Kidney donation – a summary

ok bit more of an update.
went into hospital tuesday, surgery weds morning. I was up and walking thursday, and home friday (to the hotel). I have pain still, in the upper stomach area where they cut.
I would have thought they would cut down lower but i have a 3″ cut from bottom of rib cage to belly button area, plus 2 holes where laproscopic stuff went in on the left side.
Im healing ok, but i dont like the nasty painkillers that make me feel woosy so im stickin to mild ones which means im in a bit of pain still – mostly at night when they run out .
To do the surgery they pumped my stomach full of air so they could manuver, this means i have lots of air in my tummy which moves about and is uncomfy atm. The worst side affect so far of the surgery is that the cut is near my actual stomach inside my tummy so swelling prevents me from eating more than a couple mouthfuls of food at a time.

So weds i ate 0 calories, thrsday i had half cup cornflakes for breaky with milk, lunch was a few pieces of fruit, dinner was couple pieces of brocoli etc.
Breakfast friday was 1 small pottle of yogurt (and even that made me so full i felt i was gonna burst), lunch was a couple slices of fruit again, dinner was half cup of soup and 1 slice of soup.
great weight loss diet, but if i have an empty stomach i feel all the wind when i down. Ive resorted to the cheese slices twice to settle the tummy pain. I guess its like a gastric balloon somewhat, only more uncomfortable.
Got to drink heaps too, which is fine.

My brother ws up and walking yesterday, he will be out of hosp on monday or tuesday. Dr said he had never seen a couple heal so quick and be up and about so much.
Ironicly my mother started a thread on a dating website forum, and somebody asked me if it was me, because they dont do that many transplants in nz. She had said that I was doing well and my brother was doing crappy. My friends who had seen me on twitter had said ‘what are you talking about they are both doing excellently!’, then i posted and agreed (from my hospital bed no less lol).
It was amusing to say the least .

oh yeah, funny things in hospital

When coming out of theatre i was stoned on drugs and tried making a joke. I said “So you got the appendix out ok?’ horrified look on the faces was most amusing, but i had to let them know ‘no you were definatly supposed to take the kidney its ok..’

Old man in opposite bed who thought he was being stoic by not taking pain relief and moaned and groaned and grunted all night long, when he wasnt doing that he was snoring so bad it sounded like he was cutting down a forest (sawing logs).
He was fairly large man and laid on bed with no blankets and feet spread wide so i got a great view up his hospital gown of all his family jewels (which i didnt want to see!). He peed all over the floor in the toilet, burped galore, and was generally as obnoxious as possible.

Luckily he was removed after 24 hours and i got the stoner lady who talked to herself all night. Her phone would ring and she would answer it ‘hello? …… hello?……hello?……hello?….” this would go on for 5 mins.

Another lady in the room was this little old lady who never told the doctors anything. So shes in pain and doesnt tell doctors, but as soon as her grown kids came in she moaned about how much pain she was in, so the docs would hear and come and give her medication, then the medication would make her sick. So i got to her her puking repeatedly, and not telling the Dr again just waiting for her kids to arrive so she could moan.
Nothing makes you feel healthy like waking up at 4:30am hearing somebody puking then demanding  to call her kids so they could come in and go mad at doctors for not reading her mind.

the other person in our room was a nice quiet little asian lady who had blood transfusions and went to the loo every 5 minutes. She was quiet and never said anything.

I presume the hospital food was ok, i was unable to eat any because of the stomach swelling. 1 banana completely filled me up. 1 pottle of yoghurt etc.
They did have a really nice fish pie, i soo wanted to eat it but could only manage 1 tablespoon of it which made me feel totally full

Kidney Donation update

Well still not sleeping, its been getting progressively worse over the last couple weeks. Stressed and worried to the max about the whole kidney donation. Everyone seems to want to visit me but ill only be in 3 nights of which ill probably be zoned out weds night anyway.
I finally got an early night to bed last night but woke at 2am and didnt get back to sleep again till about 6am for an hour.

The place the hospital rented for us is ok, but has some cheap oddities. The plug in the bathroom presses in but you have to figure out there is a button behind the tap to get the plug up, so im sitting there with the knife trying to pull the plug out to get the water out. Then i finally get that going and knocked the toothpaste lid down the drain so now we have no lid for that.

The shower this morning was also interesting. there was a bath tap and the shower and only the one lever for both. it had one of those push in things to redirect it to the shower head, only that didnt seem to work. After about 20 minutes fiddling i was about to give up when i realized that you had to push the damned thing in before you turned the tap on and the water pressure holds it in and then water comes out the shower.

Today also is my daughters birthday party, shes 13 today. So we went to the mall for breakfast.  I drank 500ml coke, then a mocha with breakfast, then more coke. Just trying to wake up more because im so darned tired.

I figured I wouldnt need as much clothes in hospital so i unpacked half my stuff and ill leave it at the hotel.  Means i have less garbage to troll through if i need things in hospital.

So 7am i go in tomorrow, and out by 10-11am, then my brother goes in. I presume ill be out of it on a morphine pump weds arvo (woot!).

This is my last post for a bit unless i do one from the iPod Touch

I’m Donating a Kidney to my brother

Those that know me, know that for the last couple of years ive been trying to donate a kidney to my older brother.

Hes been on dialysis for around 5 years now. I lost 80kg to be able to do this, and have gone through rigourous testing. I’ve had to battle a retarded genetics Dr amoung lots of other things.

So finally now 3 years later, its happening. I head up to Auckland on monday, where we will try and sort out WHO is paying for the hotel. Talk about battling govt departments. They have booked somewhere for partner and kids to stay but cant agree whos going to pay for it. So unsure if we even have a place to stay monday night.

Tuesday 19th I go into hospital. Weds 20th at 7am they take me away to surgery, 3 hours later i come back with 1 less kidney, and hopefully alive. Then they take my brother into surgery, and 3 hours later he comes back with 3 kidneys (they dont remove his other 2, just give him an extra).

Friday I should be able to checkout of hospital, and then i get to hang around for another week in Auckland being somewhat bored and healing.

Im planning on doing the Harbour Bridge walk over if Im up to it. Debating if ill take the bike, or walk it (depends on if the kids go). Walking is good for recovery from surgery so encouraged. Thats probably the option ill go for.

Anyway, I may not update my website much in the next bit of time for that reason, but im taking my ipod and cell and i’ll be on twitter at http://twitter.com/velofille