Well, what's been happening!

To start, it's all pretty good. I feel fantastic, the prograf is giving some issues but i'm down to 2*3 and 10mg of pred and thrice daily mmf. My mood swings have calmed down heaps and i'm finally back under my own neph.

My 3 month biopsy was clear of rejection and they went back and looked at the first biopsy and found that there wasn't any rejection (had atg etc for 7 doses due to suspected cellular and vascular rejection) but the issues were caused by blood flow issues (i'll get to that in a bit, good news first). they found a crescent in the biopsy but they say it's ok as it's caused by the donor (mine failure was due to trauma/ blood loss so no auto immune issues that would cause it, like lupus). My ceatinine is down to 125/130 (normal is 50-90).

they are also considering droping my tac as well so next week i should be on 2*2 (yay). BP is messing up so i'm on 100 twice daily of metropolol (for heart rate) and 5mg of perivasc and that keeps it at 130/85 ish.

My wound finally healed (after a 3rd surgery to debride the wound and re-suture it) but now i have to large divots in my side (going to be fixed hopefully), oh and guess what that made it my 11th surgery (YAY!).

Now!!!! apparently when they moved my kidney above the muscle to correct blood flow issues it didn't completely resolve the issue. i've developed a 90% stenosis on my illiac artery going to my right leg and a 50-70%V blockage on the graft artery and it;s too complicated to do a plasty so they are going to go in and try to transplant arteries from either my bum (so i'll really be "arse about"

) or from a cadaveric donor. hopefully then i'll get even more function back, they are shocked at how strong the kidney is considering what it's dealing with. So whislt they are doing that there is about a 10% chance that i'll lose the kidney in surgery but almost a 100% chance that i'll loose it to complications if i don't have the surgery (can you guess my choice?).

The Prof actually took photo's of my ct scans and said sorry, but it's rare to see something like this... hmm should i be worried?

(not about him, i have complete faith in the prof and all the surgical team, hey they know me by name). So they will move the kidney under at the same time, thankgod, i can actually feel the heat generated by the kidney through my skin. When i cook it's worse cause i can feel the stove heat on my kidney. i tried running but that was a no go so is riding a bike, situps and any real form of exercise bar walking. It also looks weird cause it has dropped about and inch and half since the 2nd surgery so know the kidney is sitting right on my C-section scar (kind of hurts too).

Well that's the bad news! i've only gained 5.5kgs since the transplant (going on 4 months now) but that goes up and down, she (jan, my girl..... as in the old yellow pages add.... 'not....happy.....JAN!- came from jokes with my family, as in only ever buy a series II holden caused they've worked out the kinks by then.... "so what, i should have waited for the 2nd edition of the kidney?", now i'm truely going to be an arse about kind of gal. "Shit, the Dr's gave me a bum steer' (re the bum artery surgery). you can see we've kept our sense of humour.

I finally got married last saturday (photos' are on face book- my details are on the facebook thread), as i partook in a little celebratory champas and CSC (cowgirls... yum) i had quite the moon face happening come the reception, i also did a yeehaw with the corset that kept the kidney in during the wedding service so my kidney popped during hte reception). We are looking at new caledonia for the honeymoon (after my next operation). I made it to 32 (my b'day was the wednesday before the wedding).

I still have my tired moments from the meds but all in all i feel great, i got the transplant just in time to experience my dirty thirties! and food tastes soooooooo good! i drank a smoothie everday for the first 3 months, now i'm onto MILO! can't get enough of it. I have 1-3 milo's everyday (for our US friends it's Oz's fave malted/chocolate milk drink... i know i'ts in other countries but it was developed here so it's as aussies as vegemite)... actually i'm going to have one now!.

So thanks to everyone who sent well wishes, i'll let you know how it all goes, the surgery will hopefully be in the coming month or so!

Cheers