Dave's Kidneys

For all interested here is a picture of Dave's kidneys.  Keep in mind they are supposed to be about the size of a fist.  It is obvious why he needs a new one.

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I think they look like baby alien pods.  Your opinions? 

Dave Healing Update

Dave is doing much better.  He came home from the hospital last Thursday night.  It was a surprise to me because I went out to a concert we had tickets too with Jenny (my Dave replacement for the night) and when I came home he was downstairs sitting on the couch.  It was super exciting to see him home even if it was 12am and I just had to go to sleep as soon as I saw him.

It still seems undecided if he actually had an infection or not but they were playing it safe by keeping him at the hospital for so long so I guess I understand that.  But currently he is up and around almost back to normal.  We even went to lunch and a movie on Saturday.  It was nice to be out doing normal things with him again.  His incision is also healing well from what I can see.  He was worried about having a gigantic scar but I think it will heal well and be hardly visible based on what its looking like now.  The only issue he seems to be having is regulating his body temperature, I'm not sure if that is a side effect of having no kidneys or not.  He is always cold and yet always sweating.  Hopefully his body will figure it out with time and we will be transplant bound before we know it!  He meets with the surgeon and I think medical staff on Thursday so maybe they will give him a time line then.  I'm going to try and get him to ask about it, but without me being there I don't know if he will remember.

Okay, that's all for now.  I'm just hoping to have this transplant as soon as possible (after the warrior dash haha) so life can be normal (or as normal as it can be).

You have to go back to go forward sometimes

Dave is in the hospital again and has been there since late Sunday evening.  On Sunday I noticed he hadn't eaten anything but a few bites of fruit all day and then only about 3 bites of his dinner, he also slept all day long.  I was concerned and made him take his temperature because I felt something was off.  His temp. was about 100.2.  I was unsure if that was high enough to take him somewhere so he called his mom and she decided he should go get looked at.  He went to the ER at UMMC where they gave him some antibiotics and said it might be the beginning of pneumonia.  The surgical team made it seem like this happens all the time and that he would be fine and could leave, but then the medical team wanted him to stay.  Because he was already told he could leave he left and went to Dialysis at Good Sam.  While there his Dr. decided he wanted him to be looked at in their hospital so Dave went to there ER after dialysis.

This is where it gets complicated, it is now Monday morning and Dave is at Good Sams ER where they don't want to admit him because he is post op from UMMC.  So they decide to transport him to UMMC.  Dave then waited till 4am this morning to be moved to UMMC that is almost 48 hours from when they said he was going to be moved.  We are hoping that the antibiotics they have given him have cleared things up and that he can go home today, but that now depends on UMMC.  Its a bunch of weird hospital procedures that are causing Dave to stay in the hospital and it kind of sucks.

Either way he is doing much better.  He is not in nearly as much pain as he was the week after the surgery and seems to be adjusting to life without kidneys just fine.  Still hoping he heals quick so we can get this transplant over with and have things get back to basically normal.

Dave Update!

Dave had his bilateral nephrectomy last Friday.  The surgery went well.  The surgeon said Dave's kidneys were HUGE and mentioned he would get a picture of them for us.  Dave is doing better then I expected with everything, the incision is long (sternum to pelvic area) and hurts a lot but he is getting better every day.  Hopefully he will get past the pain and be up and walking a lot soon so he can go home!  Now all he has to focus on is healing and getting better so we can proceed with the transplant, which will now be a piece of cake compared to this surgery for him.

Transplant Pushed Back

So I found this out last Wed. but I also went to Reno last Wed. so I have not had time to update.  The surgeon looked over Dave's MRI and decided he could not remove the kidneys and place a new one in at the same time.  We are a little unclear on the reason why and just heard this from Dave's coordinator but Dave will meet with the surgeon tomorrow and is going to ask about it.  This means Friday he will have a bilateral nephrectomy (removal of both of his kidneys).  After about 2 months when everything is healed we can then go through with the transplant.  Dave is not happy about being cut into twice but if it is the best way to keep my kidney from rejecting then that is what will have to happen.

Also, received the results of the test they did because my Mom has lupus.  It came back negative which is a good sign.  Hopefully Dave will heal up quick and we can get him a new kidney as soon as possible (taking into account I have already paid for the warrior dash and it will have to happen after that, luckily he understands that I want to run the race before the transplant even if it can happen before it).  This would put the transplant sometime in May.

I do not know how many more updates there will be in the next 2 months with nothing happening on my part, but I will try and post updates about Dave's nephrectomy healing here and there and will definitely update when a new date is selected.  So if you just follow this blog randomly, you might want to subscribe using your e-mail at the right if you are interested in future updates (you might forget about this blog in 2 months and want a reminder in the form of an e-mail).

On a side note Reno was awesome!  Glad Dave had a small vacation before surgery.