Part Thirty Three: Home Again

Hey everyone! I'm back at home and doing well. Thank you all for writing in with your words of love and support.

After days of dreary drizzly weather here in Saint Louis, the skies are clear and the sun is shining down on this city of World Series and Kidney champions.

C did a nice job reporting on the day of surgery, but I will add a few observations of my own. I'm sorry if this update is long and disjointed... but I have a lot to say and I'm still feeling a little woozy this morning.

Let me start by saying that I was still pooping quite a bit Wednesday morning! I mentioned this before, but it really did continue up until I was wheeled into the operating room. I guess I will never know if I pooped on the nurses and doctors during my surgery (unless they took a picture for me).

My dad was in the little holding room next to mine, so most of our visitors would multi-task and come to visit us at the same time. It kind of sucked though because it meant there would be periods where I was laying in there all alone! My brother Anthony came back and read me a scripture and said a prayer and kissed me on the forehead. It made me cry and after that I was pretty weepy. I managed to pull myself together when the doctors came in and wheeled me out into the O.R. We paused for a second by my dad's area and my mom came out and hugged me and my dad said something like, "I'll see you on the other side." At that point, I wasn't too nervous... mostly just ready to go back and get it all over with.

The nurses swarmed all around me in the operating room and quickly put a oxygen mask on my face and asked me to breathe in deep. They then told me they were giving me a shot and that is all I remember.

I woke up in the recovery room. I vaguely remember a nurse who kept shouting across the room at me to BREATHE DEEP. Breathing deep was really really hard. She had to tell me to breathe lots of times.

I woke up in my private room a little bit later with a bunch of people around. I think my brother Alex and his girlfriend Dawn, and Carrie and Beth, and maybe my grandma... I don't even remember now. I kept closing my eyes and then I would wake up and there would be more people there. Doctors came to visit me and lots of different nurses and care partners. They took my blood pressure and temperature and pulse a lot. All throughout the first night my nurse came in every hour and checked on me. She said my blood pressure was really low. Also, there were some problems with my catheter. It wasn't draining correctly.

That night I was able to get up and walk to my dad's room. The walking part wasn't too bad... but the getting up part was really difficult. It felt like all I was really able to do was lay there. If I tried moving to the left or right it would hurt so bad.

I didn't visit with my dad for long. He kept dozing off and I was tired and felt dizzy... so I walked back to my room.

The next day is even more of a blur than the first. I was so incredibly tired and groggy on the second day. I think the anesthesia finally caught up with me. I couldn't keep my eyes open and if I tried to get up I felt like puking. I think I did end up throwing up a little bit. They gave me medicine for nausea and some for pain. I tried to watch the Cardinals game but kept falling asleep and couldn't focus. I turned if off somewhere around the third inning. I was glad to wakeup and turn on the TV and see that they had come from behind to win.

Thursday, they were really pushing for me to go home. Or at least the surgeon was. He came in and talked to me and told me that I couldn't lay around all day and that I would only feel better if I got up. After he left I started crying because I was so frustrated. A super nice nurse came back in and saw me crying and told me that they wouldn't make me go home if I wasn't ready. She took the bandages off my incisions, which really hurt and I cried a little more. I noticed that they'd had to shave my stomach a little bit for the surgery. Sweet.

Friday morning I got up early and got out of bed and put my housecoat on and went for a walk. I had gotten up several times during the night to pee on my own. They made me pee into a hat so that they could measure it and make sure my one kidney was doing okay.

On Friday, I really started feeling the pain from the air trapped inside my body. At first, I was just noticing pain in my abdomen but then it shifted up to my left shoulder and eventually to my right. It got to the point where I wasn't really able to lay down because it hurt too bad, and I could hardly sit still because of the pain.

They allowed me to brush my teeth and take a shower that morning and I put on a clean gown. A short while later, I was able to get some real clothes on. My mom and grandpa gathered up all of my balloons and gift bags and flowers and took them to the car, while I waited for the nurse to return to take the annoying IV out of my wrist and bring my prescriptions and discharge papers.

Carrie had gone into work for a few hours and returned to the hospital in time to ride home with me and my mom. The ride home was kind of rough, as the city streets are bumpy and I had lots of balloons knocking into my head. We got in around 2:30pm and C got me quickly settled into to a comfy chair in the living room with warm fuzzy blankets and a heating pad on my abdomen to help alleviate the gas pains.

I pretty much stayed planted in the chair from the time I got home until the end of the Cardinals game. I had tried to lay down for a little bit but the pain from the trapped air proved to be too intense. I occasionally got up to go pee. I've been peeing just fine, but still had not had a bowel movement, or even been able to pass gas! I can't even express how annoying this is... knowing that you have all this air in you and it won't come out. I've been burping a lot though. Somewhere in the ninth inning of the Cardinals game I felt that familiar sensation in my butt and I let it collect long enough so that it would make an audible exit from my body. *FAAARRRTT!!!* My brother Anthony, and my friend Suzi, and Carrie were here watching the game and they cheered as I passed my first gas since the surgery. It was funny.

My dad is still at the hospital and is doing okay. His incision site is oozing a little bit which is causing some concern. Right now, the doctors are hoping it will heal up on its own but there may be a need to go back in and close it up better. His creatinine levels had been around 17 before surgery (the doctors were amazed that he was still able to pee some!), and by the time I left, they had dropped to 5. Just to give you an idea of what this means... Creatinine is a waste product and a good indictator of kidney function. A normal adult with two kidneys would probably have between .5 and 1 mg of creatinine in their system. Someone with just one kidney would probably have somewhere between 1.5 and 2. So it is pretty crazy that my dad's was up to 17, but encouraging that it has dropped below 5. I'm still waiting for his most current report. He is able to walk around on his own now and has finally had his catheter removed (which is a relief for a guy, I imagine!). I think they are feeling like he'll be able leave the hospital today.

I took one vicodin last night during the ball game and another before I went to bed. We have a futon that I was trying to sleep on, but I found it to be rather uncomfortable during the night. I got up to go to the bathroom and came back and tried to sleep on my side a little bit. My mom came over to stay at my house last night and I woke up when she started puttering around at 8 this morning. I felt pretty crappy this morning... my back hurt and I wasn't sure if it was more gas pains or just soreness from the futon. I sat down in my chair and felt like I was going to throw up. Carrie started brining me water and instant breakfast and ginger tea and bananas and crackers. I felt a little better after eating, but still needed a little more sleep, which I found in the comfort of my chair and heating pad and blankets.

One thing I'm noticing is that every time I get up to go pee, I get really shaky and weak and very cold. It's kind of annoying.

My incision sites are exposed but sealed shut with glue. They look kind of gross, especially the bigger one near my waistline.

Time to get up and walk around. I've always found that spending too much time inside makes me feel lethargic... so I think the more I'm up and around, the quicker I'll heal up. The Cardinals victory parade is tomorrow afternoon. Maybe Carrie will drive me down there.

PICTURES TO COME SOON