Cool Transplant Information

Just have been reading a ton of fantastic transplant information lately and wanted to stop by and post it.  Also, wanted to let the world know Dave and I are both still doing great with excellent Kidney health.

First The University Of Maryland Medical Center successfully transplanted the first organ delivered by Drone! I feel like that is very amazing.  They are always using new technology to make transplants better and faster.  I am so happy to have been able to donate through them.

Second Maryland's Living Donor Protection Act Passed.

Thats all for now.  I'll try and remember to update again in a week on our 5 year Transplantaversery!!!!

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!

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.

Lets Play the Waiting Game Again

So for anyone that doesn't know, I am a planner I like having my schedule planned out, knowing what time I need to be place, whats going to happen when I get there, etc.  This kidney donation is messing up my planning.  Dave is having an MRI on Monday to look more in depth at the tumor on his kidney, my coordinator will not set up a pre-op date until the results from that are in.  With the surgery on the 7th and me being in Reno from the 26th till the 3rd I would like to know if getting a preop apt right when I get back is doable.  This way I can plan my days off and hours I am using accordingly.  But without knowing these things it is really hard for me to get a sense of time management.  Plus I want to clean everything, buy food, and do all of the laundry before surgery that way I don't have to worry about things immediately afterwards, but not knowing what days before surgery I will be free I don't know how to plan!

Oh well, I know that planning isn't that important, I just like to be informed and ready well in advance and things are not happening as far in advance as I would like. 

Holy kidney Batman, that was Fast.

So I did all the blood work and urine testing yesterday and most of the results are already back!  Talk about FAST!  So far everything looks good.  :)  My kidneys are working fine, my cholesterol is fine.  The only 2 things were some white blood cells, I'm nor sure why they were there but they are not concerned about it and my blood glucose was high for having fasted for the blood work.  But after doing some googling it turns out levothyroxine (the medication I take for my Hypothyroid) can cause an increased glucose level, and I took that tablet before getting blood work done yesterday.

So next step is an all day appointment at UMMC.  This can be any Thursday but after talking to my mom (I want her to go with me so she can ask all the questions she wants) we are thinking the 16th.  This is very soon, everything is going so fast which is exciting but also nerve racking.   I want to give Dave my kidney I want everything to work out, and the sooner the better its just kind of hard to process everything so fast.   I think that I am going to make sure to write down any questions I come up with between now and the 16th so I remember to ask them.  I think keeping track of all my thoughts will make me less anxious about it all.

Okay, so that is all.  I will keep everyone updated and possibly write all my thoughts and questions here too, great place to keep track of them.

EDIT: Thursday is set up for Jan. 23rd.