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

Congratulations to all my friends born before the 80s …..

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE
1930’s 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and early 70’s !

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitch hiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway or Nandos.

Even though all the shops closed at6.00pm and didn’t open on the weekends, somehow we didn’t starve to death!

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Toffees, Gobstoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren’t overweight because……

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

0AWe would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY,
no video/dvd films,
no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms……….WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
Lawsuits from these accidents.

Only girls had pierced ears!

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time…

We were given air guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays,

We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Mum didn’t have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!

RUGBY and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT

Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and bully’s always ruled the playground at school.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.

They actually sided with the law!

Our parents didn’t invent stupid names for their kids like ‘Kiora’ and ‘Blade’ and ‘Ridge’ and ‘Vanilla’

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO
DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

PS -The big type is because your eyes are not too good at your age anymore

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