Update on the kidney donation (3 weeks)

Well the tummy swelling is down heaps and im back to normal in that respect, though im still bothered by pain under the left ribs, and im unable to lie on my back or left side for any kind of period. Its just uncomfortable.

I went to see my Dr about this, and being the paranoid guy that he was suggested blood clots, and sent me for a slew of blood tests. I got a bit paranoid about this after he called me back and i did more blood tests and had more appointments.

It was only painful if i had been leaning forward, beathing deeply, laughing etc or doing things that compressed the internals on left hand side. So yesterdays Dr appt he sent me off to the hospital.

I spent the better part of the day in the A&E at the hospital trying to avoid people with masks over their face, coughing, sneezing, looking like they were dieing. I could see them looking at me in that ‘What are you doing here? you dont look sick!’ type of way. Dispite apparently having blood clots I actually felt fine and didn’t honestly think I had them.

I have noticed that I seem to get some sort of priority treatment since donating the kidney, and I’m unsure if this is related to it or not. Whilst in the room of 4 people recovering, if others pressed the buzzer they often got ignored or it took forever to get service. If i pressed mine i had somebody friendly there really quickly! I noticed this yesterday at the Hospital also, i had to wait for 4 hours still, but once I was seen it was pretty quick, and they were most helpful.

The Dr at the hospital says that my internals are just still swollen and trying to heal. The pain is from them chafing against each other whilst healing (much like the Ulcer in your mouth you keep biting which stops it healing). So Im now taking a bunch of Anti-inflamatories which appear to be helping that out. Will see how it goes.

My brother is doing ok with the new kidney, hes happy to be able to eat cheese, raisens, and peanut butter amoung other things. His fav thing appears to be being able to go to bed without spending an hour setting up machinery and disinfecting things. He has to get up at 6am every morning to take medication (on the dot!), then be at the hospital 8am for blood tests, then hangs about for the Drs appointments till 10-11am. He does this every single day of the week so they can monitor for rejection etc. This means he cant really work or travel anywhere, So we are heading up to Auckland this weekend to catch up with them and see how hes doing.

Hopefully we wont catch anything before doing so, he cant be around anyone with any kind of illness whilst having no immunity (anti-rejection drugs).

Oh and I entered and was short listed for a competition for a PVR thing at http://www.ben.geek.nz/win-and-the-nominees-are/ – so if you are feeling nice towards me please go vote for number 3 so i have some Freeview to watch whilst getting better 🙂