I have a surgery date!

[Fabkiwi06]

 

January 31st, I'll be swiping my mother's kidney and claiming it as my own. I have yet to fully process all of that and I still have the holidays to get through, but there is a date. Now, I just need to figure out what needs to be done between now and then.

Any tips or things you wish you had done prior (for both me and mom) would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure I'll be crawling through the archives constantly between now and then to soak up all the knowledge that is here.

[PrimeTimer]

Congratulations on your good news! You'll need a new Xmas ornament for 2017 (new kidney's first year).   

[jmintuck]

Congratulations on your good news! You'll need a new Xmas ornament for 2017 (new kidney's first year). 

Yea, like a Baby's First Christmas. Kind of a funny sense of humor.

[justagirl2325]

Congratulations!  That must feel so exciting just knowing it's going to happen and when.  I'll be following your story. Good luck.

[Simon Dog]

I you find it hard to sleep while in the hospital, ask one of the MDs to write a PRN for a sleep aid so you can get it if needed.

[kickingandscreaming]

That's terrific news!  Hope everything goes without a hitch.

[Charlie B53]

Exciting cannot begin to describe how you are feeling.   I don't know if I  would ever manage to sleep at all while waiting for the day to come.


Wondrous news.   Continuous Prays all goes well for you both!

[LorinnPKD]

WONDERFUL NEWS!

As with all procedures that have extended recovery, you might spend some time cleaning and organizing and repairing around your house so you have a superclean and happy nest to come back to.

Sending all good thoughts to you and your mom as you prepare!

[MooseMom]

That's fantastic!! 

Since this is abdominal surgery, arrange things so that you won't have to bend over too much once you get home.  Little things like getting shoes or slippers that you can slide your feet into; that sort of thing.

The quicker you start moving around, the better and quicker you will heal.

Arrange for someone to drive you to appointments until you are allowed to drive again.

Make sure you fully understand your med schedule before you leave the hospital. 

Best of luck!  You'll do very well, I'm sure!

[Kathymac2]

I am so happy for you!   

My best wishes to you and your mom.

Kathy

[nursey66]

Such a big change in life style, so glad for you ! My husband did dialysis for a year , then got a kidney from his sister , lasted 11 years , then 2 years of dialysis and got a cadaver kidney 1 year ago , Interesting , the cadaver kidney is working way better than the living donor did !  At least so far !!! Congrats !

[coravh]

 Here's a word of warning. This doesn't happen to everyone, but it happened to a friend of mine (I witnessed it) and so I was calmer when it happened to me. She was scared, paranoid, and sort of seeing things during the first little while in hospital (we were both in for about 2 weeks right at the start). It was mainly due to the heavy dose of drugs they give you right off the bad. So if suddenly, you find yourself very afraid, for anything, know that you can talk yourself down and you will feel better. It's a transitory feeling and will go away, but it's a bit like directed dreaming. You can control it. And then things almost instantly get better.

Remember, this isn't an instant fix. Tehre's a lot of work afterwards and constantly going for labs gets to be a drag really quickly. But keep track of things and you will find that every day you will feel better and better. And that's something to celebrate and a nice contrast to the slow downward spiral that is kidney disease.

[DayaraLee]

What wonderful, exciting news!!! Congratulations!!!! So, so happy for you, and I bet you can't keep the smile from your face!       

[Xplantdad]

Congrats to you! You will be just fine 

[cassandra]

Wow fantastic news

   


Wishing you and your mum all the best!!

Lots of love, luck and strength, Cas

[Fabkiwi06]

Thank you all. It's both very exciting and very daunting - especially with the holidays coming up between now and then. It seems like a long way off still, but I know it's going to fly by.

Roommate is supposed to move out in December, so that will make for having people stay and care for us much easier. We're trying to figure who is going to be down here for our caretakers - I'm down here in Nashville and family is all in Michigan. I'll be gone for Christmas, so that cuts down on prep time. Also have an inheritance estate out in Cali that we're still trying to sort out that I would ideally like to get taken care of before I'm laid up for a bit. Will need to head out west for a week to deal with that... so yeah... it's gonna FLY by.

[SooMK]

To Coravh's point, although I saw my family after surgery, I completely forgot I'd seen them. I was in recovery and then had two units of blood which took all night. I thought my family had gone home and left me there without seeing me. I was bereft. Now I laugh about it but at the time it was frightening. This is major surgery for you (my donor had a bumpy first week and then was great). Recovery takes a long time. You need to have compassion for yourself, not push yourself too much and follow the clinic's instructions. Slowly, slowly you find a balance of not being too cautious but protecting yourself. You may have a setback or two but when the dust settles I find life with a transplant to be way less difficult than I had imagined. I wish you the best.

[iolaire]

That's good news, hoping all goes as well as it can.

[MooseMom]

Of course, surgery is a serious matter and is not to be taken lightly.  People will be all too willing to tell you all sorts of weird tales of what happened to them.

To try to put you at ease, I had my transplant surgery at 8:30AM on a Sunday morning and was home by Wednesday afternoon (it would have been even earlier than that, but there was all of the release papers to get through and a two hour drive home).  I never saw any ghosties or beasties due to any meds.  When I got home, I was up and walking within a day.  Gentle walks helped me feel immensely better.

Everyone has their surgery story, but they don't all have to be bad.  I am confident that you will be fine!  Again, congrats!

[nightwalker]

Super stoked for you! I will find out on Friday if the committee at UCLA will accept my mother as a donor as well. My sister tried but was denied due to something called Thin Based Membrane,which is basically benign but nonetheless disqualified her. Good luck with everything!

[lainiepop]

Great news what a start to 2017 that will be! My dad donated to me 4 and a half yrs ago now and honestly surgery and recovery wasn't bad. Ive had a few ops throughout my life and tx was easiest to recover from after the initial day after. Very similar to my c section 😂😂. Good luck, enjoy christmas and keep us updated. Oh and be warned u will be emotional after especially when u see your mum and there may be ups and downs we all had them and all been worried about the tx and meds in the weeks  (and years 😂😂) after tx so any questions or worries bring them to us xxx

[kristina]

Great news and it is not that much time to wait any longer...
Best wishes and good luck from Kristina.

[PrimeTimer]

January 31st, I'll be swiping my mother's kidney and claiming it as my own. I have yet to fully process all of that and I still have the holidays to get through, but there is a date. Now, I just need to figure out what needs to be done between now and then.

Any tips or things you wish you had done prior (for both me and mom) would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure I'll be crawling through the archives constantly between now and then to soak up all the knowledge that is here.

Any updates you'd like to share, Fabkiwi06? Hope it is all going your way and that you have good news soon! 

[Metalangel28]

That's awesome!! Keep us updated on how you are doing