assured me that it's all done laparascopically(sp?) now and the whole procedure keeps the donor in the hospital for about 2 days and back to work in 5. When my sister, Carol, gave me one of her kidneys, she was in over a week and off work for 5 more weeks, with a HUGE painful incision. Guess science and medicine have been hard at work since my first transplant in 1977. I wish I had the courage to ask if there are any donors out there, but I still have a problem with taking SO much from someone. That's a lot to ask.
Anyway, I'm glad the doc is happy with my progress so far. I got so sick with stupid infections in the past that not having any for the past year or so has been a pleasure. Nothing gets me down more than an emergency trip to the ER.
I always tell people that dialysis is more of an inconvenience than anything else. I have to sit there for 3 hours 15 minutes three times a week and that's really hard for squirmy MJ to handle. I go early in the AM (on time 7:30) so I can actually fall asleep for part of most of the run. I was telling my doctor yesterday that I'm thankful for what health I have, because I see other patients who are blind or missing limbs because of their health issues. Having Diabetes as well makes me aware that it could be me in the wheelchair. I think about that every time I go to get icecream. You have to be aware constantly of where your blood sugar is at.
When my last kidney failed (2+ years ago), I got taken off most of my transplant medications. No need for them any longer. The docs said that it might be difficult getting off Prednisone (nasty steroids) but they told me I could try by very slowly tapering off. Well, I did manage to wean myself off without any difficulties and actually got completely off the medication. A nice little benefit to that is I started to drop copious amounts of weight. I'd go in to weigh at dialysis and be down another 1/2 kilo or so (about a pound). This happened for several months causing me to go from 303 pounds (yikes, even seeing that number makes me shiver!) to around 230 or about a 70 pound weight loss. I'm in Heaven! UC Medical Center (where they have done my transplants in the past and will be doing my next one), asked me to drop 70 pounds before they would do the surgery. I lost the 70, but when I called them, their baseline was different than mine so the Coordinator told me that I needed to lose another 20. Not an easy task now that my body has stopped dropping weight. Guess I'll just have to knuckle down and do it.
That's all for now. Just wanted to get some thoughts down. Next time...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)