So, I may have failed to mention that the night before the surgery, my wallet was lost/stolen. Of course, I didn't figure this out until 5:30am on Tuesday when I needed to be at the hospital at 6am. Ugh. I was able to muster up the energy to cancel the two cards I know I had in the wallet on day 2 post-op, but haven't really done much about it since then. Last night Greg took me to the mall to buy a new wallet. That was when I realized that I was NOT ready for public showing. Being in the mall was overwhelming and exhausting and I had never been so excited to make it home and climb back onto the couch.
Today, I have to make my way into the bank because they wouldn't replace my ATM card over the phone. Grrrr....REALLY?!? So that is my outing for the day.
My other plans for the day are to try and write down everything I think I had in my wallet that needs to be replaced and then maybe a short walk. Yesterday was a big day - having taken a long walk and a trip to the mall really took it out of me. Today is also Greg's last day at home with me, so it will be nice to just have some downtime with him before he heads back to work.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Recovery Day 5
Today is my second full day home. What a difference a few days makes. Yesterday was day 4 and my first full day home. That meant a lot more moving around the house and less assistance in getting up and down. I took it pretty easy and that seemed to be the right thing to do. I was also blessed with a few visitors, which helped the time pass.
I woke up today at 8am and took my painkillers, which promptly put me back to sleep. When I woke up again at 11am, Greg, Boston (our pup) and our friend Johnny (our former roommate) were going to walk to Bloc 11 to get coffee. I figured it would be great to start the day with a short walk. I didn't think I could go the whole distance, so I decided to join them for part of the way. When we got to our first uphill, I decided to give it a try. I had only been walking on flat ground and wasn't sure how I would respond. Uphills seemed to be OK! I kept on going until we got to the downhill. This was a bit more painful, but I figured that at this point, I was halfway to the cafe, might as well keep going (as there would be treats at the end......). I made it all the way! I was tired when I got there, but I did it! Each way is about .75miles, so in total, I walked about 1.5 miles in 45 minutes. And it felt great! (and as a side note, it also helped me go to the bathroom, which I am finding out is one of the biggest challenges to this recovery......the location of the incision combined with the amount of painkillers I am on make for an unresponsive/unhappy colon.......walk, walk, walk is the take home message here......)
I feel like today is the first day of "training mode". It is May 16, and I walked 1.5 miles in 45 minutes. In 3 months, I will swim/bike/run 70.3 miles. Two days ago, this felt like a completely ridiculous goal. Today, it feels more achievable than I could have imagined.
And on another note, my dad is getting out of the hospital today. He is doing great and his (my) kidney is working well. His levels have just about normalized and he hasn't shown any signs of rejection. It hasn't even been a week and yet things seem to be on the up and up.
I woke up today at 8am and took my painkillers, which promptly put me back to sleep. When I woke up again at 11am, Greg, Boston (our pup) and our friend Johnny (our former roommate) were going to walk to Bloc 11 to get coffee. I figured it would be great to start the day with a short walk. I didn't think I could go the whole distance, so I decided to join them for part of the way. When we got to our first uphill, I decided to give it a try. I had only been walking on flat ground and wasn't sure how I would respond. Uphills seemed to be OK! I kept on going until we got to the downhill. This was a bit more painful, but I figured that at this point, I was halfway to the cafe, might as well keep going (as there would be treats at the end......). I made it all the way! I was tired when I got there, but I did it! Each way is about .75miles, so in total, I walked about 1.5 miles in 45 minutes. And it felt great! (and as a side note, it also helped me go to the bathroom, which I am finding out is one of the biggest challenges to this recovery......the location of the incision combined with the amount of painkillers I am on make for an unresponsive/unhappy colon.......walk, walk, walk is the take home message here......)
I feel like today is the first day of "training mode". It is May 16, and I walked 1.5 miles in 45 minutes. In 3 months, I will swim/bike/run 70.3 miles. Two days ago, this felt like a completely ridiculous goal. Today, it feels more achievable than I could have imagined.
And on another note, my dad is getting out of the hospital today. He is doing great and his (my) kidney is working well. His levels have just about normalized and he hasn't shown any signs of rejection. It hasn't even been a week and yet things seem to be on the up and up.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
The realities of recovery
This blog post may be filled with a little bit of "TMI" (too much information), and I debated how much I wanted to share. While this blog is intended to serve as a chronicle of my recovery primarily related to my goal of getting back into riding/racing, I also want to showcase the realities to those who are considering donation themselves. I knew a lot going into this, but there are certainly some painful and uncomfortable unknowns that have popped up and while it wouldn't have changed my decision to donate, it would have been nice to anticipate some of these things.
My last few blog posts were updated by cell phone while I was in the hospital, so I wasn't able to share much. This will also serve as a summary of those last few days.
The day of the surgery was probably my best day. The anesthesia was still roaming around my body, so I was constantly passing out. They had put me on a patient controlled Dilaudid drip (which means I push the button when I want some), which is a pretty heavy narcotic. One of the side effects is itchiness, and it had hit me pretty hard. I scratched my way out of recovery and into the next morning, so I didn't get too much sleep. Because I was so out of it, I didn't notice, but once it was discontinued, I stopped scratching. Greg was with me for much of this time and he told me that I was constantly scratching. Had I known that this was a side effect, I think I would have asked for a different narcotic (like Morphine) to be placed in my IV drip. It may or may not have made a difference, but it would have been nice to try. At the time I was thinking it was just itchiness from being in the hospital beds, or the pneumo boots on my legs, but not a side effect.
On day 1, they discontinued the drip and put me on PRN IV Morphine (not a patient controlled drip). Unfortunately, this meant that the nurses controlled when I got my doses. This didn't help to control my pain as well, so day 1 was a tough day.
Day 1 was the day that they took out my catheter and I was expected to pee on my own. And pee I did!! It took about 4 hours from the time when they took the catheter out and from when I could actually pee. That was an uncomfortable time! I could feel that I had to go, but my body was still numb from the anesthesia so I couldn't go. Ugh! But when I did start to go, I pretty much went on the hour. That was hard, because that meant that I had to get out of bed every hour to go to the bathroom. And since it was only day 1 post-op, getting out of bed was really painful. I have three incisions on the left side of my abdomen. The lowest one is my biggest one, probably around six inches long. This, in combination with a belly full of surgical gas, made for some constant sharp pains in my gut.
The surgeons use surgical gas to inflate your abdomen so that there is enough space for them to use their instruments in your belly with a lower risk of nicking something unintentionally when they remove the kidney. Otherwise, all of your abdominal organs just lay on top of each other, so the gas keeps them apart.
Day 2 was much of the same. Unfortunately, this was also the day I was assigned the nurse from hell who pretty much ignored me all day. Luckily, Greg was with me most of the day, so he helped me get in and out of bed when I had to pee. Later in the day, after one of my many walks around the unit, I started getting severe cramps in my belly after I returned to bed. I couldn't breathe, and that made me cry from pain, and all of this together made for a very painful experience. I called the nurse for more pain meds, but he ignored my request and then when Greg went out to yell at him, he told Greg "I've given her everything she has orders for, there is nothing I can do!". The MDs came in with the nurse (the MDs and NPs rocked, by the way) and listened to what I had going on. The MDs and I decided that a muscle relaxer would be helpful to calm down all the spasming in my belly. One of the downsides of being fit is that they had to cut through a lot more muscle than normal so the pain tends to be much greater than in the less fit population.
Later on the nurse came in to tell me that "when your boyfriend was yelling at me, I was trying to call your docs to see what we could do, so I apologize for doing my job". Jackass. Meanwhile, it was my friend Shelby who came to visit me who changed my bedsheets, the NP who had to come in later in the day to back-document all of my intake and output (since my nurse hadn't seen me all day, there was no record of my input-output and for a kidney patient, this is very important. And this is NOT the NP's job, it is the responsibility of the RN). He came back one more time at the end of his shift to give me a dose of pain meds and told me "I've taken you off my patient list". I got fired as his patient!! Which was a good thing, but wow, what a jerk.
The overnight of day 2 into day 3, I had a wonderful nurse who stayed on top of my pain meds and helped me control my pain. Finally. And since I was experiencing good pain control, I was able to go home in the afternoon! I was still experiencing a lot of pain from the surgical gas, but I had slowly started to pass the gas, so I was anticipating that this would continue.
We left the hospital and went straight to Walgreen's to pick up my meds. When I was walking around the pharmacy, I could feel that I had to poop. YAY! One side effect of narcotics is that your stools get hard, and in addition, the surgery itself shuts down your GI system, so pooping is one of the last functions to return. Greg and I promptly returned home so I could bunker down in the bathroom and go to work. Because my incision is where is it, bearing down is risky and painful. Starting at 5pm, I sat there and just waited....and waited....and pushed...and waited. This may have been one of my lower moments of recovery. I was impacted so badly that I couldn't go. And I couldn't push because it would have overstressed my incision. It was so awful that I actually spiked a bit of a fever, probably because my body was reacting to all the toxins in my system. Finally, at around 10pm after five hours of misery, Greg went to the pharmacy to buy a dreaded enema. Greg deserves a medal of honor for all that he has does for me thus far, but he really went above and beyond on Friday night. I don't know what I would have done without his help. Greg administered the enema, I let it sit for 15 minutes and lo and behold, after some pretty painful pushing, I was cleared. I know that this may be a bit more than you wanted to know, but again, I think its important for those who are consideration donation to be aware of the challenges. Looking back, I'm not so sure what I could have done differently to prevent this, but I am sure if I thought enough about it (and asked the right people), there could have been some dietary changes I could have made to have minimized the impaction.
Once I took a shower (one of the best ever...) I went to sleep in my own bed. It was the first time I had laid down flat, so it was pretty painful at first. But it was nice to start back my normal routine again. I think things will only get better from here....:)
My last few blog posts were updated by cell phone while I was in the hospital, so I wasn't able to share much. This will also serve as a summary of those last few days.
The day of the surgery was probably my best day. The anesthesia was still roaming around my body, so I was constantly passing out. They had put me on a patient controlled Dilaudid drip (which means I push the button when I want some), which is a pretty heavy narcotic. One of the side effects is itchiness, and it had hit me pretty hard. I scratched my way out of recovery and into the next morning, so I didn't get too much sleep. Because I was so out of it, I didn't notice, but once it was discontinued, I stopped scratching. Greg was with me for much of this time and he told me that I was constantly scratching. Had I known that this was a side effect, I think I would have asked for a different narcotic (like Morphine) to be placed in my IV drip. It may or may not have made a difference, but it would have been nice to try. At the time I was thinking it was just itchiness from being in the hospital beds, or the pneumo boots on my legs, but not a side effect.
On day 1, they discontinued the drip and put me on PRN IV Morphine (not a patient controlled drip). Unfortunately, this meant that the nurses controlled when I got my doses. This didn't help to control my pain as well, so day 1 was a tough day.
Day 1 was the day that they took out my catheter and I was expected to pee on my own. And pee I did!! It took about 4 hours from the time when they took the catheter out and from when I could actually pee. That was an uncomfortable time! I could feel that I had to go, but my body was still numb from the anesthesia so I couldn't go. Ugh! But when I did start to go, I pretty much went on the hour. That was hard, because that meant that I had to get out of bed every hour to go to the bathroom. And since it was only day 1 post-op, getting out of bed was really painful. I have three incisions on the left side of my abdomen. The lowest one is my biggest one, probably around six inches long. This, in combination with a belly full of surgical gas, made for some constant sharp pains in my gut.
The surgeons use surgical gas to inflate your abdomen so that there is enough space for them to use their instruments in your belly with a lower risk of nicking something unintentionally when they remove the kidney. Otherwise, all of your abdominal organs just lay on top of each other, so the gas keeps them apart.
Day 2 was much of the same. Unfortunately, this was also the day I was assigned the nurse from hell who pretty much ignored me all day. Luckily, Greg was with me most of the day, so he helped me get in and out of bed when I had to pee. Later in the day, after one of my many walks around the unit, I started getting severe cramps in my belly after I returned to bed. I couldn't breathe, and that made me cry from pain, and all of this together made for a very painful experience. I called the nurse for more pain meds, but he ignored my request and then when Greg went out to yell at him, he told Greg "I've given her everything she has orders for, there is nothing I can do!". The MDs came in with the nurse (the MDs and NPs rocked, by the way) and listened to what I had going on. The MDs and I decided that a muscle relaxer would be helpful to calm down all the spasming in my belly. One of the downsides of being fit is that they had to cut through a lot more muscle than normal so the pain tends to be much greater than in the less fit population.
Later on the nurse came in to tell me that "when your boyfriend was yelling at me, I was trying to call your docs to see what we could do, so I apologize for doing my job". Jackass. Meanwhile, it was my friend Shelby who came to visit me who changed my bedsheets, the NP who had to come in later in the day to back-document all of my intake and output (since my nurse hadn't seen me all day, there was no record of my input-output and for a kidney patient, this is very important. And this is NOT the NP's job, it is the responsibility of the RN). He came back one more time at the end of his shift to give me a dose of pain meds and told me "I've taken you off my patient list". I got fired as his patient!! Which was a good thing, but wow, what a jerk.
The overnight of day 2 into day 3, I had a wonderful nurse who stayed on top of my pain meds and helped me control my pain. Finally. And since I was experiencing good pain control, I was able to go home in the afternoon! I was still experiencing a lot of pain from the surgical gas, but I had slowly started to pass the gas, so I was anticipating that this would continue.
We left the hospital and went straight to Walgreen's to pick up my meds. When I was walking around the pharmacy, I could feel that I had to poop. YAY! One side effect of narcotics is that your stools get hard, and in addition, the surgery itself shuts down your GI system, so pooping is one of the last functions to return. Greg and I promptly returned home so I could bunker down in the bathroom and go to work. Because my incision is where is it, bearing down is risky and painful. Starting at 5pm, I sat there and just waited....and waited....and pushed...and waited. This may have been one of my lower moments of recovery. I was impacted so badly that I couldn't go. And I couldn't push because it would have overstressed my incision. It was so awful that I actually spiked a bit of a fever, probably because my body was reacting to all the toxins in my system. Finally, at around 10pm after five hours of misery, Greg went to the pharmacy to buy a dreaded enema. Greg deserves a medal of honor for all that he has does for me thus far, but he really went above and beyond on Friday night. I don't know what I would have done without his help. Greg administered the enema, I let it sit for 15 minutes and lo and behold, after some pretty painful pushing, I was cleared. I know that this may be a bit more than you wanted to know, but again, I think its important for those who are consideration donation to be aware of the challenges. Looking back, I'm not so sure what I could have done differently to prevent this, but I am sure if I thought enough about it (and asked the right people), there could have been some dietary changes I could have made to have minimized the impaction.
Once I took a shower (one of the best ever...) I went to sleep in my own bed. It was the first time I had laid down flat, so it was pretty painful at first. But it was nice to start back my normal routine again. I think things will only get better from here....:)
Friday, May 14, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
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