Six Months Later

The blog goes silent... the readers disappear... all that remains is a digital archive "in the cloud".

But wait.... I hear something!!

Sure you do.  What you hear is a 6-month update on life with the new kidney.

Wow, on one hand its hard to believe that 6 month have elapsed and on the other hand it is getting hard (for me anyway) to recall a time when Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays were off limits as far as making plans that included Yvonne.

Neither I nor Yvonne ever forget that all of this is because of cousin Kathy's kindness.  The death of her brother, my cousin, Matt 2 days before the 6-month anniversary of the transplant made it impossible to really celebrate.  Matt's death at the ridiculously young age of 53 serves as just one more reminder that a long life is not guaranteed.

Medically speaking the 6-month mark is significant because everyone who has been holding their breath finally exhales.  Most failed transplants are recorded in these initial months.  Saying it another way... this is working!

Yvonne is planning her first trip out of town in quite some time.  It's only for 4 days but this would not have been possible on dialysis.  We're also talking about two week-long trips later this year.

I can see that Yvonne's energy level is much higher than it used to be.  She has started exercising again for the first time in a while as a result of having both time and energy that just wasn't there for the past 5 years.  We're even wondering if skiing could return too.  It was something we both enjoyed in our early married years.

While the trips, etc are fun noteworthy events it really is "every day" that is significantly improved and it is why we think about Kathy every single day.

God bless her.

No need to blog, unless I get bored...

Could this be it?  Could this be the last entry in this blog??  I doubt it as I will always find something to say but if updates appear weeks and months apart it is unlikely that anyone is still looking for them.

I am writing this on Sunday near midnight and Yvonne has already gone to sleep because she is getting up for work in the morning!

The next clinic visit is 2 weeks away.  We actually have social plans and don't need to work around dialysis 3 nights each week.  Pretty cool!

I'll end with  a post Yvonne made on Facebook this evening.  It features a photo of "the Wall of Love" as I like to call it.

Tomorrow is a big day for me. I will be going back to work after seven weeks of recuperation from my kidney transplant surgery. I want to thank everyone who called, sent me an e-mail or text, sent a card, flowers, food or who visited. They were all truly appreciated. Most of all I want to thank my cousin Kathy who gave me the most generous of gifts -- the kidney!!! I also want to thank my husband, Phil, who cared for me each and everyday and went to all my appointments with me and was my biggest supporter!!!

Back to work?

It was more or less expected but today at the clinic visit Yvonne heard those words... "you are OK to return to work".

There are still some restrictions as far as lifting anything heavy and physical exertion but these are not really part of Yvonne's work day anyway.

She will always have a suppressed immune system so it is a good idea to avoid sick people, crowded places and practice good hygiene like washing hands after contacting handrails, doorknobs, etc.  Keep that Purell stock!

Check that off

One thing that was done on transplant day (Sept 20) was to insert a stent.

That was scheduled to come out the day that Hurricane Sandy roared into town but was pushed back one week.

The doctor who did this removal yesterday is the same surgeon who removed Kathy's kidney.  I have no idea how good he is from a medical standpoint because all they talk about is how good looking he is!! 

Based on their description I came up with this...

Storming back?

This past Thursday marked 6 weeks since the surgery.  A few things happened as a result of meeting this milestone:

The first glass of wine!

The first manicure!

I'm not sure which was more joyful.  When these came up at a clinic meeting a few weeks ago I saw Yvonne put the date on her calender.

I have noticed that she walks faster and the discharge is still happening but at a greatly reduced rate.

On Monday Yvonne has the rescheduled appointment to remove the stent in the bladder tubing and on Thursday she will return to the clinic. One topic to be addressed is when she can return to work.

Stay tuned:)

When a Blogger becomes a Storm Chaser

Sorry for the lack of updates but Hurricane Sandy has taken over my life.  Not in a material way... We never lost power, TV, Internet, running water, etc...  Plenty of food.

But we have become TV  junkies watching non-stop storm coverage since Monday.  Every once in a while I ventured out to see for myself.  This gave me an excuse to dig out some foul weather gear that I haven't seen in decades.  Tall rubber boots, rain pants, jacket w/hood.... Armed with a waterproof camera I headed toward the river (at low tide) to see what I could see.  Another walk took me to Times Square to hang with the tourists with useless Broadway tickets.

Power went out across the street (39th St) and south. So we are lucky to be on the north side of this divide.  last night I walked up to a bar on 47th Street and it was business as usual.  Quite a different scene compared to other parts of NYC.

So how is Yvonne you ask....  Well I ended the prior post saying if there was anything in the lab tests we'd get a call.  We got that call.

UTI#1 had indeed arrived.  They called in an antibiotic and Yvonne started taking them and presumably it is gone by now.  She feels great.

A doctor appointment and a clinic visit were cancelled because of teh storm but neither was critical so they will happen as soon as they can happen.

One thing we talked about at length was how different this might have been if Yvonne was still on dialysis.  Braving the storm for a few photos is one thing but getting to and from a hospital over a mile away might have been a real challenge and would the dialysis unit be operating as usual??

So so lucky....

A solo flight

Yvonne went to the clinic today for her weekly visit.  The biggest difference is that she went alone.

This caused all sorts of questions from the medical staff.  Where is he?  Is he OK?  What happened??

Perhaps there weren't really that many questions but it sure didn't go unnoticed:)

I didn't go because I had some work to do and figured (correctly) that it would be a "no change" sort of visit.  We can tell at our end because every day Yvonne checks temperature, pressure, urine output, weight, etc. Plus she is keenly aware of how she feels and she feels fine!

We notice everything and there was a mild concern because 3 or 4 days ago Yvonne commented on how cold it was in the apartment and I wasn't even wearing a shirt. <insert your own joke here>

In the past this might have been the first sign of a fever (we checked temp and it was normal) or maybe something else was off.  The expectation was that hemoglobin was low (because it has been slowly declining since the transfusions) but in fact it was up from the prior week.  Another thought was a UTI but no other symptoms backed that up.

But urine and blood tests will be done using today's samples and we will get a call if there is anything to be concerned about.

So yes, no news is good news.  Next visit is next Monday.