The short version is that it’s going very well. The doc says I’m on the “upside of normal,” which I guess is a good thing.

My incisions have pretty much completely healed. The nausea went away when I quit taking the pain killers, and I was even able to stop taking Tylenol late last week. (The only time it still hurts is if I sneeze… darn allergy season!) The most annoying symptom left is that I get light-headed every time I stand up. That should normalize over the next couple of weeks, too.

The benefit of basically being healed is that I’m heading back to work tomorrow. I’m only allowed to work 4 hours per day, but that’s probably a good thing given my tendency to work a little too hard most of the time.

I’m incredibly grateful that my colleagues and leadership at work have been so supportive of both me and Matt. I can say with complete certainty that their encouragement was a critical factor in my being able to easily and happily donate a kidney. To everyone at Findlaw, I’ll see you tomorrow morning.

Thanks also are due to Christi’s husband Kevin and her parents, Teresa and Bob, for their support of her decision to pursue donation. The thought of a dearly loved wife and daughter electing to undergo a significant medical procedure must have been daunting when they first learned of her plans. I can’t imagine that this selfless act would have been possible without their agreement. No matter how determined Christi might have been, she could not have done this alone. Thanks also to Kevin’s parents who stepped in to care for their young children during and immediately following the surgery.

Christi, we will be forever grateful. You are beautiful in every way and a blessing to all who know you.

Anyway, I promised to tell you what the entire process of donating a kidney has been like for me. So I’ll start at the beginning with the evaluation process. The first thing you should know is that it involves a lot of waiting. It took months from the first time I called to ask about donating a kidney to Matt until the day I was approved as his donor.

The first step was to verify my blood type. That part was easy; I just sent in my blood donor card. By the way, if you want to make a difference in people’s lives, donating blood is a great start!

After the transplant center verified my blood type, the next step was tissue typing. I don’t know much about the medical part of this step, but they sent me two big cotton swabs to swirl in my mouth. I mailed those back, and a few weeks later the transplant coordinator called to tell me I was a good match.

At that point, we set up a full-day evaluation. It took about a month to get in for those tests, and the day started with blood work. This was for the cross-match to make sure that my blood didn’t fight with Matt’s. After that I went to get a chest x-ray and EKG. During the rest of the day, I met with a transplant surgeon, social worker, nutritionist and nephrologist (kidney doctor). I also had to have a CT scan to make sure that a) I had two kidneys and b) everything was working properly.

All in all, it was a pretty exhausting day. I received tons of information about the transplant surgery itself and the possible consequences for me as the donor. I’m definitely glad that my husband came with me! I think it would be overwhelming to go by yourself.

A few days after the evaluation, the transplant coordinator called to tell me I was approved as Matt’s donor. The social worker also called to tell me that no one would think less of me if I decided that donating a kidney wasn’t the right decision. Especially because we have two small children, she wanted to make sure that my husband and I were both totally on board before anyone told Matt I was a good match. Obviously we decided together that it was the right thing to do, so here we are. 2 weeks out from transplant, and both Matt and I are doing well.

So that’s how my evaluation process went. One of these days I’ll get around to writing about the actual surgery and recovery experience.

In the mean time, I thought I’d take a second to recognize that Matt and I have made it 10 days since the surgeries. I think it’s pretty amazing that he and I are both feeling pretty decent after only 10 days. In fact, I was even able to go to the National Kidney Foundation’s Great Chefs event tonight. It was a great event, and they even asked me to speak briefly. I’ve never had a standing ovation before – that was pretty cool. I wish Matt could’ve been there too. I’m exhausted after smiling, talking and laughing for four hours, but I’m glad I had the opportunity to attend.

I’ve still got a long way to go before I’m “recovered,” but we’re 10 days closer to Matt having a normal life. That’s pretty amazing.

Thankfully, things took a very positive turn later that night. My anti-rejection drug level tests finally came back around 7pm, and they were super-high–25% over the top of the acceptable range! That sounds bad, but it is actually awesome news. It meant that I got to significantly reduce my dose that evening and this morning. The levels were down negligibly this morning, so I got to stay on the same, moderate dose tonight. I feel *so* much better. I have at least a little energy. I can eat. I don’t have a raging headache. That makes me think that the side effects relate to the dose of the medicine, not the drug level currently in my system. That seems counter-intuitive, but whatever. The only downside is that they want me to go in for more testing on Sunday, which was supposed to be a day off. Oh well! I feel okay, and driving to the lab on Sunday morning is hardly an inconvenience.

The other issue is that I need to drink *so* much water. I’m drinking 2 liters a day (and that isn’t counting all the other drinks, like soda and juice, that I have), and that still isn’t enough. They were talking about needing another 1-2 liters on top of that. I really can’t imagine doubling my water intake. It sounds like most people should drink about 2 liters a day. I suggest you try measuring it. I bet you’ll be surprised how much that is.

Anyway, I’m sure this will all get better as my body gets used to all the new pills. I’ll post another update soon.

So you’re probably asking why a mom of two small children (our daughter is 2 and 1/2,and our son is 1) would donate a kidney, even to a good friend. The simple simple answer is the one I give my daughter:  I have two, and Matt needed one.

The longer answer is equally simple. Matt is my friend, but he’s also someone’s son. If my children were hurting, I would do anything in my power to help them. I cannot imagine how hard it has been for his parents to know that they were not matches to donate. Since I was a match, I wanted to end that heartache. Having now met his parents, I am so glad I made that decision.

And selfishly I wanted to see Matt back to himself again. It’s been hard to watch him always  be exhausted but put up a good front during the past 18 months or so. It helps that my husband has been amazingly supportive, and that we made the decision for me to donate together.

Okay, I’m pretty tired, so I’ll stop there. I’ll try to get around to writing about what the experience was like for me as a donor soon. For now, I’ll just say that I’m thrilled the transplant surgery worked and that Matt and I are both healing well.

Here’s just a quick note to say that I’m home from the hospital and feeling much better after a shower. I left with the biggest bag of medicine I’ve ever seen. The total cost of it was several thousand dollars for one month of meds. Thankfully, my copay was just about $200. That’s still going to hurt paying for the rest of my life, but it’s certainly better than dialysis.

I had what will probably be my last dose of the really nasty immune suppression medicine today. I’ll stay on two less nasty ones for the rest of my life. For the rest of the week, I have appointments at 7am at the transplant center to get my blood checked to make sure everything is working as it should. Then for the next few weeks a nurse will come to my home and do the lab work three times a week. Then the tests will be less frequent, so I’ll just go into the transplant center. The really strong immune suppression drug will also have worn off by then, so it won’t be as dangerous for me to around a bunch of people consistently.

I’ll try to post another update soon. There’s a lot I could say about the hospital stay, and I don’t really know what I’m in for tomorrow – Friday, either, so I’ll let you know as soon as I figure it out.

-Matt

The doctors thought I could maybe go home on Sunday with Christi, but I wasn’t feeling very good, so they opted to keep me one more night. I felt great Sunday night and thought everything was on track. Unfortunately, things took a bad turn on Monday morning around 9am. My pain shot up, I was making a lot less urine, and I had a fever. I was kind of freaking out a bit, but the doctor were able to determine that it was an opportunistic infection that a lot of us carry around in our guts that can get out of control when our immune system is suppressed. It’s kind of gross, but it is fairly common, and I’m on some antibiotics that should clear it up. The doctors, were very reassuring, saying that if they found it after I had been discharged, they would have just dealt with it as an outpatient, but since I was already in the hospital, they might as well keep e one more night and keep close watch. I’ve seen good improvement in the symptoms over the last twelve hours. Also, I actually slept well last night.

There was a little fiasco last night when I got a dose of an IV pain killer and had an allergic reaction, but that cleared up in a couple hours. I feel pretty good this morning. The odds are good that I’ll get discharged this evening. I still need to get a dose of IV meds that take about 7 hours to run.

Christi got out on Sunday and is doing well. She’s resting a lot, and her kids got to come home to visit her last night. She’s been thinking about posting here. If you’d like that, let her know in the comments.

Thanks for all the kind messages of support. Special thanks to all the folks who came and visited me in the hospital. That really boosted my mood even when I was totally out of it because of the meds. I especially appreciate the visits yesterday since I was feeling a little down after the setback that morning. I’m also glad no one visited very late last night since the weather was nasty.

I mentioned in my earlier post that it was possible our transplant would be the 8,000th completed at UMMC.  It turns out it was, which is quite cool.  The hospital has even approached Christi and me to ask if we’d be willing to participate in a little PR about this milestone.  We agreed–anything to raise awareness about the needs for organ donation. I’ve also agreed to join a couple research studies to assess the effects of some of the drugs I’ll be taking.

There is a broad circle of friends who have been with me in a variety of ways through the long dialysis ordeal. Your support has bolstered me during the tough times. There will still be challenges ahead, but the future is looking a hell of a lot brighter.  Thanks, you guys.  And, needless to say, an especially huge thanks goes out to Christi.  She rocks!