Hopefully the last pre-tests!

Today was a pretty busy day for us at the Innova transplant center. We met with our transplant coordinator Kimberly for an hour and a half. Jen has a 2-page set of instructions for pre- and post-operative care. I have a binder. Kimberly went over all the things that we have to do leading up to next Wednesday, what we can't eat, what drugs not to take, what to bring with us to the hospital, what will happen that day and in the days following.

Looks like Jen and I both may get out of the hospital on the same or close-to same day- Saturday the 14th -- if all goes well. Then I have to go back in the following Monday and Thursday for testing.

She then covered a bad-news section of the briefing for me. READER ALERT: THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH CONTAINS TOO MUCH INFORMATION -- READ AT YOUR OWN RISK . Seems that they put in a stent where my new kidney hooks to the bladder. It's kind of a drinking straw thing that keeps the plumbing open while it heals. Kimberly informed me that they have to remove it 6 weeks after surgery. It doesn't come out the same incision that it went in. IT COMES OUT THE ONLY OTHER PLUMBING CONNECTION TO MY BLADDER. YES THAT ONE. Seems they run a CAMERA up there (these photos will NOT be posted on the blog), then send up some sort of a gizmo like a plumber's snake and PULL IT OUT. AND I HAVE TO BE AWAKE FOR THIS. Somehow, now the surgery itself seems a pretty minor episode compared to this event. No wonder she put this under the bad news category.

After I started to breath again, then they took lots of blood -- 11 vials for Jen, 10 for me. She's also participating in a medical study -- kind of cool -- they want to study the "trimmings" from her kidney for some purpose. She had to sign all the paperwork for that. I had to get another EKG and chest xray.

I met with Dr. Piper after lunch. He went through the details of the surgery, the success factors -- meds on time, keeping appointments and labs, getting up around after surgery and staying active, good diet. He laid out some of the statistics: 7% of transplants fail within the first year, half now last up 10-15 years and the other half last longer than than. So I have pretty good odds that this will be the last one I need. He did say that the fact that I didn't have to go on dialysis is a major improvement in my odds of a successful transplant. Even a short time on that dramatically decreases the success factor.

Kimberly had said that I should be avoiding crowded places after transplant for a while, to avoid bugs. Dr. Piper sort of disagreed, saying that my highest risk of contact with bad stuff was four days in the hospital, and that even four hours at a company Christmas party, for instance, was nowhere near the risk that the hospital was. So we'll have to see how the holiday season goes.

So this weekend, Kimberly advised, should be spent getting ready -- groceries, reading material, clean the house, do chores, pay bills, all the things that you do just before a vacation, so that you don't worry about them next week. Some vacation it will be.