I'm almost two months out from my transplant, and I really think I have never been better. There are so many little things that have changed with the transplant. My feet don't swell, my skin is so soft and clear, my finger nails grow. The best thing of all is that I have no diet restrictions. I still think twice before i eat anything, but then i remember that I have NO restrictions. Thats the best feeling. I'm chewing on green olives, at this very instant! I feel good and very confident in my new kidney.
The surgery itself was completely uneventful. I arrived at 9am, and immediately they had me change into a hospital robe and PJs. About 20 minutes after I finished changing, my father had arrived, and showed up in the waiting room, already changed out of his cloths too. We waited for what seemed to be another 15 minutes before a nurse arrived and took me to an exam room for one final exam and blood draw. From there they moved me to "holding" where they started the IV of antibiotics I would be needing for the surgery. My father apparently needed no IVs because he showed up with my mother, my husband and my little brother to wait by my bedside with me. After a while I started to itch very severely in reaction to the antibiotics, my face and chest were turning red, and the nurse had to bring me wet cloths. Eventually they stopped the IV, and by about 12:30 or so, they carted me off to the OR.
The nurses and physicians made every effort to keep me relaxed and answer any questions. I tried to be as helpful as I could with setting myself up, but before I knew it, they had the mask over my face and I was fast asleep.
I woke up in recovery to the sound of voices. I opened my eyes and I could see it was nurses standing over me, although I couldn't make out faces. My mouth was sand dry (it felt like I had been eating sand, literally. I asked in sign language if I was ok. I got an affirmative answer, but I heard the nurses mumbling to each other "I think she's speaking sign language, do you know what she's saying? I don't." I grabbed her hands to get her attention and asked if my father was ok, although I could have asked if my mother was ok, I don't REALLY speak sign language that well. She said yes, and I fell asleep again. The next thing I remember, my mother and my husband were standing over me. I'm not sure the sequence of events, but I was in so much pain, the tears were falling, but I tried not to cry. When my mother walked away, I broke down. I'm not sure what my husband was thinking, but he wiped my eyes and swabbed my mouth. It was about 8:30 when I woke up. My family hung around until about 11pm. They wanted to keep me in recovery until they ran my labs again, then they had to get my room ready. I got to my room about 3am or so. But from there I was kept awake with the nurses coming in constantly to check my vitals.
My day started at 8am when my nephrologist came in and told me I'd better get up and walk around....or else. At about 10, I did, suprisingly. It was painful, but not unbearable, and although I couldn't stand up straight and had to walk very slowly, I made my way up the hall to my fathers room, and around the hospital floor.
My recovery went uphill from there. I was able to go home that saturday. They gave me a ton of meds to take home, anti-fungal, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, prilosec, stool softener, blood pressure meds. But I never needed the blood pressure meds, my bp has stayed below 120/80. From there it was only up. I'll talk about my recovery at home in the next post.
