My TWO YEAR check up

A month from today, I’ll go in and get my tests for my two year check up! I can’t believe it’s been two years! And there are days when I forget I donated a kidney. Of course, I still have a scar, but I suppose I just opt to not look at it. I’m going to look at  the scar more. It’s my badge of honor. And it offsets my other badge of honor – my stretchmarks.

So, in lieu of my 2 year anniversary of do-goodery – I’m going to update this blog for more perspective and follow-up in the next few months. My goal for the blog was to put everything out there – the technical stuff, my emotions, and all the other stuff they don’t tell you.

With that said, if you’re considering donating your kidney, and you have questions that have yet to be answered, feel free to email me or post questions in the comments. I will do my best to answer back to you privately and find a way to make a post out of it.

Happy day,

Leslie

Day 13 (Two Weeksish) Post Surgery

Today, I turned another corner. I was worried I’d done too much yesterday. But when I woke up, I had none of that previously mentioned crampy feeling. Things are still tender, but easy.

Chris and I went in for my check up at the Transplant Center. I stopped at the diagnostic clinic for one last round of labs (urine and blood). Then off to the Transplant Center for my appointment.

I was weighed – I’m down 7 pounds from pre-surgery. Woohoo! Most of that is my appetite finally kicking in.

My steri-strips are starting to come off (usually in the shower) – and I’d just showered. So, by the time I got to the Med Center, I looked down and saw my incision scar had been oozing on to my shirt. When my doctor came in, she checked it out and said it was all okay. She kept referring to me as “thin”, so she’s totally my favorite. I asked her about a bump, kind of a protrusion or a lump, near my scar. She said since I was “thin” that the scar tissue from the incision will seem bumpy and odd for about a year. For now, it’s swollen still, since it’s only 2 weeks out from surgery. I figure it’ll make a good six-pack on my abs. So, we’re good.

Since I’m two weeks out, and I’m not on my meds anymore, I am cleared to drive and go back to work.

My “work” is secretary at my church. And although I can’t lift anything more than 10 pounds for 8 weeks (Think restocking paper. It happens.) I can return to work. It’s also good to mention that I’m in a Job Share.  I work 20 hours a week. So, again, secretary, job share, church. I could not be a more supportive position to have given this kidney. I’m looking forward to getting back to work. I’ll take it easy. I’ll work this Thursday and Friday. And then I’ll start up next week with my regular routine: Monday, Tuesday, and half of Wednesday.

But mostly, I’m excited I get to go pick up my kids from school today.

Days 10-13 Post Surgery

I feel a little crampy in odd places. I’m still trying to move around into different chairs, couches and my bed. Once I stand up, it takes a while to straighten out. I do it with slow caution. But once I straighten out, I’m fine.

So, I opted to venture out to my son’s football game. The weather was beautiful, and I was worried I’d wear out quickly. But I lasted the whole game, happy and pain free. I make sure to never go anywhere without a giant full water bottle. It helps. I get thirsty quick. Max’s team won his game, then we ran a few errands that had me walking all over 4 different stores. By the time we checked out of the last place, I knew I was done.

My family is very supportive with me and my silly needs to lay down or nap. And it was Sunday, so we just watched football the rest of the day.

After dinner, we headed over to Jen & Chris’ house. It was so good to see Jen. I hadn’t seen her since we were in the hospital. We traded stories, and caught up. It was nice.

Day 9 Post Surgery

Well, I might have gotten a little bit over zealous with how great I felt yesterday. I ventured out and grocery shopped walked around while Chris grocery shopped. We dropped off the kids at a church function and I saw a lot of people I know. So we did lots of hugging and I was on my feet a little longer than usual. So, I wore myself out.

Today, I’m back to being a little bit crampy and tired. I sat up in bed and promptly went back to sleep until 11 a.m.

Note to self: take it easy!

Day 8 post surgery

Today, I’m feeling great. My incisions don’t hurt at all. They are starting to itch, though.

I woke up and took no pills. Not even the stool softener. 😉  I woke up with my back a little sore, from not rolling over at night. I’m a tosser and a turner typically. And I flip from sleeping on my side to sleeping on my back. I tried to lay on my side one day, and it just felt like my guts were shifting. It felt a little crampy. So, I just sleep laying flat on my back for now.

I managed to stay awake for my coffee today. Chris and I are going to start walking a little further as I’m out of breath just going up the stairs.

I’m up for writing again. I can’t believe it’s taken me a week to get back to the computer. But up until today, I’ve just not felt like looking at my computer screen. I’ll play Candy Crush and check Facebook on my phone. But it’s not until today that I’m starting to write. It feels good. So, I’m posting all of these daily post surgeries today.

My chest is feeling less tight when I breathe in deep breaths, but I’m going to start going back to deep breath meditation. Pre-surgery, I was doing a good 20-30 minutes.  I just started today with one minute. I made sure to take slow deep breaths in, and slow out as well. It still feels tight, but loosening up quite a bit. Since I regret not working out for months prior to the surgery, I’m at least glad I’d been doing deep breath meditation. Whether you’re into meditation or not, it still might be a good idea to get those lungs going with a few deep breaths. Once you get out of surgery, you’ll of course want to take short shallow breaths. But you need to get those lungs going. So, try to take a few deep breaths even while in the hospital.

 

Day 7 post surgery

Today, I decided when I woke up to try to not take the pain meds.

When I got out of bed, I noticed immediately that the pain from the incisions was gone. Just gone. I couldn’t believe it! There’s still a sensitivity of course. When I stand up from laying or sitting down, I still feel a bit hovered over. I take it slow to straighten up.

I felt great. It’s the first day, I came downstairs and hung out with the kids while they got ready for school. Chris makes us all breakfast each morning. When they left for school, I got up and poured myself a cup of coffee and then set up camp on the couch. I get sick of sitting in one place all day. As soon as I wake up,  I want out of my bed. So, today, it was the couch. By the time Chris got back from dropping the kids off at school, I was falling asleep. I had a good hour nap. I woke up, poured my cold coffee out, and poured a new cup.

I had a friend come over to bring me lunch. So, I showered and got dressed. For the first time, I put a sports bra on, and with no pain or concern. If you’ve ever worn a sports bra, you know that putting them on can be quite the calisthenic task. So, I felt like I’d triumphed some personal goal.

Once my friend got here, I was enjoying our lunch, but found myself wearing down pretty quick. After about an hour and a half she got up to leave and said I looked pale. I was tired. So, I plopped back down on the couch. I’m still needing to rest quite a bit.

My friend picked up the kids from school, and then brought us dinner. Since I’d rested quite a bit before she got there, I was able to move around and visit pretty easily. But once she left, again, I plopped on the couch and rested. The kids seem to be pretty patient with me.

Since I wasn’t in any pain, I went to tuck them in. They were so happy that I could tuck them in, because they knew it meant I was healing. I went ahead and took my pain medicine and the ol stool softener before bed because everything just felt a little stiff and tired.

Days 5 & 6 Post Surgery

Now that I have that system in the mornings when I wake up, I haven’t felt sick at all. Chris’ parents head back home, and we’re on our own. But we’re getting meals from friends every other day. So, that’s nice.

I’m moving around quite a bit and every morning I wake up, and have turned a corner. I’m amazed at how the body heals. Getting in and out of bed doesn’t hurt at all. No pain in my incisions at all.

My left hand is still swollen from the IV. So, I’ve started icing it. The swelling has gone down.

All looks good.

Day 4 Post Surgery

So, by day 4 – I figured out my morning system. I wake up, take my meds, Chris brings me breakfast, and I sit up in bed and eat. Once the kids went to school, Chris and I took a 2-hour nap. I woke up from that still tender with the incisions. But getting in and out of bed is easier.

My appetite is coming back. So, I’m getting more food in. And eventually, putting food out. I poop. With 11-year-old kids around, we celebrate my excremental excursion. The kids are impressed.

Showers are delightful. I have a seat in my shower, but don’t use it. I love showers.

I like to move around. I get a little achey if I sit in bed all day, or on the couch. So, I sit at the table and visit with my awesome Mother-in-Law, or I move to the couch or a chair or something. It helps. The kids are enjoying having me around downstairs.

I feel pretty good, still very tender where the incisions are.

Day 3 Post Surgery

This morning I woke up, took my pain meds and stool softener. 🙂 (Okay, I’ll stop mentioning the stool softener, but just know that as long as you’re taking the pain meds, you have to take a stool softener. And I’d not pooped yet.) I came down stairs to hang out with my family. I might have gotten too eager. Soon I felt sick. So I went back upstairs and laid down.

I sent Chris to the store to get me one of those chair pillows to sit up in bed with. Adjusting regular pillows was just about impossible. The chair pillow helped a lot!

My left hand is still swollen from the practice IV guy.

Day 2 Post Surgery

On day 2, I woke up a little bummed out. Not sure why, but I hadn’t slept as well, and the pain med mix up. I managed order breakfast, got up and sat in the chair, taken a walk. By the time Chris had made it to the hospital, I was back in bed staring at my food.

Later in the morning, I started feeling a little bit better. And soon doctors and nurses started making their rounds with mentions that if I’m up for it, I could probably go home today. Chris didn’t think it was a good idea. I was ready to get the heck out of there. The staff and all the nurses and techs had been great. But I just wanted my own bed.

At lunch time, it took me a while, but I managed to eat an entire sandwich. (Chris picked off the onions for me.) I ate half of a cookie too. Historically, I’ve had a pretty good sweet tooth my entire life. But things seem way to sweet to me now. I can’t believe I just said that.

It still sucks getting in and out of bed. It just hurts to sit up and then lay back down.

I went to visit Jen on one of my walks. Walking seems pretty easy for me. Once I get up, I’m all good. When I went to sit down in her room, I sat down very slowly, and winced a little bit. It took her and her husband off guard. She is feeling much better despite her incision because she’s felt so awful for so long, that she just feels great. So, to see me in pain, caught her off guard a little bit. We visited for a while, and then I went back to my room.

The pharmacist came in and gave me pain medicine and stool softener. Then the head surgery nurse came in and gave me instructions for taking care of the incisions. Basically it is: don’t wash the incisions, just let soap run over it. Pat dry. I have steri strips on my incisions and was told to just let them fall off on their own. No baths.

My donor coordinator came to visit and gave me a kidney shaped pillow. She and the other lady I’d worked with had signed it for me. So, that was fun. The pillow is good to carry around and kind of hug your incisions with it when you have to cough or sneeze.

By 3p.m., I was given my discharge papers.

The walk through the hospital was long, but I was happy to be doing it. I was a little nervous to get in our car. We have a minivan. So, it was easy to get into because I didn’t have to sit down in to it. I adjusted the seat a little more upright than usual so I wasn’t leaning back. I buckled the seatbelt around my kidney pillow. Chris is a great driver, so that helped. I got in and out of the car with ease.

I sat on our couch for a while and visited with the kids. Then I got in bed.

Chris’ parents came in for the whole week. And that was helpful. They took care of Max and Lucy, getting them to and from their activities, laundry, and meals. One of the most important things I think you need to be a kidney donor is a support network. People want to help. Let them. And then remind them, that they contributed to donating an organ right along with you.