Re: is still here

[Guest guest]

Hey and , thanks for missing me. I am still around and

still lurk on a semi-regular basis. Life with the kidney is going

very well, i'll go ahead and throw in an update for you.

It's been 7 months and 11 days since my tx and things could not

possibly be better. As hundreds of people seem to have asked me,

married life goes well. My wife is in graduate school to be an

elementary school teacher here at the university I work for. She has

one year left in the program. Her mother, for those of you who don't

know, her mother gave me the kidney, is doing wonderfully. She had

her 60th birthday about a month ago and is doing great. You would

never know that she was sixty. If anything she has been more active

since the transplant gardening and working and traveling.

As far as the kidney goes, I had a brief but uneventful bout of

neutropenia which is a really fancy word for low white blood cell

count. They adjusted my meds and watched me closely for a couple of

weeks, I also had a couple of shots of something called nupogen that

boosts your white cell count. The nurse walked in and said the ever

so fun phrase " I'm not going to lie to you, this is going to hurt "

Thankfully I only had 2 of those. After about a month my levels were

back to where they should be. This didn't really affect me and I

never got sick, but the risk was there so they were really careful.

I ran into one of my transplant friends that had hers the day after

me while I was at the clinic and she had a similar experience, and

her levels didn't respond as quickly as mine and she had about 10

nupogen shots and was off several of her meds for a while. Well her

white cells refused to budge and then all of a sudden skyrocketed

and sent her into a rejection episode. She then got a 3 week stay in

the hospital until she could go home again. She is fine now, but I

consider myself lucky that mine was just routine and I never really

had and negative consequences besides several extra hours at the

doctor.

Before the transplant I had dropped to about 135 lbs or so, I am 6'

tall so this was a little on the low side to say the least. My pre-

kidney symptoms weight was about 160 and I am now a prednisone

encouraged 180lbs. People that haven't seen me in a while always

give a weird look and stare before saying something like, you look

so great with weight or something along those lines. I know they

mean well and I'm glad to have " filled out " a bit, but I'm trying to

watch my diet a little more now both for my cholesterol (which is

increased my the rejection meds) and to keep my weight from

continuing on the up swing. I kid that I had a year of eating to

catch up on

My scar from surgery is almost completely hidden now, the surgeon

did a great job. I can now lift things again and it's nice to be

able to do things on my own at home and work now. My creatine is

steady at 1.8 and last dr. visit my hemoglobin was almost too high,

so the new kidney is just working away wonderfully. Also my bp is

steady at about 130 / 80 or so which is just amazing and maked my

nephrologist and me so happy everytime I come in. It was absolutely

uncontrollable before and it's good to have it so normal.

I now take 7 prescriptions per day that include Cyclosporin,

Cellcept, and Prednisone (Anti-Rejection), (Norvasc, Atenolol) Blooc

Pressure , Allegra(allergies), and Pravichol(cholesterol). I barely

think about it anymore, I just take them twice a day and go on with

my day.

I'll try to be more social around here, but know I'm usually

watching.

[Guest guest]

,

It's so great to hear from you. I am so excited for you that your

marriage is going well, and that you are feeling great with the new

kidney. To see a successful story like yours really makes me ready

for my transplant, because I can see how much you are enjoying life.

What a wonderful gift from your Mother-in-law. I hope you'll come

around more and give us updates every once in awhile.

I don't have a date scheduled for my surgery yet. What were the

steps your donor had to take in order for you to go ahead and

schedule it? So far all my Aunt has done is the cross match, which

came out excellent.

My Mom and I were going 20 west, and we happened to go through

Tuscaloosa. Speaking of Alabama, I saw you guys had a bad storm come

through, is everything doing alright there? Take care!

> Hey and , thanks for missing me. I am still around and

> still lurk on a semi-regular basis. Life with the kidney is going

> very well, i'll go ahead and throw in an update for you.

>

> It's been 7 months and 11 days since my tx and things could not

> possibly be better. As hundreds of people seem to have asked me,

> married life goes well. My wife is in graduate school to be an

> elementary school teacher here at the university I work for. She

has

> one year left in the program. Her mother, for those of you who

don't

> know, her mother gave me the kidney, is doing wonderfully. She had

> her 60th birthday about a month ago and is doing great. You would

> never know that she was sixty. If anything she has been more active

> since the transplant gardening and working and traveling.

>

> As far as the kidney goes, I had a brief but uneventful bout of

> neutropenia which is a really fancy word for low white blood cell

> count. They adjusted my meds and watched me closely for a couple of

> weeks, I also had a couple of shots of something called nupogen

that

> boosts your white cell count. The nurse walked in and said the ever

> so fun phrase " I'm not going to lie to you, this is going to hurt "

> Thankfully I only had 2 of those. After about a month my levels

were

> back to where they should be. This didn't really affect me and I

> never got sick, but the risk was there so they were really careful.

> I ran into one of my transplant friends that had hers the day after

> me while I was at the clinic and she had a similar experience, and

> her levels didn't respond as quickly as mine and she had about 10

> nupogen shots and was off several of her meds for a while. Well her

> white cells refused to budge and then all of a sudden skyrocketed

> and sent her into a rejection episode. She then got a 3 week stay

in

> the hospital until she could go home again. She is fine now, but I

> consider myself lucky that mine was just routine and I never really

> had and negative consequences besides several extra hours at the

> doctor.

>

> Before the transplant I had dropped to about 135 lbs or so, I am 6'

> tall so this was a little on the low side to say the least. My pre-

> kidney symptoms weight was about 160 and I am now a prednisone

> encouraged 180lbs. People that haven't seen me in a while always

> give a weird look and stare before saying something like, you look

> so great with weight or something along those lines. I know they

> mean well and I'm glad to have " filled out " a bit, but I'm trying

to

> watch my diet a little more now both for my cholesterol (which is

> increased my the rejection meds) and to keep my weight from

> continuing on the up swing. I kid that I had a year of eating to

> catch up on

>

> My scar from surgery is almost completely hidden now, the surgeon

> did a great job. I can now lift things again and it's nice to be

> able to do things on my own at home and work now. My creatine is

> steady at 1.8 and last dr. visit my hemoglobin was almost too high,

> so the new kidney is just working away wonderfully. Also my bp is

> steady at about 130 / 80 or so which is just amazing and maked my

> nephrologist and me so happy everytime I come in. It was absolutely

> uncontrollable before and it's good to have it so normal.

>

> I now take 7 prescriptions per day that include Cyclosporin,

> Cellcept, and Prednisone (Anti-Rejection), (Norvasc, Atenolol)

Blooc

> Pressure , Allegra(allergies), and Pravichol(cholesterol). I

barely

> think about it anymore, I just take them twice a day and go on with

> my day.

>

> I'll try to be more social around here, but know I'm usually

> watching.

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hey , I will try to come around more often. We did have some

bad weather here today, and several buildings were damaged in the

middle of town, but no one was hurt thankfully. We had about 15000

people without power today in the area.

The steps we went through were fairly quick and easy. Cathie (mom-in-

law) called right after my 3rd PD related surgery in mid January and

had them send her a kit. She got it, took it to her Dr. and mailed

it back. About 3 weeks later she called and they told her that she

was a 3/6 antigen match. Two things we learned were 1. the person

had to call and request the results be released (they wouldn't just

call with them) and 2. they had to authorize that I could know what

they were (in case they changed their mind) She came to UAB in

early march I think and had her evaultion for 3 days where they

tested everything. At the end of the evaultion they told her that

she was a wonderful choice for a donor and if she / we wanted to go

ahead with it we should make and appointment. We made one for a

month later, the first day of my spring break, and the rest is

history.

Wave when you drive back past Tuscaloosa.

> > Hey and , thanks for missing me. I am still around

and

> > still lurk on a semi-regular basis. Life with the kidney is

going

> > very well, i'll go ahead and throw in an update for you.

> >

> > It's been 7 months and 11 days since my tx and things could not

> > possibly be better. As hundreds of people seem to have asked me,

> > married life goes well. My wife is in graduate school to be an

> > elementary school teacher here at the university I work for. She

> has

> > one year left in the program. Her mother, for those of you who

> don't

> > know, her mother gave me the kidney, is doing wonderfully. She

had

> > her 60th birthday about a month ago and is doing great. You

would

> > never know that she was sixty. If anything she has been more

active

> > since the transplant gardening and working and traveling.

> >

> > As far as the kidney goes, I had a brief but uneventful bout of

> > neutropenia which is a really fancy word for low white blood

cell

> > count. They adjusted my meds and watched me closely for a couple

of

> > weeks, I also had a couple of shots of something called nupogen

> that

> > boosts your white cell count. The nurse walked in and said the

ever

> > so fun phrase " I'm not going to lie to you, this is going to

hurt "

> > Thankfully I only had 2 of those. After about a month my levels

> were

> > back to where they should be. This didn't really affect me and I

> > never got sick, but the risk was there so they were really

careful.

> > I ran into one of my transplant friends that had hers the day

after

> > me while I was at the clinic and she had a similar experience,

and

> > her levels didn't respond as quickly as mine and she had about

10

> > nupogen shots and was off several of her meds for a while. Well

her

> > white cells refused to budge and then all of a sudden

skyrocketed

> > and sent her into a rejection episode. She then got a 3 week

stay

> in

> > the hospital until she could go home again. She is fine now, but

I

> > consider myself lucky that mine was just routine and I never

really

> > had and negative consequences besides several extra hours at the

> > doctor.

> >

> > Before the transplant I had dropped to about 135 lbs or so, I am

6'

> > tall so this was a little on the low side to say the least. My

pre-

> > kidney symptoms weight was about 160 and I am now a prednisone

> > encouraged 180lbs. People that haven't seen me in a while always

> > give a weird look and stare before saying something like, you

look

> > so great with weight or something along those lines. I know they

> > mean well and I'm glad to have " filled out " a bit, but I'm

trying

> to

> > watch my diet a little more now both for my cholesterol (which

is

> > increased my the rejection meds) and to keep my weight from

> > continuing on the up swing. I kid that I had a year of eating to

> > catch up on

> >

> > My scar from surgery is almost completely hidden now, the

surgeon

> > did a great job. I can now lift things again and it's nice to be

> > able to do things on my own at home and work now. My creatine is

> > steady at 1.8 and last dr. visit my hemoglobin was almost too

high,

> > so the new kidney is just working away wonderfully. Also my bp

is

> > steady at about 130 / 80 or so which is just amazing and maked

my

> > nephrologist and me so happy everytime I come in. It was

absolutely

> > uncontrollable before and it's good to have it so normal.

> >

> > I now take 7 prescriptions per day that include Cyclosporin,

> > Cellcept, and Prednisone (Anti-Rejection), (Norvasc, Atenolol)

> Blooc

> > Pressure , Allegra(allergies), and Pravichol(cholesterol). I

> barely

> > think about it anymore, I just take them twice a day and go on

with

> > my day.

> >

> > I'll try to be more social around here, but know I'm usually

> > watching.

> >

> >