Everything part 2

Thursday Continued:

I woke up to someone saying my name.  I sort of remember being wheeled to the recovery room.  Once I arrived there I was very cold and could not see.  They put something on my eyes that made everything blurry.  I mentioned both things to my nurse and he wiped off my eyes so I could see and wrapped me in blankets.  After this I was fairly coherent.  My mouth was super dry and I felt just a little nauseous so he brought me some ice chips.  Not long after was one of the hours people could come visit in the recovery area, so my Mom, and Dave's mom came by.  They were surprised and happy to see me so awake and alert.  They were also happy to know I wasn't in too much pain.  Only if I tried to move did it hurt.  

This was me when they first came to visit.  I look super puffy from all the fluid and am wrapped in about 100 blankets because I was so cold.  I didn't feel that bad though which was great.  They left after their allotted visit time and within less then 2 hours I was being moved to my room.  One of the perks of donating is a special room that I think is more easily ready the the normal rooms used for the recipients. 

The room was nice and had a good view.  I was pretty alert there and they did give me some pain meds that didn't seem to do much.  The morphine that puts Dave to sleep in a few min. did nothing for me.  And due to the fact I was on my back it was hard for me to sleep, because that is not how I normally sleep.  But luckily if I didn't move it didn't hurt.  I spent a lot of time trying to figure out if I was nauseous or hungry.  This may seem like something simple to figure out but with everything that had gone on and not eating I was unsure.  

View from my room.

View from my room 2

Eventually Stephanie showed up.  I am not sure what time but it was later in the day.  She brought me a puppy stuffed animal, a balloon, and a card. It was nice to see her, and I was happy I was alert enough to talk to her a bit.  While she was there they brought me a dinner tray.  It had some chicken and rice dish on it.  Thinking I was hungry I slowly raised the bed all the way up into a sitting position ready to eat.  I put maybe 2 pieces of rice in my mouth and knew I wasn't hungry I was nauseous.  I quickly spit it out, started sipping a ginger ale and asked for some anti nausea medication.  The nurse came in and gave me some zofran using my IV.  It didn't help.  I eventually started to lower the bed back down and I guess sitting up that straight had the path way to my stomach disrupted because it felt like all the liquid I had drank rushed into my stomach, causing me to throw up.  :(  I didn't have a basin in my room and Stephanie ran out to find one so I used the cover to my dinner.  ick.  It was painful and I ended up getting it all over me.  But I am lucky to have had Stephanie there because she went into Nurse Stephanie mode, and the tech came in to check my vitals at the same time.  So they gave me rags to clean us and gave me a fresh gown.  I was grateful it only got on me and not the bed because I don't know if I could have gotten up for them to change the sheets.  After that episode I was pretty miserable.  The nausea didn't go away and I faded in and out of sleep, with someone coming into my room almost every hour for one thing or another waking me up.  

I swear I am trying to smile here.

In the morning I felt better.  My nurse came and took out the catheter I had to wear overnight.  Which although it sucked having it in, I am kind of glad it was there because I don't think I could have gotten up to use the restroom.  After that came out he pretty much said I had to get out of bed.  So with his help I stood up!  I then put on pants (which is exciting) and walked around my room a bit.  Getting up was a real turning point.  Once I was up I was up.  I instantly wanted to walk to Dave's room so the nurse who seemed unsure about the long walk led me anyway.  It was good to see him.  I was sore and didn't stay long though.  After I walked back to my room the nurse made sure I sat in the chair instead of laying down.  

I felt better then I looked, yay chair!

Eventually, a doctor walked in looked at my incision and asked if I wanted to go home.  I told him that it would depend on if I could eat anything first.  I did not want to leave before I could eat a meal.  I am assuming that because they said I could leave my blood work was good.  I should have asked about it but I forgot.  

Okay once again I am tired of writing and this is getting long so I will come back to it later with a part 3 which should be the end of it!  Thanks for reading.

EVERYTHING Part 1

Okay so I think I am ready to start updating everything one step at a time!

Wed. Night:
We didn't really do anything too special wed. night except I did buy us cupcakes to celebrate after we ate out light dinner.  I also got together some pajama pants, a robe, and a t-shirt to take with me.  Before going to sleep we both had to take a shower then use some wipes all over ourselves.

There were 6 wipes, one for each arm, one for each leg, one for the back, and one for the stomach.  They made me feel sticky and a little itchy afterwards.  After that we both went to sleep.

Thursday:

We woke up at 4am to once again take showers and use the wipes.  by 5am my parents were at our house, my mom was carpooling with us to the hospital and my Dad just dropped her off and wished me good luck.  My dad is not good with hospitals and things.  Shortly after Dave's parents showed up and Dave, his parents, my mom and I were on our way.  At this point it still didn't feel real, and I didn't feel nervous.  Not sure why I am almost always nervous about medical stuff.

We arrived a walked over to the same day surgery department, where both Dave and I signed in.  

Here is us with the we woke up too early look while we were waiting.  It didn't take to long before we were called up to the desk.  At the desk we signed some forms and verified some information before being sent back to a pre-op room.  We were in the same room which was nice.  Here we put on robes and socks, and I had to give a urine sample.  (something I should always be prepared for but I never am, I always seem to use the bathroom before they mention it too me.  fail)

They then set each of us up with an IV as well as took some blood from Dave because he took off his blood typing bracelet.  Then the wait began.  It was just a little past 6am at this point and my surgery wasn't supposed to start till 8:30.  So Dave and I just sat around for awhile waiting for our separate nurses to appear.

 
Then all sorts of people came in all asking us our name, date of birth, and what we were having done.  I signed more papers, spoke with the anesthesiologist, a person assisting my surgeon, my surgeon, and probably some other people.  My surgeon was sure to ask if I donated a kidney since I saw him 11 days prior which made me laugh.  He also marked my left side while his partner explained this surgery would have no benefits to me. Also, made me laugh.  I really enjoyed my surgeon he was very laid back and that made both my mom and me feel more relaxed about the whole thing.  Right when things were getting ready to go Dave's surgeon found out about the fluid he had earlier in the week that made him short of breath and wanted to do a last minute chest X-ray.  That had me a little worried but it turned out okay I guess?  I was on my way to the OR soon after it was over so I don't know how it turned out.

Right after the chest x-ray the anesthesiologist came back in, let me know the good news that I wasn't pregnant (that's what the urine sample was for), the gave me a dose of something to relax me but I didn't really feel anything.  Then I waved bye to Dave and everyone and was wheeled down to the OR.  When I arrived they asked what kind of music I listened to and unsure what to say I just said Ska.  They had never been requested to play ska before, but they put on some ska music using Pandora or something and I fell asleep.

Right before I went into surgery!

Okay, so I am going to post this now and update later with more of the story.  Writing it out takes a lot of time and I am still a bit tired these days.  So, look for more later this week!

I'm Home

I am home.  I came home the afternoon after surgery which was nice!  It was boring sitting in the hospital room.  Dave is still there and may be home tonight or tomorrow.  I can currently walk to the end of our street which feels like an accomplishment even though it is really not that far.  I am going to try and increase my distance and steps every day (yay for having a fitbit to track my daily steps).  Feeling good at the moment, but definitely have my ruff moments.  Pain medications do not seem to affect me too much meaning it hurts a lot of the time but I am getting used to it.

I would update more but once again my computer chair is not very comfortable meaning I am going to move to the couch or outside and play Zelda on my 3DS (my treat to myself after surgery).  More updating and pictures coming soon....

Update from Hospital

Just a quick update to let everyone know we are both doing well.  The donor room has a computer with internet allowing me to update, but it won't be long because sitting in this chair is painful.  Both surgery went well yesterday and I was way more coherent then I thought I would be after it.  I had a lot of nausea yesterday thought so that was really the worst thing.  Felling better today and may go home this evening.

As far as I know my kidney is working in Dave!  He is producing urine!  Not sure on much else though, only have seen him once since and its a long walk to his room so it wore me out and I didn't stay long.  After he gets breakfast he is supposed to be walking to visit me.  :)

More updates late when I am feeling better!

Thanks for all the good thoughts and prayers!

Update

Dave is feeling a lot better, dialysis made the shortness of breath his was experiencing go away.  Unfortunately, he also had a really bad migraine yesterday due to some nitroglycerin patches they gave him to try and help him before they could give him dialysis.  This meant he didn't want to answer his phone or talk to anyone.  Because of this the coordinator at UMMC was calling me to see if I could get a hold of him.  When I called Dave he seemed very much like he didn't care about getting the blood work for the transplant, he was short with me and hung up before I finished talking.  It upset me a bit, I knew he had a migraine but I felt like I had been rearranging my schedule, and doing all these things to make the transplant happen and he couldn't even make a phone call/answer the phone.  It was frustrating.   He pretty much said it was just the headache speaking and he was feeling better when we discussed it later that day.  Luckily the coordinator called Dave's mom and allowed Dave to give the blood sample this morning.  Which he did!

With all the blood being given things seem to be going as planned.  The only real issue is that I think this bracelet I  am supposed to wear till Thursday is giving me a rash.  My arm from wrist to middle of my forearm itches and has little bumps.  Its weird though because it goes about an inch or 2 farther up my arm then the bracelet can reach.  If it doesn't get better I might just cut off the bracelet and let them know it was giving me a rash.

Okay, that is if for now, if there is any excitement between now and Thursday I will probably post again but I am hoping that everything continues to go as planned!