Well i had a coworker who's brother was on dialysis and scared of getting a transplant. I wanted to say something on that and be encouraging of transplantation.
I have had bouts of nephritis since i was eleven, and was having declining kidney function. But it was pneumonia around my birthday in 1998 that killed off my kidneys finally. I was sick but kept going which was bad for someone with my precondition.
The doctors had me do the fistula operation pretty quickly, but I had a wait letting the access mature. This was pretty bad. I had a night where I assumed I was going to die right before dialysis. It was my anniversary actually, I remember we were staying in Monterrey and I was trying to stay up a much as I could while my wife was asleep. I thought that was going to be it if I went to sleep. So i stayed up watching U-Turn, it was heart warming. I passed out sometime after that but woke up eventually. I think i sweated out the toxins that night, I was waking up in pools of sweat all the time then.
They got me on dialysis a couple of days later saying no matter the access I needed to be on dialysis. My first run was pretty good actually I felt way better after it. I was able to work while doing the runs it was almost passing for a life. Then i got changed to a new unit that was a slaughter house. Someone died every month I was on dialysis there, it was pretty crushing. My parents visited me once I think that made up my mom's mind that she wanted to donate.
I forget when we started the transplant process but it seemed to drag on so slow. That was until Oct 2009 then it was like OK we are doing it. They made me get an extra run the day before the transplant and I was in the hospital in three days. It was pretty crazy being on dialysis day to day with no real idea of when the operation is and then bam! your in the hospital.
The night before I was pretty scared there was a bunch of stuff with antibiotics and immune suppressants. Being deloused with some crazy shampoo. Then they took my mom in at some point in the morning, I thanked her and she was out. I remember seeing my wife's family and then they wheeled me to the operating table around 11am. The drugs hit then I don't remember any thing until the next day. I guess the operation was 12-14 hours and wasn't easy. My mom had an extra arterial separation they didn't expect. I don't remember the recovery room just being in my room.
The first day after the transplant was the worst day of my life. I was in so much pain it was crazy. They gave me drugs every four hours and it would drop me for an hour, I would be OK for another hour then i would be in bad pain for two more hours. that was my day. Fuck the pain was beyond belief. I was a wuss before this now I don't even notice when I mess myself up. Seriously I accidentally drilled my finger with a power drill and it didn't hurt much. This day was terrible.
Day two really wasn't great but wasn't terrible. Bad days on dialysis were worse. I was still in pain but it was OK enough and the medicine did its job. I was getting up for walks that they forced me to take. Day three was good, I could get out of bed no problem and was getting around. Day four they gave me a banana! Been awesome since then.
I had to wear sweats for a month, I'm a jeans guy, didn't like that. But Denise would get me breakfast in the morning. Even today its really special when she makes that for me. She helped me so much during my recovery, taking me to the hospital all the time. You have to have your blood tested every day for a while then every other day. Now its a couple of times a year. I have my fistful of meds i take every day but other than that i am just like everyone else.
And that is pretty good considering dialysis.
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