Living Donors Online Message Board
Living Donation Discussion and News => Living Donation Forum => Topic started by: cupid on January 23, 2012, 10:10:28 PM
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I am going to be donating a kidney to a friend in one month and am wondering if anyone who has donated has any after care suggestions for me? I read one person wrote to make sure to take a pillow in the car for the ride home etc. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thank you
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Lots of helpful hints that the National Kidney Foundation collected from past donors at
www.kidney.org/transplantation/livingdonors/infotips.cfm
I wish someone had told me to bring larger size shoes, clothing and underwear for the trip home after donation. Post-op bloating made it almost impossible to get my shoes on, and there was snow on the ground!
best wishes,
Fr. Pat
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I definitely second the advice to bring larger clothes. My center never warned me, and if not for LDO, I'd have needed a barrel to wear home. Also--after surgery for a couple of days, try to avoid sneezing, by pressing your horizontal finger hard on your upper lip, below the nose, just before you sneeze. Finally, try to practice getting out of bed without your stomach muscles. For many of us, that's the "biggest deal" after the surgery.
Good luck!
Snoopy
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The surgery department at my medical center was so busy that I was trapped in the post anesthesia care unit about 12 hours beyond an appropriate amount of time. I wished I had a sleep mask and either head phones or ear plugs to block out the chaos of a huge ward full of people just getting out of surgery.
Regarding comfy clothes, Hanes sells sweat pants for about $7 a pair on line. I lived in them after surgery.
Three weeks after surgery, it was like nothing ever happened to me. Four weeks after surgery, I flew to Paris with friends! My brother looks better than he has in years! It's all good!
Best of luck to you!
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Thermacare instant heating pads are a must! I found prunes to be heavenly. It helped with restoring my natural processes and eased nausea from oral pain medications.
Jatopa, so glad to read you did so well!
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Practice rolling out of bed instead of sitting up. Make a batch of Jello with fruit chunks in it. I didn't feel like eating much after. Jello was pretty much the only thing that I could reliably eat. Also, make sure your "nest" has everything you need: water, blankets, entertainment, and a short trip to the bathroom.
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Thank you everyone for your helpful hints! I am truly appreciative
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One other major thing I forgot to mention: lifting is an issue, for quite a while after surgery. I constantly felt embarrassed that I could not help, say, ladies carrying packages, lifting strollers onto buses, etc. In my own case, very very few people know about my surgery, so I did not have a ready "excuse". Two days after I returned from the hospital, we happened to have a houseful of cousins, none of whom knew about my surgery. These included one surgeon and two medical students, and none of them noticed anything much...except they may have thought it weird that my sons kept moving my chair for me!
Even apart from that, try to think through how you will be able to manage, or who will be able to help you with, carrying groceries, the garbage, lifting water pitchers (my kids poured for me), moving chairs around, etc. This could go on for a couple of months, to varying degrees. My normal briefcase load was too heavy for me, so I ditched non-essential material until I felt "back to myself". The more you've thought this through ahead of time, the easier it will be to manage.
Now that I think of it, for some reason, for months leading up to the surgery, I was obsessed with one thing: who would watch my stuff when I went down to surgery? I knew I wouldn't be returning to the same room, and I was afraid that my stuff would kind of fall through the cracks, since I would be in no condition to watch it or move it myself. When I first got to the hospital, the night before the surgery, I put my wallet and ID in the hospital safe. That helped, but still--my clothes, my shoes, my bag, glasses, MP3, watch, etc. worried me. Fortunately, my wife arrived from work about 20 minutes before they took me down, so she was able to take charge of all that stuff. She was also there several hours later to unpack my stuff in my new room, and set it up in a nice, logical manner that made it easier to find and reach it later.
Good luck to you!
Snoopy
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Wow Snoopy-two days later and no one knew? You must be a good actor! Like you, very few people know I am donating and hopefully my husband will be able to help out with the load. I think that's funny you obsessed about your stuff during surgery. I obsess about silly things like that too-I'm not worried about going through the surgery, just about my stuff-haha.That's so funny. Thank you for your tips
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Wow Snoopy-two days later and no one knew? You must be a good actor!
Hi, lpdmd92!
Well, it might also suggest that I normally look like I was hit by a truck!
One other thing I forgot to emphasize, by the way: DON'T sleep on the side near your surgical incision, at least not at first. I did it soon after getting home, and regretted it. So much so that I didn't try it again for two months! I hope you don't have that type of experience.
Good luck, Snoopy