Six months ago this morning, I was gowned, IVed, pressure-cuff-legged and dopey on Benedryl in a pre-op waiting room, dozing while a surgical team removed my brother's right kidney. So much about my health has improved since then, but I am still fighting my way back to a semblance of myself pre-kidney failure. As I type this, I'm sitting in a gastroenterologist's waiting room, hoping he'll be able to shed some light on the ongoing digestive issues that continue to knock me out for a few days each week.
When a transplant patient tells you that transplant is a treatment, not a cure, believe them.
I am simultaneously so grateful for the incredible gift my brother gave me, and incredibly frustrated that I'm not yet all the way back to health. And guilty over that frustration. But I have faith that I'll get there eventually. The transplant clinic has turfed me back to my "home" nephrologist for alternate check ups, now extended from monthly to every two months. After bouncing up to 1.7, my creatinine seems to be settling in at 1.5-ish, which is respectable (if not as sexy as the 0.9 it was immediately following the transplant). And with the help of physical therapy, I have very little incision pain, am regaining use of my lower abdominal muscles, and no longer need to rest after climbing a flight of stairs.
I will take progress wherever I can find it.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Happy Semi-Kidney-versary to Me
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2 comments:
When I was tired and frustrated two months after my appendectomy, I was lucky to have someone at work who was a marathon runner who said it took her over six months, despite her awesome physical condition, to get back in to some semblance of normal. Your body has sustained lots more insult than an appendectomy. Patience. Not easy, but recommended. Hang in there--thinking of you.
Yes, hang in there! Knowing nothing about your gi issues, I would like to recommend that you research side effects of your medications. I was on lisinopril for 27 years (!) before I figured out that it has a rare side effect of small intestine swelling. Good luck! I'm sure things will improve.
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