First came the end ,then the beginning and 2 shall be joined as 1

My donor is part of me . I am part of him , We need each other we are 2 that became 1 within this
shell called a body .

( I have introduced myself and posted some . Here is the story of my transplant . more stories about treatments later)

The Doctor told me it was a young person from Southern California . I received my transplant in August 1999 .
I felt I would never know from who . Sure enough letters to the family went unanswered . I thank them to this
day for the choice they made . I will survive .

The call came shortly after my wife left for work , I needed to head into LA and get to the hospital . I called my wife
after she got to work . I called mt in laws and my sister , to let them know. I drove to my wifes office and
we left her car there with the keys and they said they would pull the car into the warehouse after work to keep it
safe . We drove to the hospital , UCLA in Westwood .

Inside we went to admitting and they had all the paperwork already . The Transplant Center had planned for everything .
I thought about life without that darn machine . and special diets and all those other things that we do when being treated,
I was taken to a room and the tests started. Blood , Urine and xrays were all done . The doctors came in and said it was all
looking good and the transplant teams were on the way for the recovery . I was getting a Kidney and Pancreas ,
They wanted me to take one more session of Dialysis before the surgery , they wanted me to be as clean and fresh as possible.
I felt like I was in a whirlwind , everything seemed to be going around and around . While in the Dialysis center I heard
the Helicopters landing , Were those the doctors coming with the organs ?

Flash ahead to ICU , I was in recovery . The pain is tremendous , I had a breathing tube . I didn't need it , I wanted it out .
I tried to take it out and they tied my hands down . Back to sleep I went . Waking up . again I realized it was all over .
I was in ICU and I was calmer. The tube was finally removed and I could speak . The drugs they used created wild vivid
dreams . I was racing around the hospital in racing pods from Star Wars . I did not even like Star Wars . Was this the Donore
speaking out ? That was never answered , Neither was the reason why in the beginning I only wanted to eat food
that was Orange , Nothing but Orange food , that really limits your diet . That need slowly went away , except the only
Jello I eat now is orange.

The medicine regime started , Lots of it . prednisone , Cell Cept , Prograf , Vitamins , so many I can not remember hem all
here and now. I have my records and I will check and let you know which ones I took . 64 pills aday I believe it was.
They wondered why I wasn't hungry . During the 4th day of recovery , I sneezed and shortly had a lot of pain .
It was determined that when I sneezed I tore the sutures where the Pancreas was sewn at and hand to go back for
more surgery . What a bummer that was, This time was not as bad and a quick recovery was upon me . I spent about
9 days in the hospital , Some of this time was recovering from a bout with depression . and the doctors felt I was better
staying in the hospital a little while longer .

The depression came from the medicines I was on . It just brought out weird feelins . My Older brother had offered me a Kidney ,
but he had a younger daughter , and if she ever needed one and I had taken it , well I just couldn't He died 6 months
before my transplant due to a heart attack , and his widow was asked if she was able to donate any organs , Her response was
" He was leaving with what he came into the world with " I said nothing when I heard her say this , know what she was going
through . I delivered a Eulogy for him with my arm wrapped in bandages recovering from surgery to repair my arm from a
botched graft implant . ( more later on this)

After getting sorted out as the doctor put it , I was released and needed to be in Clinic every other day for 3 weeks . Mt
Insurance paid for me to stay at House next to the hospital provided for patients and family who had to travel far.
I would travel 40 miles if I did not stay there . They had a small store there and you could order meals in from surrounding
eateries . My labs were looking good . I was sent home to recover more and the trips went to once a week at the clinic.

Then it hit , The rejection . I showed its ugly head during a clinic visit . I had a fever and the labs were up . Off to the Hospital
I went . A biopsy was ordered and done and the kidney was rejecting me . I wasn't rejecting it as I wanted it .

With very strong medicine I was able to beat the rejection . My doses of medicine went up and things have settled in .
The meds have gone down and I am still feeling great .
I use Predisone , Prograff , Lisinpril and Zocor along with over the counter vitamins and rantodine for stomach upset ,
I also use SPF 50 sunscreen as I have developed skin cancer from the imunosupressant drugs . It is not Melanoma but
squamish cell type . So transplant patients need to be careful

Katonsdad