I can't even believe it, but I had a kidney match and got a transplant Friday, May 17th. I'm so out of practice writing here that I'm not even sure where to start.
Catch-up since last post in 2020
Not much other than dialysis. That's a good thing....everything was pretty stable, health-wise. We traveled. I really got into exercise (lifting weights, pilates and hot yoga) during COVID and it's continued up until Thursday. But I was having a period of being really tired of dialysis. Some blood pressure issues and unexplained weight gain were really getting to me. I was perimenopausal too, which complicated these things.
Thursday, May 16 & Friday May 17
Joacim had left for a fishing trip early Thursday morning that was planned to go through Sunday afternoon. He'd then come home, probably do a bunch of laundry, and was then supposed to be off to Sweden on Monday.
I went to hot yoga in the morning at 9:30am, and then did a leg workout after that, so I was pretty sore when I got home. I decided to take a hot bath to relax and soothe my body, and then my phone rang and it was a 507 area code. I answered it, and the surgeon on the other end of the line said that they think they have a kidney for me and did I want it. I only remembering answering yes...too stunned to think of any questions to ask. Of course I was also thinking "how is Joacim going to get home? He drove up with one o the other guys and was still on his way there. The surgeon said that donor was deceased, and that the planned surgery would be 10:00pm. If they called me after that, the kidney was mine, and if they didn't call well....it wasn't.
I dread this. I'd like call either way, but that's not how it works. Anyway, I called Joacim to let him know about the call, but we decided it didn't make sense to do anything different at that point because what if they didn't call? Plus, I was scared to jinx it.
I then went down to my good friend Julia's house and told her, and she was as excited for me as I was. We talk about it a lot because I complain about the dialysis struggles and the impact on my every day life. I also asked her if maybe she could drive down there with me if they called so she could drive my car back home. Then I called my Dad. and then I saw my friend Jill while walking our dog, Tucker, and told her. She also lives nearby and between her and Julia knew that they could help out Izzy too. And then I texted my college roommates Andrea, Carrie and Holly. And, of course, I told my first kidney donor, Adam. He was so happy for me, and it felt really great.
When Izzy got home and I told her what was going on, and gave her the option of coming with me or staying home. We felt staying home was the right thing for her...she was having her bestie over the next day anyway, and had work both Saturday and Sunday (yes, she has a JOB now...and is DRIVING!!).
And that was it. I tried to stay busy all day. Did some gardening, watched some shows with Izzy when she got home..just chill. I don't know....I can't explain it (likely a trauma response) but I didn't feel any emotions about it all day. It was in the back of my head, but not consuming me. I've gotten one call before, 3 years prior, and it gutted me when they didn't end up calling. I wasn't going to do that again, so I just went on and if nothing was happening. I went to bed around 10:00pm, scrolled TikTok for an embarrassingly long time, and finally, when it was 1:00am and no call, I assumed it was over. I took my sleeping/anxiety meds and went to sleep.
And then 42 minutes later the surgeon called again and gave me the miraculous new. I had a kidney. "How long would it be before I could make it down there." I said 4:00am and he said "we'll plan on seeing you then". And then I called Julia to tell her so she could get ready to come with me. I woke up Izzy to let her know, and her hug and excitement for me I'l remember forever. And I called my dad. I started packing furiously (yes, I didn't even pack a single thing cause jinxing...). I wasn't even sure what I threw in there and if it made sense, but I had to pack for a week of being in the hospital and then the time after in the hotel, plus toiletries and things to do during all the downtime I'd have.
Julia arrived about 20 minutes later, I grabbed a couple of cheese sticks and a sleeve of crackers, and we headed to Mayo. I started trying to get a hold of Joacim, but he was about 4 hours north, on Lake Winnie (for the locals), and without a vehicle. I texted, called and left messages, but the service is not great where they were staying, and I knew I had to wait until he woke up and read his text messages.
Julia and I got there around 4:00am. She came in with me to check in because I was worried that they'd say no if they saw I came there by myself, but they weren't so then she was able to leave and get home to get her girls ready for the school in the morning (on basically no sleep....sorry Julia :) And things went fast from there. I got to what was supposed to be my post-op room, had labs come in and draw a lot of tubes of blood. Then I had plasmapheresis in the room and a thymoglobulin infusion to reduce the risk of rejection. And THEN I had to get dialysis for 3 hours, partly because I would've dialyzed that night normally, and my potassium was a little high. And after dialysis I went to get a chest x-ray, and then we headed back up to our room and they were ready to take me to post-op. The surgery was scheduled for 3:00pm, and it was around 1:30pm at this point. I finally did get a hold of Joacim, and one the guys fishing up there was driving him back home (thank you Mike!!!), but he didn't make it to the hospital before my surgery. I had to get a pregnancy test (blood) because I didn't make urine and I was still getting my periods, even irregularly, so that added some extra wait time.
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But pretty quickly I was rolled to the OR. I'll never forget this...I see 2 surgeons in the corner of the room hovering over the donor kidney. I looked at it and it was white....like no blood in it at all. This kind of mentally prepared me for delayed functioning. I found out eventually that the kidney had been on ice for 19 hours prior to getting to me (I know, the math ain't mathin' but who cares?) It was so weird walking in there and having my hope for a new life in a container. We had to wait about 20-30 minutes in the OR on the pregnancy test, but as soon was we got the result I started drifting to sleep and the surgey started.
Okay, it's 10:00pm here. I'm tired and have labs tomorrow at 6:50am, so I'm going to head off to bed. I'll cover the rest tomorrow in a part 2. Good night!
(and I don't know why the photos are wonky...there aren't a lot of options in Blogger) but they are as follows:
1. pre-op activities
2. labs....so many vials
3. dialysis
4. a photo that I sent to my friend Holly during dialysis
5. me, still in disbelief in pre-op
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