Day 3 update

Finally, an update from me! Thank you Julie for updating for me, I really appreciate it.

I'm feeling a little better today, not in nearly so much pain but I am still very very uncomfortable. I guess everyone who has had a transplant or knows someone who did either actually did have things easier or they forgot how painful it is.

I kept hearing that I was going to feel like a brand new person every time someone heard about my transplant and I Was hoping more than anything that it would be true. Unforutunately life s full of harsh realities and I'm having to deal with some major discouragement, a lot of pain and when I'm not in pain, a lot of uncomfortable situations.

I've dealt with a little set back by the discovery of a blood clot in my jugalar vein in my neck probably as a result of my hemo-dialysis catheter that I wish I never would have had and never really worked right anyway. So I'm on some anti-coagulation medications to break up the clot but that's really risky because I just had surgery and they don't want me to bleed to death. My left arm is swelled up and looks awful and my left knee is a little puffy too. Nothing we can do about it until the clot dissolves.

I also have to start taking off my bandage from the site and that is going to hurt like crazy and since I'm trying to lay off the pain meds (there's some other reasns but I don't really need them as much anyway since it doesn't hurt too bad)

Today I'm going to be moving from the ICU to the surgical floor where my dad stayed. The
tentative date for my release is Tuesday and I'll be able to get my Foley catheter out tomorrow and I'm literally counting down the hours to get that thing out of me.

So, just so y'all don't think that everything is terrible, my creatinine levels are almost completely normal and I have no dietary restrictions whatsoever. a tually, the kidney is working so well, I've comletely flip-flopped on levels that were too high before and now they're too low so all the things I wasn't supposed to eat before, I'm being told to eat them by the doctor and dietition. Yay! One small comfort.

Overall, the whole experience has been very disillusioning and disappointing and extremeley painful and I don't know that I would have done this is I knew what was going to happen exactly. I just hope this kidney lasts a good long time because I probably won't be willing to go through this again.

I would definitely appreciate prayers for the clot to break up, that the bandage would come off relatively painlessly, that I can get some tubes and drains out of my body tomorrow, that I would be able to walk without a walker and with less pain, and that I can get out of here Tuesday. I'm also dealing with a lot of emotional stuff that is making everything more difficult so please just pray that i'll have enough strenght to hang on longer.

I did get some sleep last night and that was really important. I feel a bit better and I'm hoping I'll be able to sleep tonight. My dad is on his way home right now so that will be hood for him. He was discharged yesterday and he is doing well. He ecovered much better than I did and he is actually enjoying his battle scars. We sure earned them after all this junk we had to fight through...

As always, we appreciate all your prayers and support and I'll continue to update when I can. Because I'm on my itouch, I can't link to facebook so that's why you might not see them there. Hope you have a good day and you enjoy being out of the hospital.