Post op...

First I'd like to apologize for not writing sooner... Today is Thurs, Dec 13th. Surgery was Monday, December 10th. I think I left off where I was eight hours till i had to be at the hospital. Sunday I was on a liquid diet so essentially the last time I ate was Saturday evening at Cheesecake Factory, till today... (I've had no appetite) We arrived at the hospital Monday morning 5 AM. I registered for surgery on the kiosk and was shown where to go, to the second floor to the surgery waiting area. We waited there for a few minutes and they called my name. They took my vitals, my weight, and started an IV... that was a chore. Before long, Dr. Shea Samara and Susan came in. He marked my left leg to show that that was the side they were going to operate on. Then my surgery nurse rolled me back to the operating room. I've asked for plenty of pictures, anything that they can provide for me so I could pass along on the blog the more education out there I think the better people understand and the more likely people will be to help a fellow person in the future. I am waiting for the pictures Dr.Scott Samara took with his phone in the OR, how awesome!! Once in the operating room, I just remember moving from the gurney to the table and that is pretty much it, after that I woke up in the recovery room with my back hurting pretty bad which was a combination of the bed that they had there and the way that they have to remove the kidney. I was a little nauseous but I think it was the taste of the medicines in my mouth that was making this happen. I was able to sit up in the recovery room. Then I was taken to my own room on the seventh floor,which is where the liver transplant patients are. Myself and recipient on separate floors. Susan had prepared me for the second day, saying it was going to be my worst day. I would say that she was pretty accurate on that. My biggest challenge was fighting headaches, fatigue, back pain, and nausea. With medication they were able to control all of those. Tuesday, day two, I pretty much slept all day with the exception of a few visitors coming in. I did managed to walk the halls a couple of times. The catheter was removed that morning my kidney was functioning perfect. The doctor had also mentioned that the recipients new kidney(John Matthew) started functioning right away and producing urine for him:-) Day three of the hospital stay, I was able to meet the recipient so I got up in the morning took a shower and waited to visit him. At this point I still knew very little about him I been told several different ages 28, 29, 25, turns out he's 26 and a history teacher. His wife is also a teacher. He actually teaches a mile from my house, small world! I learned that when he was a junior in high school he lost a lot of weight.. Doctors couldn't find anything wrong with him... Finally one doctor did a urine test.. And that spring break day he found out he had Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis
​FSGS, Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, is a disease that infects the kidneys. It is also termed focal glomerular sclerosis or focal nodular glomerulosclerosis, because it is the scarring of some of the glomeruli located in the nephron of the kidneys. Every year five thousand four hundred patients will be diagnosed with FSGS. FSGS is an autosomal dominant disease so it is inherited by a mutated chromosome from one of the one though twenty two chromosomes and is very common in the family history. Scientists say it is the nineteen or sixteen, but in most cases it is the chromosome that is affected is chromosome eleven. He has been on dialysis for three years as well as the list. Milton and Brittany are amazing people... They loved the gifts as well as, all the bible verses I quoted. And they thought the names for the kidneys were perfection! I loved meeting this couple.. We Skyped his mother and 6y/o daughter. ... Just an amazing story in God's plan. I am so pleased that they want to be part of our lives, as we want to be part of theirs. I am overwhelmed with emotions. I am just so happy that we were compatible and then able to be part of each others lives... Exchanging our information just takes me to the nth degree... Shortly after our meeting we were both released from the hospital. I'm feeling pretty good right now... The pain levels have not been crazy high. The worst of all the pain has been the pain from the laparoscopic gas that they use... It makes it feel like when you run for a longtime and get stitch in your side. Other than that some back pain, from laying around. I had my first outing today to get my meds... It was a little much.. But just rested on the bench while they prepared it ANC I was good to go..

If I was asked would you do it again... ABSOLUTELY without hesitation... Was it worth it???? Yes it was.. Actually, more than worth it.. For two strangers to meet and see that we already had so many connections. And to save a life and allow someone to raise their child and that sweet child be able to hold her daddy's hands and his beautiful wife to be able to grow in love for years to come... Yes!!! Yes!!! Yes!!!!

I want to give a big THANK YOU! To the doctors, nurses(especially David's Humor), Susan, my friends, family, my coworkers, just everyone that has supported me through this whole process!! All of our prayers have been answered!
I will be updating this blog for a long long time... Thank you for reading and sharing!!! GOD BLESS!!

8 hrs...

Only 8 hrs till I have to be at the hospital registration desk. I can't believe the time is finally here...something that I have always dreamed of doing.. :-)
I think I got all of my to do list completed and if not... Oh well.. They will get done later... No biggie.. I did manage to get things put together for recipient... :-)


My sister arrived Saturday early afternoon.. We had a good day.. Running around here and there... Was able to get a pedicure and bought me some Thunder Orange pants, love them!!!! Even spent some time with Ashlynn:-) This morning was a nice surprise.. Moma was here.. She drove all day and night. :-) we woke up Sunday morning and all headed to church.. Campus Pastor Brian said a few more prayers for everything.. What a great day!
Cheesecake Factory was my last real meal last night. I was allowed to have a small breakfast before going to a liquid diet and drinking that Mag citrate... I am used to drinking chocolate slim fast for breakfast. So that was my choice today. I have had water, beef broth, chicken broth, hot mint tea, and Gatorade today...not bad overall. Just miss the actual act of eating.... My belly feels pretty good now... I did feel really sick to my stomach once I finished the Mag Citrate.. But eventually that past. Now it's 9:24 and I am super tired.. Going to shower and scrub with the hibcleans soap and try to get a little sleep. I'll post as soon as I can. Thank you for reading and pass this blog around!!!
God bless you!!!

Last Day At Work....

Today is my last day at work till the 31st of December or maybe even till January 2nd. I can't describe my feelings at this point... I have so many flowing through my body! I am so thankful that I am healthy enough to even do this. I could not even imagine what people go through in life. For some just a breath is a difficult task. Stop and take a deep breath.... Now imagine not being able to do that. WOW!!! I could go on and on about this. But I won't, I'm sure you can see what I am talking about. I am also very thankful that I am surrounded by amazing people. I have the best job in the world. They treat us like a family and I truly feel like part of the family. As a matter of fact, they had me over for Thanksgiving Dinner...I actually got a little emotional as I held hands with 14 people(all my boss's family and my friend) as Mrs. Bachman said grace and as my friend Dana and I thanked everyone for having us over. Again,  I am so thankful for these wonderful people in my life! Ok... I told you I have so many emotions flowing, I'll try to get back on track.

Weds. the 5th I got to meet the surgeon... I met Dr. Shea Samara.. The son of Dr.Scott Samara..Dr. Shea was very nice. He did mention that I had a very tiny kidney stone in my right kidney(Gabriel) and that they really want to leave the donor with the healthist of the two( they could go in with the scope and retrieve the stone in a tiny basket once removed). So now there was a chance of them taking Gabriel instead of John Matthew  in return could raise the chance of doing a open surgery instead of Laproscopic. I let him know that I was there to donate my kidney and whatever they had to do I was still going to go through with it... Open, Laproscopic, Right, or Left. They were the experts and I fell confident that in their knowledge of what  was the best for me and whatever needed to be done. He let me know they were having a commitee meeting that afternoon and discuss it with them and let me know later. Back to the doctors,they will both be in the operating room with me. From what I understand, I will go into surgery before the recipient. (My family and his family will be in different waiting areas) When they are about to remove my kidney they will get him ready to recieve my kidney. Once they remove John Matthew they will clean him up, give him a nice ice bath(spa treatment) and get him to his new home! I should be in surgery for about 4 1/2 hours from time I get to the OR and into recovery... Then into my room by 2 pm. Susan said that day two will be the toughest for me. I am going to be off work till the 31st. That is just insane... Thats a long time cooped up in my house.... She did say that I can go out to lunch as long as I didn't drive (hint hint, lol) Susan called and let me know they were going to continue with removing John Matthew. :) She let me see the catscan pictures and MAN was that cool... I was able to take pictures of those too... WAY COOL... She gave me my pre-op instructions.... liquid diet Sunday... boo... Those who know me, know I love my food. Of course this is totally worth it, so I will do everything on my pre-admission instruction paperwork with great pleasure! Btw, I think I have passed the kidney stone already:-) and also the recipient and his wife do want to meet me.. Don't know when, but at least I know they do want to:-)


I gave Susan the web address to my blog and prepared her to see a picture of her that I took without her knowing, Oopsy.. She wanted a better picture and of course I had my camera ready to go. What a great lady Susan is..well, I think that about sums up everything to this point. Oh wait!!! My sister Michelle Is in college. She had a speech due. Michelle decided to write this speech about being an organ donor. Using the Information she has learned through me and the Internet she was about to give a excellent speech and had printed off ten forms for people to sign up to be an organ donor...nine were filled out!! Thanks Sis!!!

The final countdown....8 days...

Can't believe it's so close.... Pretty important upcoming week. Monday Dec 3rd my oldest daughter will turn 21..:-) then the following Monday the 10th is the life changing day for the young man that gets my kidney.:-) A few things have happened since the last post... I met with Dr. Hola on Wednesday, be is a very nice man.. He gave me the low down on everything that happens during surgery and such... Most I already knew, due to the internet research that I have been doing... He told me that they pick the cream of the crop of the cream of the crop! Feels good to be able to be so healthy as to be able to make someone else healthy. I did tell him about the finding on Ashlynn's ANA antibody (being high-possibly Lupus) he decided to test me for lupus as well, just to make sure! Dr. Hola also mentioned that my initial ultrasound finding of the "fatty liver" could have been a misread( he mentioned this can happen for a few different reasons...typically it is just the way the wand is held or the shadows of other organs and so on) The liver ultrasound came back completely normal. :-) While checking in with Susan(blood pressure, weight(lost 4 pounds, YES!!!), temp, the usual questions... Of course I had a lot of questions to ask her...she let me know there were two possible matches for me at this time.. Either a person in their late 20's or a person in their middle 50's.. I also found out there are 330-ish people on the waiting JUST at Integris...Susan also let me know that they had their busiest month yet, performing 22 kidney transplants in the month of November and still had 3 days to go.. Wow!!! I also asked of how many living donors they see in a year, sadly she said usually around 25...:-( I looked up on Lifeshare of Oklahoma's website and found out there are 110,000 people on the waiting list in the US...with maybe 53 or so living donors a year. I can't remember specifics, but if you are interested you can look on their website for more information. Or let me know and I'll get specifics for you! Did you know, those of us that are born with healthy kidneys and properly functioning kidneys are born with 4 to 5 times more kidney then our body needs to be able to function? So after donating a kidney you still have 2 to 3 times more kidney function then our body needs... Just amazing! You can also donate a kidney and have a normal pregnancy after the donation, only have a little more visits to monitor for gestational diabetes and pregnancy high blood pressure... Pretty cool! See there I'm rambling... Important rambling, but rambling none the less!
Next up heading over the radiology, catscan time... Mike was the gentleman that ran this test.. Man, he was really cool(let me take pictures and took a picture of me too) and very knowledgeable of what he was doing! Said he has been doing catscans for 30yrs...and I was in and out of there quick... With the catscan they take films of the specific area before and after running dye through your veins.. Pretty weird sensation feeling the dye run through your veins.. Doesn't hurt.. Just feels warm... Then make 3D pictures of the said specific area... I'm hoping I get to see this once I meet with the surgeon, Dr. Samara, next week! Dr. Samara will be performing my surgery as well as his son.. They work together as a team..pretty amazing! After my catscan I went back to work and on with my busy day... I was told Susan would contact me to let me know about labwork times and when I would get to meet Dr. Samara. Susan called That afternoon(weds) asked if I could go down to the lab in the morning(Thurs-10 days till surgery) and get my pre-op labwork, lupus screening, and crossmatching (for the two I mentioned). Hoping to get the results from all the testing by Friday. Dr. Ha and susan also met with the transplant board and they were all very excited to here that a healthy living donor is ready for surgery. Dr. Hula was also very pleased with my catscan films as well! I went to the lab around 6:15 and they drew 17 vials of blood.. I didn't feel a thing! So far everything has been virtually painless. A few sticks here and there, that doesn't bother me though and nothing compared to what the people on dialysis go thru on a daily basis. Susan called me Friday afternoon letting me know they had the results from the labwork. Everything looked great. And she let me know that my kidney will go to a young man in his late 20's.. HIPPA prevents her from saying too much and of course we all understand this.. He will have the last say as to if we meet or not... Both parties involved have to agree on meeting...:-) I'm hoping he will want to meet me:-) I can't believe that time is almost here... Super excited.. Actually today was a little emotional. I decided to speak with the campus pastor, Brian, at church today. When I first started the process I had filled out a prayer request asking for the prayer team to send out prayers for the process and today as the time is approaching fast, I just wanted him to pray with me and send some extra prayers out to my recipient and also to the young lady that I started crossmatching with in the beginning... As he prayed, tears flowed from my eyes.. I can't explain the feelings that rushed through my soul as we stood in the middle of the foyer of our LifeChurch campus. It was a beautiful and comforting moment. He asked me to fill out another prayer request so the prayer team could send out more prayers. Man, I am so happy that I stumbled into LifeChurch that day... I want to say ThankYou to Amy for that! The moment I stepped foot into LifeChurch I have felt like this is home... I just love it...
I found out my sister Michelle and my mother are both going to be able to make it for the surgery... So awesome!!!! I am putting together a few things for my recipient, a care package-ish... I made him a leather keychain. I put our surgery date as well as my favorite bible verse... Psalms 91:11... And He gave thee angels to watch over thee and keep thee in all thy ways... (I'll post pictures of it), I hope he likes it... I also found a great Christmas Ornament and had an awareness ribbon and the date inscribed on it... From the beginning I wanted our surgery to be for Thanksgiving or Christmas.. Wanted the recipient to have an amazing Christmas present... The Gift of Life! I have been thinking of names for my kidneys, I have come up with names for my kidneys: my left one(the one that will be removed) name is... John Matthew" The beloved gift from God"....the meaning of the names come from the bible, John means "beloved" and Matthew means "gift from God"...and I think Gabriel for the right kidney(the one that will remain with me) meaning "God is my strength"... I will also write the recipient a short letter :-)...

Last night I received a msg from a friend asking about living donors... She is wanting to see if she can donate to one of her clients... This makes me feel like this post is helping people understand it is not a scary horrible thing... The client of hers had no idea a person could even be a lining donor, she just thought she had to wait for a cadavers kidney... I am so happy that she now knows there are options for her too:-) it warms my heart! Thank you Amber for reaching out,being brave and asking questions! ((((HUGS))))

Ok time to attach pictures and get some sleep... Tomorrow is a big big day.. ASHLYNN'S 21st BIRTHDAY!!! Whoop Whoop!!!

God bless and thanks for reading...


P.S. several people have told me they are not able to post comments on this blog I'm not sure why it won't let you... So feel free to email me if you have comments or questions! Mylittlekidney@gmail.com