Transplanted Pastor

One Month in the Books! It is January 14th, 2023 today. For some it is an exciting day because it marks the start of the NFL playoffs. For others, today they celebrate National Bagel Day (we had bagels this morning for breakfast). For Kristin and I, today is the one-month anniversary of our kidney surgeries. In some ways the time has flown by rather quickly,  but it also has felt like we've been healing and recovering for much longer than just one month. So, where do things currently stand with my recovery? Keep reading to find out. The New Kidney My new kidney continues to excel and my transplant team is quite pleased with how well it is functioning. There have been no signs of rejection nor any infections.My incisions are healing nicely and I have been pain free for a couple of weeks now.  I forgot to mention this in my last post, but my bladder control improved quite quickly, although it took some getting used to going to the bathroom more frequently. When I was on dialysis...

Coming Home Sometimes I just have to marvel at how advanced medical care has become. I was only in the hospital for 3 days before I was discharged to go home. My father picked me up around 3:00 P.M., and with traffic, it took us about 90 minutes to get home.  Now, because my new kidney was working really well, and my bladder not being used to so much activity (while I was on dialysis, I only drained my bladder 2-3 times a day), I had to go to the bathroom a lot! Starting out, I had to frequent the bathroom every 30-60 minutes. Also, since I had a catheter, until the day of my discharge, my bladder was slow in recognizing that the catheter had been removed. This made holding my pee very difficult at first. All these factors made the 90-minute drive home quite agonizing. Thankfully, I made it home and to the bathroom before I had an accident. It was not the "welcome home" I wanted as I had to blow past my family to make it to the bathroom in time. Afterwards, the hugging and gr...

Surgery Day Wednesday, December 14th started out like any other middle-of-the-week hump day, with one small change. Normally, my 10 1/2 hours of dialysis didn’t finish until sometime between 7:30 AM and 8 AM., however, I started earlier the night before so I could finish sooner. I wanted to be present with my oldest daughter (10), to help ease any anxiety she may have felt about her mother and I both going into surgery later that day.  As I was preparing my morning Metamucil, both my daughters (youngest is 3 1/2) came into the kitchen and gave me hugs. These hugs felt like an affirmation from both girls that, in spite all the challenges my health problems have caused them to miss out on normal father/daughter activities (the tiredness making it hard to have the energy to play with them, for example) they still loved me and were as hopeful as I was that a new kidney would equate to a new me. After saying goodbye to my oldest as she left for school, it was time to get ready myself. I...

I t is finally here; tomorrow is the big day. There are so many emotions that I am feeling today. I am excited for the benefits of having a good, working kidney.  I'm looking forward to having more energy and vigor. But with the excitement come nervousness as well. What if something goes wrong? What if my body just won't accept this new kidney? What if I die? Then there is the heavy weight of responsibility that I feel with receiving such.a gift. So many have sacrificed something to get me to this point, especially my spouse, who is donating one of her kidneys so that I can receive a kidney, and the mystery donor who's kidney I will receive. Can I do what it will take to make sure this kidney lasts me for many,  many years?  Yet there is also feelings of relief. I'm finally at the end of my dialysis journey for, hopefully, a long time. It has been frustrating to enter into my dialysis prison every night (I do Peritoneal Dialysis at home every night for 10 1/2 hours), wh...