Tag Archives: kidney transplant

Health update and anniversary

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As some of you may or may not know, on July 29th, 2009, I went into surgery to receive a kidney which my awesome sister was willing to donate. Well, it’s coming on the 2nd year anniversary, and I’m doing pretty good. I think a shout out goes to my sister. She’s pretty damn amazing to be willing to give me her kidney.

I’m not 100%, but I’ve still got so many other things that are wrong with me, not all of them have to do with my brain either! But I’m hanging in there.

I think a majority of my recovery has to be credited to my awesome wife, Meesh. I think without her, I’d still be in bed all day, feeling even more sorry for myself than now. I think she underestimates herself as my primary caregiver. She thinks she doesn’t do anything, but just being there has done quite a lot for me.

As for the rest of what’s going on, the pain comes and goes. I suppose you could probably call my case a mild case of Fibromyalgia, just to get a sense of what Neuropathy means. But I think anyone who has FM will tell you, there’s no such thing as a mild case. You either got it or you don’t. It just hurts that much. In my case I guess I’ve got it better in terms of pain. But it does hurt. I mean there are days when I feel like I want to die. Those are the bad days. The good days are the days where the pain is a 2 or 3 out of 10. There is never a time when I don’t feel pain. Never.

Along with the pain, when I eat, I sweat. I mean literally. I don’t sweat because it’s hot, or because I’m eating spicy food, but because my brain is too confused from all the damage it’s gotten and when I eat food, instead of feeling like “wow, this is the best food I’ve ever eaten”, I sweat. I have accepted it. Although I have to say with the warmer temperatures, it seems worse now.

So as not to sound like a total whiner, I won’t Really talk about all the other stupid complications I’ve got going. If you’re online and feeling bored, you can always ask me about it, and I’m sure I’ll tell you all about it. Because it’s all about me, you know. :P

Blogathon 2010

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Well, I’ve decided I will try to do the Blogathon this year. I’m not sure what kind of theme or even which blog I will do it on. For that matter, I’m not entirely sure which charity I wish to donate too. Normally I do the Blogathon for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, but after my transplant and complications with diabetes, I have considered changing it. If I don’t do Susan G. Komen for the Cure, then I think I will feel just a little guilty. But then again, the diabetes and the transplant is happening right NOW and if there’s a hope for a cure for diabetes, I’m all for it. (I’ve read there’s supposed to be a cure within my lifetime.)

So we’ll see how it goes. Does anyone have any suggestions for the theme? In the past, I’ve done the movie quotes game, where you hear the quote and name the movie. But that’s a lot of work and well we shall see how things work out. Hopefully it won’t be like in the past. *crossing fingers*

CT Scan of the kidneys

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CT scanSo this past friday, I had a CT scan of my donated kidney. They suspect there might be a bit of stenosis (abnormal narrowing of a bodily canal or passageway) of the artery feeding the new kidney. It was explained to me that everyone has different size arteries, and it was quite possible that the new kidney had a smaller artery than my own or vice versa. This is why the ultrasound was done, and it did suggest that I could have some stenosis.

It’s also possible the kidney might have shifted. Because it’s not behind the peritoneal wall (the membrane that holds all the organs), it could move because of how I might move my body. Of course, this makes me nervous since I can actually feel my new kidney and I worry every time I bend over, lean, or whatever. If this is the case, the artery could kink or go into a position that restricts flow.

The only reason they haven’t been too aggressive is because my kidney functions (specifically my creatinine, which last week was 0.98 – very good) are in normal ranges. But now (3 months post-surgery) is the time to act, and to fix the problem, which is not Really a problem, before it becomes a Really big problem and it’s an emergency situation. I agree. I don’t want to have to worry about this later when it’s a severe problem.

So now, what are the things we can do? If there is indeed stenosis and it’s a narrowing of the artery, then they will most likely do an angiogram. This would either involve a widening of the artery or inserting a stent (A slender, hollow tube inserted into the body to relieve a blockage.). I suppose if the kidney itself is shifted or kinking the artery, they may have to move it, but I’m not exactly sure what they would do in this situation.

Either way, I’m just waiting to hear the results of the test to see what they will do next. All I know is the surgeons and doctors at University of Washington are top notch and I’m in good hands.