I Donated a Kidney

    

    You may remember that in May I posted something called "I'm A Kidney Donor (to be)."  I guess you could call this a part two to that. If you haven't read it yet, you might want to before you read this one. It will give you a little pre-surgery history. There is a ton of it. If you really don't want to read either of these, you can just watch the below video I made. I meant to write this a lot sooner, but I never really got around it. Now that I have finally found time, here it is. 

    After I finally got the surgery date, I had to take a COVID test a couple days before surgery. Weirdly enough, that test had me scared. Not the actual surgery. I'm still not even 100% sure why. It easily could have been the fact that they stick a pretty long Q-Tip up your nose. I'll tell you though, it really wasn't that bad. In the words of my dad, "It's just a drive-thru nose hair rearrangement." Pretty much true. In the middle of it, I really had to sneeze but it wasn't painful at all. After I was done, I had to stay home and quarantine so I didn't catch anything before surgery.

    Day of surgery, we woke up early and drove to the hospital. Everything was going well until my mom started to cry, which of course made me cry. I got all set in pre-op with one of those stylish hospital gowns, and got an IV stuck in me. A ton of people were in and out of my little sectioned off room. One of the more painful pre-op moments had to be getting lidocaine injected into my abdomen. Once that happens, sit ups are an absolute no go. 

    Then, I was rolled into the OR. I remember it being cold in there and one of the nurses grabbed me some warm blankets. Once I was all settled in, they began explaining how the anesthesia would work. After a couple minutes, the anesthesiologist put the mask on my face and I was breathing in and out. I remember thinking "why isn't this working? I thought it'd be faster-" and then immediately hearing the surgical team talking... in absolute gibberish. It was like their words had been taken from their mouths, blended in a blender, and put back in their mouths. Everything went black.

    Next thing I knew, I was in the recovery room with more IVs, three incisions, and one less kidney.  The earliest memory after surgery I have is waking up and saying that it was like a nice nap. I fell asleep right after that. Then, a bit later, I woke up again and asked what time it was... in an accent that was not my own. I may have asked the time in an Irish accent. Can't really say. Memory is fuzzy. 

    After a while, I was moved into my room (I got a BIG room with a great view all to myself) and met my care team. I found that I get bored easily and HGTV is fantastic to fall asleep to. I was only there for a couple days, but it felt like I was there even longer. Through an IV, I had a heavy pain killer but I tried to only use it when I needed it. A couple of friends called me while I was there and only one of them yelled at me (you know who you are and I love you). I had food delivered to my room and my nurse would come in every once in a while to check on me or give me meds. 

    After a long night, I woke up and sat in my room watching TV until I was given the ok to go home. The surgeon came by, my social worker came by, and many others stopped by too. My donation coordinator came by later to bring my "take home medication" (for pain and other *cough* digestive issues) and gave me a nice little goodie bag.  I was helped to get ready to go home, and I called my mom to pick me up. A little while later, I was on my way home holding a giant plush sloth to my incisions, trying to keep my insides in. Harder than it sounds. 

    Once I got home, I didn't really eat much and was still super tired. It took me quite a few days to even be confident in walking. Stairs were really hard and getting in and out of a seat took more effort. Laughing, coughing, or sneezing, was even worse. It was pretty painful. The day after I got home, I actually had to cough, but I couldn't because it hurt so bad. Let's just say anti-nausea medication works very well. 

    One piece of advice, do NOT play Mad Libs after a surgery. I laughed so hard and that caused so much pain. While on the subject of pain, I want to talk a bit about the pain medication. After I got out of the hospital, I had three prescription pain medications with varying levels of strength. Acetaminophen for lower levels of pain (like a 2-4/10 pain level), Tramadol for worse pain (levels 5-7 pain), and Oxycodone for the worst pain (levels 8-10 pain). It may have been due to my high pain tolerance levels that I never needed the oxy. For the most part, I was only taking the acetaminophen and the tramadol (only if I really needed it). Six days after surgery, I was off all medication and only in pain if I moved weirdly, laughed, coughed, or sneezed. 

    After maybe a week, I was feeling really good and was already going out of the house. I was still tired super easily. Fresh air was nice. Eventually, I was able to move with ease and not get as tired. Let me tell you though, muscle atrophy is so rough. It took me forever to get my strength back. I am still not 100% there, but I think I'll get there soon. 

    That's it! Obviously, this one is much shorter than part one since the pre-surgery stuff went on for two years. Thank you for reading. It really means a lot to me. Thank you to all of you who prayed for my family, brought us meals, or sent me notes. All of it meant so much to me. 

Until next time,

KS