We got the CALL...at 4:00am this morning!

[Kathymac2]

So happy for you, Holly and your family. This is the best Christmas news ever.

Best wishes for a Happy and busy New Year!

Kathy

[kristina]

Great news !!! Well done!!! And the best of luck!!!
... And please let us know how "things" develop ...
... And all the best wishes from Kristina.

[justagirl2325]

Such a wonderful story and pictures.

[Xplantdad]

So far everything is going great. Every other day blood tests to monitor kidney function as it "wakes up", also to monitor her medication levels as her body gets adjusted to them and check the rate of metabolism. Also, still doing dialysis (either pulling off the minimum...or in the case of last night, just above the minimum)...until the kidney wakes up fully.

The dialysis is being done in center-so my wife and I get our respite from NXStage home hemo...kinda nice after a year doing it at home. No complaints here!

[Charlie B53]

Wonderful news!  I can't begin to explain how much this will mean to her life and health.

[PrimeTimer]

Happy New Year to you, Holly and her new bean! How is she doing? Hope this isn't too personal but am curious, are they telling her to drink lots of water? Thought I've read other posts about transplants and the docs say drink lots of water to wake up or work the new kidney. Is it the same in Holly's situation? I think it would be hard for someone to live with fluid restrictions for so long and then one day be told to drink up. Hope Holly is doing well. 

[Xplantdad]

Primetimer....thanks for asking! That was a question that I asked as well! They told us to limit intake to 1500ml per day until the kidney woke up. We did Dialysis on December 26 (took off the min) December 28 (took off 2.0) and December 30 (took off the min). It appears that the kidney started to wake up on December 30...and we've been monitoring urine output from the start. When she was first home, she was averaging 150 to 300 ml per day. Today so far, she's output 1300ml.

We go for blood tests early tomorrow am and for a quick clinic visit, but they told us that we could be close to being done with dialysis

Then, the next step is to get the stent out..and once the dialysis is done, the CVC cath!

Holly is progressing wonderfully from the surgery...and we are trying to take walks of at least two blocks each day.

Oh, Holly has named her kidney Alejandro     LOL!

Charlie, she is so happy right now...but also understands that someone died...so she could get her kidney.

Thanks again everyone for the good wishes!

[PrimeTimer]

We are so happy for Holly and her "Alejandro the kidney". We wish them many happy years together! Bet she looks forward to getting off dialysis, I cannot imagine what her life has been like and now to not have to be on dialysis...my husband says just getting to drink what you want would be worth going thru a transplant (altho he has stated he doesn't want one). I imagine a young woman like Holly is ready to get out and about without having to think of running back home or to a center during certain hours to do dialysis...good for her! Hope you guys keep us posted on her progress, emotionally, physically and medically. Seems that on one hand she is going through a very serious situation while on the other, a very exciting one. I just could not imagine... 

[Xplantdad]

Hi PT! Holly's output for  today so far is 1950ml...and the day isn't over yet...it's 5:21pm. Kidney is definitely waking up...and the blood tests are showing all of the necessary progression towards complete wake up. They cancelled dialysis for today...and after the blood test tomorrow-if all looks good and they cancel dialysis, the doc said that they will pull the tunneled CVC tomorrow.

I will certainly keep everyone updated about what's happening with her. 

[Charlie B53]

Whooo Hooooo!

[cassandra]

Men o men that's such fantastic news!!!
Happy peeing darlings!

                  


Love, luck and strength, Cas

[Hootie]

Great news! Happy for you, Bruce and Holly! A better life is ahead!

[Xplantdad]

Congrats to you and your wife, too... Hootie on your wife's transplant! Thanks Cas for the good wishes-you, too Charlie!

Blood tests this am show continued progress. They are cancelling tomorrow's dialysis...and if they cancel it for Friday, the tunneled CVC cath will come out. The doc just doesn't want to rush into getting the cath out and having something happen

So, we take it one day at a time. And that is fine with us!

[Charlie B53]

I'm such a chicken with many procedures, and that cath doesn't HAVE TO come out so soon.  She can wait another week, just to be sure.  And that wouldn't hurt a thing except extend the time before she can FINALLY stand in the shower and get ALL wet!

[Xplantdad]

Here's the update for Holly. Kidney function is continually improving. She's doing number one...quite a bit...and is above the daily average.

She got the CVC (Central venous catheter) taken out today. The CVC was used as the hook up for dialysis both at home and at the dialysis center...which means....NO MORE DIALYSIS! All of her blood tests are trending in the right direction...and where they expect Holly to be. Next step is staples removed next Tuesday and stent removed next Wednesday (Oh, and a million blood tests...LOL).

And I packed up all the NXStage stuff for them to pick up. We have so many dialysis supplies that they cannot take back. We're going to research to see if there are any dialysis training classes that could use any of this stuff...if not, we will pitch it 

[PrimeTimer]

"Holly News is Happy News"!  So glad she got the cath out and is OFF dialysis! Looks like you've got some celebrating to look forward to this weekend, have fun (or as much as the patient can!)

When I go, I want to donate my organs but also was set on donating my body to a willed body program for med students to practice on (they don't allow you to do both). Cadavers have to be intact for the med students to learn on. But the more I think about it, the more I feel that donating ALL my organs, including skin, muscles and corneas would perhaps give society the biggest bang for the buck. Thanks to Holly's story and the others on this site, that when my time is up, I'm leaning more towards having every part of me donated. 

Let the Good Times Roll!! 

[SooMK]

Yay! Wonderful news!

[Hootie]

Bruce, really happy Holly is doing well. We donated our consumable supplies to a free health clinic in our area.  They took syringes, tape, gauze, saline,  etc. no meds and no dialysis paks, saks,  bags, needles. Others have given to vet clinics. Davita is having the machine, bags, paks, saks,, picked up for us. On Monday we will be completely rid of the dialysis stuff.

The wife had her first month anniversary today with a visit to Emory. All is well as blood work was perfect. Got her second infusion of belatacept. Appears to be working well.

Continued good health to Holly...

[Xplantdad]

Bruce, really happy Holly is doing well. We donated our consumable supplies to a free health clinic in our area.  They took syringes, tape, gauze, saline,  etc. no meds and no dialysis paks, saks,  bags, needles. Others have given to vet clinics. Davita is having the machine, bags, paks, saks,, picked up for us. On Monday we will be completely rid of the dialysis stuff.

The wife had her first month anniversary today with a visit to Emory. All is well as blood work was perfect. Got her second infusion of belatacept. Appears to be working well.

Continued good health to Holly...

Hootie...great idea on the free health clinic and vets. We will do that as well.

 Fresenius will not take the paks/saks/bags/etc so we will have to toss that stuff. I am waiting on the Fresenius folks to come and get the cycler...still

Sounds like your wife is doing well, too! Here's to her continued good health, too!

[Hootie]

Actually, Davita is taking the core dialysis fluids along with cartiledges and paks. They are trashing them for us.

[LorinnPKD]

Sending all good thoughts to Holly!

And my thanks to those families with the compassion to donate.  They are the best people.

[Xplantdad]

I figured that I would give an update on Holly...as we are just past two months out from her transplant. Thing are going awesome for Holly and "Alejandro". Holly's creatinine is 1.2 (sometimes 1.1), she's on a low dose of immunosuppressants (the dose it actually lower than when she was on them just for the heart transplant!), all of the other markers and levels that they are measuring are well within spec, too!

She's gone from 80.2KG (right after transplant) to 71.1KG now. Her dry weight when she started dialysis was 69.6 (I think?) so she's almost back to that weight, too.

We pray nightly for the person who donated the kidney.

[cassandra]

Thanx for the update Xplantdad. Real nice to hear all of you are doing so well.

Love, luck and strength, Cas

[SooMK]

Wonderful news!

[iolaire]

Thanks for the update.  Here is to hoping that her kidney is one of those that hold up for the long term.  Maybe she will make it to the future with artificial kidneys on this one.