Happy 1 Yr Kidney Birthday, Heather!

Check Out the 1 Year Kidney Congrats Card for Heather!

Heather’s Surgery

I mentioned in a previous post that Heather had some problems with the hospital. I neglected to mention them before so I figured I would summarize the most grievous one’s below.
22 hours spent in post op as no room available.
She had a skin graft taken from her thigh. Saturday evening it split open [...]

1 Month

Tomorrow is our one month surgery anniversary. The months building up to it seemed to go by slowly and now that we’re post surgery, time is flying by again. Tomorrow is also my first day back at work. I planned on going back sooner but my sleeping schedule is so out of [...]

A Christmas Miracle

Throughout the entire kidney donation process, one source of great information has been www.livingdonorsonline.org. Many of the postings in the past few days have been about kidneys with multiple arteries, which mine had. What I didn’t realize before donation was that multiple arteries are not a good thing and this can disqualify one from donating. [...]

Home Sweet Home

Mom and I got home Saturday and boy was I POOPED! I didn’t sleep well the night before and I had a knot in my shoulder blade that just killed me on the first flight. A lot of shoulder stretching on our short lay over as well as laying on the floor made [...]

6 Days Post Op

Mom and I got up around 8 today. Neither of us slept good last night. But we were motivated this morning!

Yep, had to have our morning Krispy Kremes! The tall building in the background is our hotel. It was about a 7 minute walk from our hotel – piece [...]

I Snowed the Social Worker

I met with the social worker yesterday and passed with flying colors! It took a lot of work to convince her I was normal and sane but I managed to pull it off!
She was a really neat lady and I enjoyed her a lot. I was with her for about an [...]

Day 4 Summary

Today was a long day – 12 hrs. It was a good day because I got most of my medical appts out of the way. But most importantly, I got to spend most of it with my cousin, catching up. It’s scary how much alike we are. Guess I should send [...]

4 Days Prior to Surgery

I arrived safely in California yesterday afternoon. No problems on the flight except for the HORRENDOUS snorer on the flight from DFW to CA. I’m surprised the pilot didn’t have trouble flying the plane.
Heather and I had an early start on our day – blood testing at 7:30. Then I was off [...]

Getting Ready

I’ve FINALLY started getting in shape for surgery. Putting those tennis shoes on is one of the hardest things to do. The sad part is I only have to drag my lazy ass downstairs – that’s pretty bad! Anyway, Tuesday, I started working out again on the elliptical orbitor. I started with 50 minutes – [...]

SURGERY DATE

FINALLY, we have a surgery date!! Mark your calendars for Friday, December 7th! I remember calling my family to let them know the date. And one family member, brother-in-law, Matt (luv you, Matt but I’m still going to make fun of you…..haha) said something to the effect of “Isn’t that the date [...]

Transplant NEWS

I just found out the transplant will be in 6-8 weeks (somewhere between 11/21 and 12/5). I don’t have the exact dates yet but will let you know once I find out more.

TATTOO MAMA

I don’t think I told you that I’m now a TATTOO MAMA! My sisters all have some, two of them have several. I thought my kidney tattoo would be my first one but I got one for Anne first. She’s been sending me butterflies since the day she passed so I now [...]

Stella’s Got Her Groove Back

Who’s Stella? I always liked that name. It sounds so cool. But, I’m talkin about Anne. She’s trotting around like a little kid. I think it’s because she’s eating more. I think I finally cracked the code. I started putting a little spaghetti sauce on her food and WOW, she’s gobbles it right up. I’m [...]

Hey Buddy, Can You Spare a Kidney?

As of today, there are 72,807 people in need of a kidney transplant – 429 more people since July 18, 2007 – less than a month ago.
A friend of mine, who donated a kidney to his brother early July, finally talked some sense into me with regards to the transplant. I was [...]

Happy Birthday To Me….

…happy birthday to me…. Whoo Hooo! The big 40 today. I thought it would be a lot harder for me since we can’t have kids. But I’m pleasantly surpised to report I’m excited about this birthday! Guru is so funny, he can never wait to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, holiday… you name [...]

Kidney Donation

For the last two months I’ve been going through lots of medical testing to be a kidney donor for my cousin. Last Thursday, we found out that our crossmatch was negative – which is good! That was a HUGE hurdle. Fortunately, the CA transplant facility is letting me do alot of the remaining testing here [...]