I wanted to say thanks again for all the advice and well wishes. Since reading people's experiences really calmed me and let me know what to expect, I figured I'd share mine.
I donated my kidney July 19th, making today one week and two days post-op. I was part of a chain with 8 people, meaning 4 people got new (or I guess gently-used) kidneys. I did a bowel prep the night before with Magnesium Citrate, and wasn't that successful with it that night (i.e. not on the toilet all night). I was a little concerned, because it seemed like it was working once I got to the hospital. One of the nurses told me (without me even asking) not to worry about it- I'd probably be going right up to the time of surgery. He was right, and I figured I'd share that in case it happened to anyone else. Since there were 8 surgeries on the same day (!) at the hospital, they couldn't nail down an exact time for surgery for each of us. They had me stop eating at 5 pm the night before, and only drinking water until midnight. Call me crazy, but this was the WORST part of the whole thing to me. I am the type of person that eats every few hours, and feel terribly faint and sick when I'm hungry. My mood also declines rapidly as time passes and I haven't eaten. The same helpful nurse gave me some bubblewrap to pop while I waited. Weird, but it did help to take out my annoyance while popping it! By the time they took me into surgery (around 3 pm), I was so ready for it to be over and get something to eat and drink that I wasn't even nervous.
I woke up in my room feeling pretty good, just tired. I had my gallbladder out a few years ago (long story- I had pancreatitis and was in the same hospital for a week until they did the surgery) and when I woke from that surgery, I was in pretty bad pain. Once I got to my room that time (I woke up in recovery, not in my room) they gave me something for the pain and it was better. For the kidney surgery, they did a great job at making me very comfortable pain-wise when I woke up. I made sure my parents got to see me awake and fine, then (politely) kicked them out so I could get some sleep.
Remembering what I'd read over and over on this message board, when I woke up later that night, I knew it was time to walk. I also had brought a little pillow to hold against my stomach while getting up and moving- again, advice I read here that was super helpful. The nurse came in and helped me up (I had 2 IVs and a catheter, so I needed some help with all the tubing) and held onto my arm while we rounded the floor a couple times. She said it was so great to see someone wanting to be up and about so soon after surgery. I told her about all I'd read here, and she said walking was really the best thing to do, and it was great that I was so prepared and ready to do it. I went back to my room, and the nurse said the next goal was to have me sit in a chair "sometime that day." I said, let's just do it now, while she wasn't busy (in the middle of the night) and I did. Then she said it would be great if I had a little food, and I told her I was starving. She brought in some water, a few things of jello, an applesauce and some crackers. She said to go slow, as I might be nauseous. As soon as she shut the door, I attacked the food and ate almost all of it. I didn't get nauseous, thank goodness! Then I went back to bed.
I awoke the next morning kind of sore. I walked again and they took out the catheter. It didn't hurt at all. It was a little hard to go to the bathroom at first, and it took more time than usual. I walked around every chance I could, and slept in between walks. The pain wasn't bad at all- but I had a terrible headache. The kind where you can't stand to have the tv on or anything. My mom came (I was going to be released at some point that day) and suggested some caffeine. I didn't listen to her advice (worried it would bother my stomach), and the nurse gave me some tylenol. It didn't touch the headache. A different nurse came in and gave me a cold pack for my head and suggested I have some coffee. My mom went to get me some, and a little bit later, BOOM, headache gone. My mom was right! I was released and went to my mom's.
The next two days were great. Hardly any pain, just soreness. I walked a lot and used a wedge pillow to sleep. I also tied a belt to the foot board of the bed to help myself get into and out of it without straining my ab muscles. That worked great! The third day, I was in pain. I took the Norco and didn't walk as much. I had the feeling that some of the discomfort must be from constipation. I took another Norco to sleep that night, but decided the next morning to quit taking it, as aside from the constipation, I was having a hard time thinking and talking while on it. Such a weird numb feeling. I'd be asleep and wondering if my arms were in the bed with me or dangling over the side- I couldn't tell. I switched to the prescription tylenol. I'd been taking the anti-constipation pills and drinking prune juice. My stomach was huge and uncomfortable and my back hurt. After 24hrs off Norco, the constipation went away. I felt so much better!
Since then, I've felt perfectly fine, except my back hurt. It kept getting worse, even though I wasn't constipated and was walking a lot. I posted here and got the suggestion to buy a back brace. I got one from Walgreens, and what a difference! I even slept in it last night. I feel basically perfectly normal now. I haven't experienced the bad fatigue lots of people here said they had. The first few days, yes, but I haven't even taken a nap in the last few days. I went in for my checkup on the Wednesday after surgery. The surgeon was all smiles- he said that everything looks great and I am healing ahead of schedule. My friend (a recipient) was there for his checkup, and he looked great and said he was doing very well.
The social worker came in and asked if I wanted to meet my recipient, who was also there for a checkup. I said I'd meet the person if they wanted to meet me, but I didn't want to force it if not. The social worker said, "Oh, she wants to meet you." So I waited until she was done with her checkup, then the social worker brought me into a conference room. For some reason, I thought the whole chain of people were meeting, so I wasn't glancing too much at the two people (a man and woman) in the conference room. The social worker introduced us by explaining that the woman had been very difficult to match. She said that it would look like they had a match, but then they'd do another test, and every time the antibodies clashed. The woman had had a stem cell transplant and (if I remember correctly) some blood transfusions, and was thus a very tricky match. The social worker said they kept searching the database and getting disappointed. She said, "From the entire database, there was only one perfect match, and it was you." I started crying. The woman asked if she could hug me, but I couldn't even answer her, just walked over. She hugged me very tightly and was also crying. Her husband was the man there, and he'd also been part of the chain. They both looked great. She held me at arm's length and poured her heart out. The thing that really got me that she said was, "You don't know what you did. You gave me time." She showed me pictures of her family and said she'd get to see her engaged son's wedding now and watch her grandkids grow up. It was strange- when I saw the picture of her family, I kind of looked like her daughters, and the woman herself was shaped like me, only shorter. I'll never forget that meeting and how much it meant to her to express her thanks. I didn't think I needed to hear it before we met, but she so needed to say it. It made me realize the impact this has on so many people- the three other recipients were also there, and their families, likely about to be meeting their donors, too. It really amazed me to think about it. One day of surgery touched so many lives.
You might remember, I posted earlier that my friend and coworker (a recipient) was also difficult to match, but I felt strongly that I wanted to be part of a chain so that more people could get kidneys. Two surgery dates (and chains) were cancelled because final crossmatching failed for my friend. At times I felt like I should give in and just give my kidney directly to my friend. I even got tested against him again, but I wasn't a match to him either! It turned out that a medicine he was taking was making it appear as though he was rejecting matches. The hospital had dealt with this before, so they found him a close match as part of the chain. It was strange how it worked out for my recipient, almost like it was meant to be.
At this point, I am not even taking tylenol for pain. I am wearing the back brace and still walking. I think I'll probably take a week or two more before returning to work, so as not to rush into it, and to get some time off! This surgery has been much easier than the gallbladder one. That might be because I was very healthy going into it, and was (obviously) very sick before the gallbladder surgery. My appetite is back to normal (I'd eat a few bites and be full at first) and I feel like myself. Thanks again to everyone here for the support and advice. What a great resource this has been. Newbies, I am here to answer any questions as others were here to answer mine. Overall, this has been a great experience.
Wishing you well,
Annie
Topic: My experience (Read 6581 times)