NOT for the faint of heart

If you tend to get queasy looking at stitches, incisions and the like, you're probably not going to enjoy the following pictures. Let this be your warning. :)

This is the IV where Tim had fluids, anti-rejection meds, pain meds, anti-nausea meds and anything else you can think of pumped in to him. There was a tube, probably about 6 inches long, that went in to his neck, held in place with stitches around the light and dark blue box looking things. I guess the veins in your arm aren't big enough to handle all the stuff they had to pump in there, so they hit the jugular. This was the source of a lot of Tim's discomfort. Everything pulled on it. His gown, the nurses, rolling over, turning his head... not fun.

This is Timmy's incision. It's about 10 inches long and on his lower right abdomen. (I think I counted 31 staples, yowza!) His new kidney sits in this little pocket next to his hip. I like to think of it as an ovary. They leave his other two kidneys where they are, and eventually they kind of shrivel up like raisins. Unless they start releasing funky toxins in to his system, they don't bother with them.

This is Kim's tummy. Her incision is right above her belly button, about 4-5 inches, with two smaller incisions towards the left. Rumor has it the surgeon put his left hand in the incision, and moved her intestines and anything else that was in front of the kidney. Then with scopes through the other two incisions, cut the connector thingys (yes these are the medical terms, something also about veins, arteries and ureters) Then slid the kidney out just above her belly button. She definitely had the worse of the two surgeries. While we were in the hospital, she said if felt like she got punched in the stomach.

Those curly-que wires? That's a lovely contraption, an ON-Q (sp?) ball, that delivers anesthetic directly to their incisions. They both had this little fanny pack/purse that hung out with them, just dripping in the good stuff. It was pretty cool to see them take it out. We thought the wire would be 2 or 3 inches going in to their tummy. Nope! More like 6... 8... it was freaking long.

Needless to say, I'm sure both our patients are more than thrilled to not be hooked up to all that stuff anymore.

Home

He's home. We survived our first night without nurses, doctors, vitals, weight checks, monitors, beeps and buzzing. It was nice. It's good to be home.

The First Rough Day

Tim has not had a good 24 hours. His levels are still where they should be and the kidney is still functioning great, but he's not feeling as well as he has been the last couple days. Last night, when I thought we were home for the night, he called and asked me to come back and stay with him at the hospital. I'm so glad I did. He was nauseous and in a lot of pain. Finally at about 1am things were under control and he was able to sleep. Unfortunately his discomfort has carried in to today. His dad and former bishop came earlier this afternoon and gave him a blessing. Shortly after, he began to feel better and was finally able to sleep. Please keep him in your prayers. We've been so blessed over the last few days with everything going so well, and are so very grateful for the prayers and thoughts going on our behalf. In better news, Kim is doing FANTASTIC! She was able to start taking her pain medication by mouth and even walked all the way down to Tim's room by. her. self. WAY TO GO KIM!!! We are absolutely ecstatic that she's doing so well, and feeling so much better today. We just love her so much!

1.7

1.7!!! This morning his creatinine is 1.7!!!!

Day 1 After Surgery

Well our patients made it through what is supposed to be the hardest day of recovery. Tim is doing SO well. His creatinine has reduced to nearly HALF of what it was going in to surgery. WHICH IS FANTASTIC!!! Going in to surgery it was 6.2. The first labs post surgery was 6.0. The doctor thought today he'd be somewhere in the 5 range, but he was wrong. It was 3.5!!! (A healthy level is .7 to 1-ish, for those who are wondering just why this is so fantastic) Both Tim and Kim were up and walking today. They each made 4 trips. If you circle the transplant floor, you walk 1/10th of a mile. On one of Tim's sessions, he made 3 laps. He can't eat anything until his insides are back functioning (in the bowel department) and they said the quickest way to make that happen is by walking. And we all know Tim loves him some food so he had some good motivation. Alyssa came to the hospital today to see her daddy. I was worried that she'd be scared when she saw all the stuff he's hooked up to, so we talked about when Curious George goes to the hospital after he swallows a puzzle piece. She liked that idea and was only a little apprehensive when she saw Tim. We said he was so lucky to have a bed like George. She agreed. Tim will probably be able to come home Monday or Tuesday. He'll have about 30 pills to take when he first comes home and a filing cabinet of instructions to follow. Being that his immune system is suppressed, we'll have to stay home from church for 6-8 weeks and Tim won't be able to go see the new Batman movie. No enclosed or germy places. Which ALSO means I'm going to be taking a can of Lysol and a bottle of bleach to my house in the next couple days to get rid of anything that may be lingering. I'm off to get rested up for another day at the hospital. Thanks again to everyone checking on us and helping us out. It's nice to feel loved. Thank you.

Whew!

I am pleased to share that the surgery is over. Tim and Kim (the most wonderful organ donor on the planet) are both doing well. The surgeon told me that both surgeries were text book. No complications, no surprises. They even said that the kidney started producing urine before they had completed attaching it! AND it is producing "perfect pee." Tim's creatinine was already improving less than an hour after the transplant. They did an ultra sound of the kidney and the technician showed me where there was fluid flowing through and everything was functioning as it should. As far as pain goes, I believe both Tim and Kim are feeling ok. Very sore, very tired, but managing the pain. Tim even said it's not as bad as he thought it would be. I'm sure there are more details to share, but our little Alyssa has been tossed around all day and has some serious puzzle doing and story reading to do with her mama before I head back to the hospital to deliver Lord of the Rings and Arrested Development to my little patient. Thank you for your thoughts, prayers and phone calls. We appreciate them so much.

Movin' Up

Well, the transplant has been rescheduled. To Friday. This Friday. The 18th. "Just four days" sooner than before. (Four days can be a BIG deal people!) Luckily, everything worked out for our donor and us to be able to have the surgery done sooner. Kids are taken care of, food is prepared. Now we just have to mentally be ready for Friday. The thing that has amazed me the most throughout this process, is how selfless some people are. To even seriously consider donating an organ to someone, to me, is amazing. To actually go through all the testing, do all the research and still want to help? Knowing the sacrifice you're making for somebody else? There are no words. "Grateful" doesn't seem to adequately describe what we're feeling. The only thing I've been able to compare these feelings with, are the thoughts and feelings we have for Alyssa's birth mother. We have been blessed to know two remarkable women. One who gave us our daughter. Another giving Tim a kidney and a certain quality of life most of us take for granted. Nothing we can do will ever repay what has been given us.

July 22nd

Kidney transplant day. We have a donor. A FREAKING AWESOME donor. So much love. So much gratitude. So much more to come when I can make sense of the thoughts and feelings I'm trying to encompass in my little head. Thank you.

Update #2

It's been a crazy couple months, but it is definitely time for a kidney update. I have to thank everyone, again, for thinking of us, praying for us and helping us to spread the word to find Tim a kidney. It totally paid off. We've had three people go in and have blood drawn. Two were blood and tissue matches and decided to continue on through the grueling testing process. After chest x-rays, physicals, kidney tests, social workers, surgeon consultations and who knows what else, they've both been given the "ok to donate". They still have to have a CT scan, but assuming all is well there, we have 2 possible donors for Tim. What a tremendous blessing this is for our family. How grateful we are to these people for being so willing to make such a huge sacrifice on our behalf, and to their spouses and families for supporting their decision. Tim is still feeling pretty good. His next appointment is supposed to be in June, but he's had a few down days. He's going to call his doctor Tuesday and may end up going this week to have some labs run to check everything out. If everything continues to run as smoothly as it has over the last 2 months, we'll be able to get his surgery scheduled and the transplant done without having to do dialysis. Do you know how good that would be? So freakin' good!

THANK YOU!!!

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!! We are so incredibly grateful to everyone this last week. The response we have gotten from the previous post and email we sent out was more than I could have hoped for. We've received many phone calls from friends and family wishing us well and keeping us in their thoughts and prayers. E-mails have come in from complete strangers wishing us the same, and some considering donating a kidney to Tim. And that's not even talking about the serious networking that's happened here. This message is now on Facebook, MySpace and SO many different blogs. So we thank you, SO MUCH, for helping us to spread the word and find Tim a kidney. Update time. Good news. Tim's kidney function has improved by about 2%! I wish this was the way it would go forever, all the way back to a fully functioning kidney, but unfortunately that's not how this disease works. What it DOES mean, is that dialysis will wait! YAHOO!!! Something is going our way and we. are. thrilled. Now for "The Plan." We still need to find a donor as quickly as we can (which, HUGE side note here, one person has already gone to have blood work done and we SO can't thank them enough for taking that step. It is huge and we are tremendously grateful.) so at Tim's next appointment, depending on where his levels are, we are as prepared as we can be. Hopefully we'll have found a match so we'll be able to schedule the transplant and not have to start dialysis. There you have it folks. Thank you, again, for all your kind comments and phone calls, and for the thoughts and prayers being sent up on our behalf. We appreciate it more than you know.

We Love YOUR Guts!

Kidneys especially. About 5 years ago, Tim was diagnosed with Kidney Failure. We were surprised, but not shocked because 2 of his siblings also have kidney failure and have had to have transplants. Over the last 5-ish years, Tim has been seeing a nephrologist regularly every 3-6 months as requested by his doctor. They've monitored his B.U.N. and creatinine levels closely and determined late last summer that transplant time was getting close. We then met with a transplant coordinator, social worker, financial coordinator and surgeon. 13 vials of blood were drawn and labs ran. The goal for Tim during this time was to have him ready for transplantation before it became necessary for him to go on dialysis. This included, for us, finding a living donor. We've talked to many people about donating their kidney to Tim. Not asking anyone specifically, but just throwing it out there so people know what's going on and if it's something they would be willing to do, we'd be willing to take them up on it. So many have said it's something they would think about, and we appreciate SO MUCH that they would even consider it. At Tim's appointment today, his doctor had his name put on the waiting list for a kidney. Within the next week or so, we'll have the results of his blood work to know if he'll need to start dialysis. (His last labs read that he was at 12% kidney function, dialysis usually starts around 10% funcion.) As he has been feeling pretty good, we're hoping dialysis will be put off for a few more months. This is where you come in. Have you seen the billboard on the highway that says something like "Donate a kidney/car to the kidney foundation"? Well, if you've been thinking "hmm... I have this spare car lying around, but I also have a spare kidney.... what to do... what to do..." We'd like to encourage the kidney donation. :) Here's what you do. Call Cathy at 801-507-8311 or 801-507-3380. Cathy is Tim's transplant coordinator. She'll schedule a time for you to get a work up done to see if you're a match for Tim. What you need to know. Tim's blood type is A+, however, if you are A+ OR A- you can still be a match. If the sub-grouping is necessary, it will be determined later on. Recovery time for the donor is 4-6 weeks on average. You would be in the hospital for 5-7 days. You can't drive for 2 weeks or lift anything over 20 lbs for 3 weeks. Either our insurance or Medicare covers both the donor surgery and the recipient surgery, so there is no out of pocket cost for you. That's it. So now if you're thinking "I only have one kidney... I'm diabetic... I'm the wrong blood type... I hate hospitals... I'm terrified of needles... Tim? Who's Tim?" I have one more teensy weensy favor to ask to help us out. For all you bloggers out there. Link us! Copy this and post it to your blog, put a link, copy and email to friends and family, whatever. But please help us spread the word and find some new guts for my hubby. If you do decide to be tested, please e-mail me at tim_and_cas@yahoo.com so we can follow up with the coordinator. Whew! If ya got through all that, THANK YOU!