Its been a tough week. After getting the news that I'm a match, the reality has sunk in that we're actually going to have a kidney transplant.
It's unreal.
I feel like I'm living someone else's life and any moment I'll go back to my real life. I never expected anything like this to happen.
Its friggin hard. You can substitute that other word if you catch my drift.
So the reality is that I will be wheeled into a room where surgeons will take my left kidney out of my body. Then, they'll carry it over to Kristie's room and place it in her body....carefully. My kidney will have a new home in her body. They'll place it in her lower abdomen area and hook it up to her bladder with the artery they also took.
Her other kidneys will remain in her body, just hanging out.
Here's the hard part right now. There are pros and cons to doing this transplant this summer. Because we've learned to manage her medication and diet, she's relatively healthy and strong right now, except for her kidneys. So, if she has the surgery now, she'll recover more quickly, theoretically.
Do we wait until her disease gets worse and she gets sick? If we wait, then her recovery from the surgery could be harder on her. And more lengthy. And I don't want her to get sick.
If we wait, I could get sick and we lose my healthy kidney.
If we wait, Katie could get pregnant which would make it more difficult to coordinate Kristie's post op care. However, I would LOVE TO HAVE ANOTHER GRANDBABY!
If we wait, Kristie could just stay at her creatinine level of 3 and when it gets to 4 we do it then. How long will it take to get to a 4? That's the million dollar question - if we knew the answer to that, believe me, this decision would be a snap. (She was at 4.1 last November, but then it went back down.)
Here's the other hard part. We're making a decision to put Kristie under the knife and then take drugs the rest of her life so her body doesn't reject the kidney. Who does that??!
What would you do?
Now you know why I've been crying for a week.
On a better note, Kristie and I are going to see Joyce Meyer in person tonight at the Tacoma Dome. We LOVE Joyce Meyer and have wanted to see her in person for a long time. We listen to her CDs and watch her on tv. She's fantastic. Cannot wait to see her tonight!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Kidney match
I'M A MATCH!!! I received the news yesterday afternoon.
I'm so relieved!
Katie and Calla are up from Sacramento visiting and we had just dropped Kristie off at her volunteer job (at Swedish Hospital) and we were in a little gift shop when I got the phone call. We both started crying with tears of relief.
It's been a long couple of months.
Thank you for your prayers.
The next step is to talk with Kristie's kidney doctor to plan a timeline for the transplant. I have a call into him and will let you know what he recommends.
Whew!
I'm so relieved!
Katie and Calla are up from Sacramento visiting and we had just dropped Kristie off at her volunteer job (at Swedish Hospital) and we were in a little gift shop when I got the phone call. We both started crying with tears of relief.
It's been a long couple of months.
Thank you for your prayers.
The next step is to talk with Kristie's kidney doctor to plan a timeline for the transplant. I have a call into him and will let you know what he recommends.
Whew!
Monday, May 19, 2008
Cat Scan
I had my cat scan last Friday.
But let's back up.
Last Wednesday I received a call from the Transplant Team Coordinator, Diane. She indicated that all my test results looked great and that the transplant team met Wednesday morning to review the results of all the tests and to discuss my donor case. They approved me...yay! That's the good news. The bad news is that the next step which is the cat scan of my kidneys can rule people out.
Dr. Ngo told me one in 5 is ruled out. Diane told me one in 10 so, I figure, my odds just got better!
Anyway I had the cat scan done last Friday. I forgot to tell you that they also put a HUGE IV in my arm and injected me with some dye so they can see all the vessels in the kidneys. As you can tell, I'm a big baby when it comes to large needles. Its a good thing the nice techie didn't tell me it was a big needle until after he poked me. At least he got it on the first try.
So I sat there with the lovely medical gown on (open in the front please) waiting my turn. They did put a warm blankie on me while I was waiting, so that was nice. I gotta tell you though, having an IV hanging out in your arm kind of hurt. Then I thought of the time when Kristie had to get 5 shots in a row and I quit complaining to myself.
I waited about 15 minutes and then it was my turn. I laid on the table (with my arms above head and hands clasped together) the machine moved forward and backward - they told me to hold my breath a few times.
Then came the injection of the dye into the IV. I don't think I have EVER had anything feel so strange in all my life! Very freaky. Very weird. Very hard to describe. I could feel the dye as it spread quickly throughout my body down to the tips of my toes. Then I got REALLY HOT, got a strong bad taste in my mouth, and felt like I had to pee.
All of these things he told me to expect, but I don't think I believed him. Next time I will. These feelings all lasted about a minute or so, then slowly dissipated. Oh, and did I tell you the IV hurt my arm while being injected? I hated that part too.
All in all though, it was an okay experience. I arrived at 3:50 p.m. and left at 5 p.m. So not too bad.
Today (Monday) I called to see when the cat scan would be read and was informed that a Dr. Chapman would read it Wednesday morning. So I guess we'll know Wednesday morning. Okay then. Its a good thing I rearranged my schedule Friday afternoon to go in - never mind it was the first sunny day in Seattle in six months!!!!
Thank you for all your prayers.
I'll do another post as soon as I know...hopefully Wednesday afternoon
But let's back up.
Last Wednesday I received a call from the Transplant Team Coordinator, Diane. She indicated that all my test results looked great and that the transplant team met Wednesday morning to review the results of all the tests and to discuss my donor case. They approved me...yay! That's the good news. The bad news is that the next step which is the cat scan of my kidneys can rule people out.
Dr. Ngo told me one in 5 is ruled out. Diane told me one in 10 so, I figure, my odds just got better!
Anyway I had the cat scan done last Friday. I forgot to tell you that they also put a HUGE IV in my arm and injected me with some dye so they can see all the vessels in the kidneys. As you can tell, I'm a big baby when it comes to large needles. Its a good thing the nice techie didn't tell me it was a big needle until after he poked me. At least he got it on the first try.
So I sat there with the lovely medical gown on (open in the front please) waiting my turn. They did put a warm blankie on me while I was waiting, so that was nice. I gotta tell you though, having an IV hanging out in your arm kind of hurt. Then I thought of the time when Kristie had to get 5 shots in a row and I quit complaining to myself.
I waited about 15 minutes and then it was my turn. I laid on the table (with my arms above head and hands clasped together) the machine moved forward and backward - they told me to hold my breath a few times.
Then came the injection of the dye into the IV. I don't think I have EVER had anything feel so strange in all my life! Very freaky. Very weird. Very hard to describe. I could feel the dye as it spread quickly throughout my body down to the tips of my toes. Then I got REALLY HOT, got a strong bad taste in my mouth, and felt like I had to pee.
All of these things he told me to expect, but I don't think I believed him. Next time I will. These feelings all lasted about a minute or so, then slowly dissipated. Oh, and did I tell you the IV hurt my arm while being injected? I hated that part too.
All in all though, it was an okay experience. I arrived at 3:50 p.m. and left at 5 p.m. So not too bad.
Today (Monday) I called to see when the cat scan would be read and was informed that a Dr. Chapman would read it Wednesday morning. So I guess we'll know Wednesday morning. Okay then. Its a good thing I rearranged my schedule Friday afternoon to go in - never mind it was the first sunny day in Seattle in six months!!!!
Thank you for all your prayers.
I'll do another post as soon as I know...hopefully Wednesday afternoon
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Medical updates
aarrgghhh....doctors are everywhere!
Monday, Kristie and I both had our doctor appts.
First Kristie...left the house at 9:30 a.m. Arrived at the parking garage - you have to pay to park! - and drove around in circles for 10 minutes to actually find a spot. Checked in, got the lab slip, went to the lab only to find out that our favorite lab technician, Benny, was out sick. Kristie really likes Benny. We had to opt for Art. Art is good too and did a great job. 3 vials of blood.
Back to the doctor's waiting area. Kristie brings her braille book now because sometimes it can be an hour wait because they have to wait for the lab results to come back.
Her creatinine is 3.0, up from 2.7 - not good. Normal creatinine levels are usually below 1.0. (Mine is 0.8)
Kristie's kidneys are functioning at 19% now (down from 21% last month). Recap: She went from 17% to 18% to 21% and now 19%. Irritating.
She had to have two shots. An EPO shot for anemia and her last Hepatitis B shot. She cried and it broke my heart. Shots hurt and noboby likes them. Its hard to watch your daughter be in pain.
Luckily we did not have to wait that long for her exam and we were home by 11:30. We ate lunch and left the house at 1. I dropped Kristie off at her Connections program and drove to my doctor's appt - In Seattle again.
Had to pay to park again. Sigh. So I get there and the front desk asks for my insurance card. I tell them I am here as a possible kidney donor and that the Transplant Unit at Swedish Hospital is paying for this appointment. She looks at me with her bored tired eyes (she hates her job) and I know she doesn't want to deal with me. (I wonder how she gets thru the rest of the afternoon.)
The nurse calls me to the back and takes my weight which is 6 pounds more than what my scale says...why is that? Why is my personal scale ALWAYS less than a doctor's scale???!!!
I ask her if the Transplant Unit sent over my records and she looks at me with her bored tired eyes (she hates her job too) and says she doesn't know, she'll have to check the doctor's desk. She takes my blood pressure and tells me the doctor will be with me soon. I never see her again.
I wait.
Flip thru a magazine.
And wait.
Irritating.
The doctor arrives. Dr. Ngo. He does have my stack of records. He meets with me for about an hour. The first half hour we talk about my health history IN DETAIL. He explains to me that in this process he is only concerned about my health. He is MY doctor. If he doesn't think that I'm healthy enough to donate this kidney then he won't approve it. So he asks me every question that I've already answered on paper 3 times. (Once on the initial transplant donor application - 5 pages worth and once at the 5 hour appointment and once just before I walked into his office.)
About half way thru he looks at me and says: So do you have ANY health concerns? I tell him that I'm pretty healthy. I've only had two surgeries in my life - I had my appendix out when I was 5 months pregnant with Kristie and I had breast reduction surgery in 2005. I can tell he's impressed...he asks what I take for vitamins and supplements. He's starting to have a sense of humor now.
Then we cover my family's health history. Again, he's impressed that I have 4 brothers and 2 sisters who have no health problems. And a Dad who's never been to a doctor up until a few months ago and they gave him a clean bill of health.
But, then we get to Mom. She's a disaster. 2 open heart surgeries and Lupus. I forgot about the Lupus - he rolls his eyes and writes it down. All with a sense of humor though.
Did I mention, he looks like he's about 28? I'm not sure how I feel about that. I could be his mother...hmmm.
Anyway, the next half hour he does a quick physical exam but thankfully doesn't make me get into a gown and we talk about the actual transplant procedure and what I can expect as the donor.
He tells me that I will have more physical discomfort than Kristie will during recovery. She will probably be up and walking around before me. I'm surprised by this because noone has mentioned this and none of the literature has mentioned this. But that's okay. I'll take her pain any day. Although my sister Laurie just informed me that I'm a big baby with pain - she's wrong - I think, on average, I'm okay with pain - just give me good drugs!
Then we talk about the next steps. He presents my case to the medical review board on Wednesday morning and they will either approve me or disapprove me to move forward. If they approve me, they will schedule me for a cat scan of my kidneys.
Here's where I need your prayers.
Dr. Ngo informs me that 1 out of 5 people will NOT be eligible because their kidneys are the wrong shape, or their kidneys have too many vessels and will be too hard to re-attach, or their kidneys will be too hard to remove. So let's all pray that one of my kidneys will be JUST RIGHT for my sweetie pie.
My prayer for the last couple of months has been "Lord, thank you for healing Kristie's kidneys." If that means he performs a miracle and heals her without the kidney transplant then thats awesome. If that means he performs a miracle by making this transplant process go smoothly, then that's awesome too. So far, so good.
Here's my favorite thing about Kristie. We'll be driving or sitting watching American Idol or having lunch or having dinner and she'll say, out of the blue, "I love you Mom". She does this almost day. To which I respond, I love you to Kristie.
I'm crying again, but this time, its tears of happiness.
Thank you for all your prayers and good thoughts!!!
Monday, Kristie and I both had our doctor appts.
First Kristie...left the house at 9:30 a.m. Arrived at the parking garage - you have to pay to park! - and drove around in circles for 10 minutes to actually find a spot. Checked in, got the lab slip, went to the lab only to find out that our favorite lab technician, Benny, was out sick. Kristie really likes Benny. We had to opt for Art. Art is good too and did a great job. 3 vials of blood.
Back to the doctor's waiting area. Kristie brings her braille book now because sometimes it can be an hour wait because they have to wait for the lab results to come back.
Her creatinine is 3.0, up from 2.7 - not good. Normal creatinine levels are usually below 1.0. (Mine is 0.8)
Kristie's kidneys are functioning at 19% now (down from 21% last month). Recap: She went from 17% to 18% to 21% and now 19%. Irritating.
She had to have two shots. An EPO shot for anemia and her last Hepatitis B shot. She cried and it broke my heart. Shots hurt and noboby likes them. Its hard to watch your daughter be in pain.
Luckily we did not have to wait that long for her exam and we were home by 11:30. We ate lunch and left the house at 1. I dropped Kristie off at her Connections program and drove to my doctor's appt - In Seattle again.
Had to pay to park again. Sigh. So I get there and the front desk asks for my insurance card. I tell them I am here as a possible kidney donor and that the Transplant Unit at Swedish Hospital is paying for this appointment. She looks at me with her bored tired eyes (she hates her job) and I know she doesn't want to deal with me. (I wonder how she gets thru the rest of the afternoon.)
The nurse calls me to the back and takes my weight which is 6 pounds more than what my scale says...why is that? Why is my personal scale ALWAYS less than a doctor's scale???!!!
I ask her if the Transplant Unit sent over my records and she looks at me with her bored tired eyes (she hates her job too) and says she doesn't know, she'll have to check the doctor's desk. She takes my blood pressure and tells me the doctor will be with me soon. I never see her again.
I wait.
Flip thru a magazine.
And wait.
Irritating.
The doctor arrives. Dr. Ngo. He does have my stack of records. He meets with me for about an hour. The first half hour we talk about my health history IN DETAIL. He explains to me that in this process he is only concerned about my health. He is MY doctor. If he doesn't think that I'm healthy enough to donate this kidney then he won't approve it. So he asks me every question that I've already answered on paper 3 times. (Once on the initial transplant donor application - 5 pages worth and once at the 5 hour appointment and once just before I walked into his office.)
About half way thru he looks at me and says: So do you have ANY health concerns? I tell him that I'm pretty healthy. I've only had two surgeries in my life - I had my appendix out when I was 5 months pregnant with Kristie and I had breast reduction surgery in 2005. I can tell he's impressed...he asks what I take for vitamins and supplements. He's starting to have a sense of humor now.
Then we cover my family's health history. Again, he's impressed that I have 4 brothers and 2 sisters who have no health problems. And a Dad who's never been to a doctor up until a few months ago and they gave him a clean bill of health.
But, then we get to Mom. She's a disaster. 2 open heart surgeries and Lupus. I forgot about the Lupus - he rolls his eyes and writes it down. All with a sense of humor though.
Did I mention, he looks like he's about 28? I'm not sure how I feel about that. I could be his mother...hmmm.
Anyway, the next half hour he does a quick physical exam but thankfully doesn't make me get into a gown and we talk about the actual transplant procedure and what I can expect as the donor.
He tells me that I will have more physical discomfort than Kristie will during recovery. She will probably be up and walking around before me. I'm surprised by this because noone has mentioned this and none of the literature has mentioned this. But that's okay. I'll take her pain any day. Although my sister Laurie just informed me that I'm a big baby with pain - she's wrong - I think, on average, I'm okay with pain - just give me good drugs!
Then we talk about the next steps. He presents my case to the medical review board on Wednesday morning and they will either approve me or disapprove me to move forward. If they approve me, they will schedule me for a cat scan of my kidneys.
Here's where I need your prayers.
Dr. Ngo informs me that 1 out of 5 people will NOT be eligible because their kidneys are the wrong shape, or their kidneys have too many vessels and will be too hard to re-attach, or their kidneys will be too hard to remove. So let's all pray that one of my kidneys will be JUST RIGHT for my sweetie pie.
My prayer for the last couple of months has been "Lord, thank you for healing Kristie's kidneys." If that means he performs a miracle and heals her without the kidney transplant then thats awesome. If that means he performs a miracle by making this transplant process go smoothly, then that's awesome too. So far, so good.
Here's my favorite thing about Kristie. We'll be driving or sitting watching American Idol or having lunch or having dinner and she'll say, out of the blue, "I love you Mom". She does this almost day. To which I respond, I love you to Kristie.
I'm crying again, but this time, its tears of happiness.
Thank you for all your prayers and good thoughts!!!
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Happy Mother's Day & Chickens
Chickens. That's what I sent my mom for her Mother's Day gift this year. I know what you're thinking...chickens??
I have many fond memories of chickens growing up on the farm in Minnesota. One year, my sister Susie and I raised chickens and entered our prize specimens in the 4-H competition at the local county fair. We wanted them to be clean and look all nice and pretty so we chose the two chickens we wanted to have compete and we took them into the bathroom and promptly gave them a bath in the bathtub! My mother walked in and asked what in the ____*@#* were we doing and we calmly explained to her that we wanted the chickens to be clean and they needed washing and this was the quickest way to get it done...we wanted that blue ribbon!
Then, since we were running out of time, Susie and I dried them both with the hair dryer...yes, its true. It seemed perfectly logical at the time but thinking about it now....its pretty hilarious!
Susie and I were about 8 and 11 at the time. We LOVED 4-H. We also entered our baked goods and our sewing projects in the local county fair. And we did win ribbons, but NOT for the chickens (but they were clean!!) I was president of our 4-H club one year. Fun!
I also have fond memories of my brothers cutting the heads of the chickens off and watching them hop around headless. I know...gross...but it was fascinating! My mom and dad then plucked their feathers and cleaned them and put them in the freezer. There were 9 in our family...we ate alot of chickens!
So, back to the chickens I gave my mom for Mother's Day...I went on the World Vision website and bought two chickens in my Mom's name for a family in a third world country where World Vision has a presence . World Vision then sent her a card letting her know that I donated the chickens in her name...nice huh?
I adopted a child thru World Vision about 10 years ago...World Vision does awesome work helping children around the world. They also assist during disaster situations as well.
Please visit them at www.worldvision.org.
I have many fond memories of chickens growing up on the farm in Minnesota. One year, my sister Susie and I raised chickens and entered our prize specimens in the 4-H competition at the local county fair. We wanted them to be clean and look all nice and pretty so we chose the two chickens we wanted to have compete and we took them into the bathroom and promptly gave them a bath in the bathtub! My mother walked in and asked what in the ____*@#* were we doing and we calmly explained to her that we wanted the chickens to be clean and they needed washing and this was the quickest way to get it done...we wanted that blue ribbon!
Then, since we were running out of time, Susie and I dried them both with the hair dryer...yes, its true. It seemed perfectly logical at the time but thinking about it now....its pretty hilarious!
Susie and I were about 8 and 11 at the time. We LOVED 4-H. We also entered our baked goods and our sewing projects in the local county fair. And we did win ribbons, but NOT for the chickens (but they were clean!!) I was president of our 4-H club one year. Fun!
I also have fond memories of my brothers cutting the heads of the chickens off and watching them hop around headless. I know...gross...but it was fascinating! My mom and dad then plucked their feathers and cleaned them and put them in the freezer. There were 9 in our family...we ate alot of chickens!
So, back to the chickens I gave my mom for Mother's Day...I went on the World Vision website and bought two chickens in my Mom's name for a family in a third world country where World Vision has a presence . World Vision then sent her a card letting her know that I donated the chickens in her name...nice huh?
I adopted a child thru World Vision about 10 years ago...World Vision does awesome work helping children around the world. They also assist during disaster situations as well.
Please visit them at www.worldvision.org.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
The second round done
I'm done with the second round of peeing! I'll drop off the container tomorrow and have another vial of blood drawn. (I'm also done with the stool samples but we won't go there.)
The heating system is hit and miss. They think the circuit board is going out. Sigh.
I'm a little worried that the 100 plus bulbs I planted in the Fall are not coming up...only a few have...but its not like Seattle has been warm lately either. Stay tuned...
Kristie and I are getting our teeth cleaned today and I have a problem tooth to deal with. No fun.
I can't wait to see Calla and Katie! They're flying up on May 20th. Call has two teeth now. Check out Katie's blog to the right.
Have a good day!
The heating system is hit and miss. They think the circuit board is going out. Sigh.
I'm a little worried that the 100 plus bulbs I planted in the Fall are not coming up...only a few have...but its not like Seattle has been warm lately either. Stay tuned...
Kristie and I are getting our teeth cleaned today and I have a problem tooth to deal with. No fun.
I can't wait to see Calla and Katie! They're flying up on May 20th. Call has two teeth now. Check out Katie's blog to the right.
Have a good day!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
