After the Transplant: Post 1

Was it just last week that I posted I was on alert for a kidney? Seems like months ago at this point.  The night after I was put on alert, I still wondered if I would get a call.  I received another call in the afternoon stating that I was still in the running.  There was one person ahead of me, and he/she was a multi-organ recepient, and that took presedence over me.  The other two times I had received the alert call, I felt sick to my stomach. I prayed that it wasn't the time.  I wasn't too concerned about being called back.  This time, I was strangely calm.  I didn't go crazy trying to clean the house or get things done, rather I played Uno with the kids. We all laid in my bed at bedtime, reciting prayers and just being together.  Keith and I watched some DVR.  At 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 14, the phone rang.  It was the nurse coordinator, stating that the kidney was mine, and that I needed to be into Chicago by midnight.  I was already packed, so I took a quick shower while we waited for my mother in law to come and be with the kids.  The hardest part was saying a silent goodbye to my children.  They knew that I could leave in the night.

Keith, my mom and I drove into the city.  There wasn't much traffic, so it didn't take the usual hour and a half as it does during the day.  We checked into the ER, and waited to be taken upstairs to 11 East, the transplant floor.  My room was soon ready and we got in. They did the usual vitals check, then stuck me with an IV. Not well I might add - it was placed in my elbow area and was painful, (So much so they had to re do it the next day.) My left arm is still torn up from three different IVs as I have small veins.  My mom and Keith fell asleep, but my arm pain and the nervousness kept me up most of the night.  I couldn't eat or drink, which really sucked, especially when I found out that surgery would not be until 2 pm the next day.

My dad drove in the next morning after getting my niece and nephew off to school (my sister just started her new job  and needed to be in early that day.  We basically just hung out while we waited for them to come take me.

Around 1:30/2 pm, they wheeled me to the pre-op room. The nurse was nice enough to let my parents and Keith come in with us (usually it's just 2 people allowed in).  After another 30 minutes or so, after speaking with the anesthesiologist and a doctor or two, it was time.  My family said our "see you laters" (family superstition) and I went into the operating room.  It was super bright with probably 15 people in there at the time.  There was someone sitting at a table, with his back to me, working on something. I wondered if it was the kidney? I didn't ask though.

To be continued...