Recap

Helllooooo my friends. It is Saturday afternoon, Valentine's Day and I'm sitting in the dialysis clinic on White Bridge Road. Everyone is very receptive to my chipper mood; the nurse Jason got my wireless hooked up and Dawn hooked me up to the dialysis machine. All in about 15 minutes. Apparently I am on my own for the next 3 and a quarter hours. I have phone, books, computer, NYT and pillow/blanket from home. I think that I will describe the scene some other time. I think it best to focus only on my nurses and not the atmosphere here. There are some very sick people within a few feet of me.




The photos are of a) Bruce makes a heart shape with red vest and body for Valentine's day, b) a friend's Valentine's Day shirt at the "Peep Show" this morning (breakfast at LePeep), c) some very dear visitors post-sushi at the hospital. Had a very nice social call or two lately. You know how I love the visitors.

Got out of the Centennial Hospital Lux Hotel on Thursday afternoon. I've had a bit of amnesia, a little pain and mostly feeling wobbly when I walk. But I'm good. They took 20 pounds off of me in the 2 days that I was there.

Here is a recap of my situation:

*March 2008 - warned that my kidneys were about to go. Frantically try to keep them going!
*June 2008 - got accepted into Dual Transplant program at Vandy after many educational visits and competing programs. This means I am in line for a Pancreas AND Kidney Transplant. Personal nephrologists does not agree with my decision. He wants me to get living donor NOW, not the Dual surgery. Very hard decision. Vandy has me do over 30 tests to qualify, including visit to my favorite dentist, TB tests, everything!
*August 2008 - Begin to feel tired, gaining water weight
*Late September 2008 (?), had surgery to place PD catherter into my paretineal cavity.
Healing time & waiting for the clinic to have time to train me. No shower for 6 weeks.
*Nov 3 started PD training for that week.
*Nov 7 First day to have dialysis on my own at home. Vandy calls with potential donor for pancreas & kidney. Up all night getting ready for big transplant
*Nov 8 transplant falls through. (good dry run)
*Nov 8 - Jan 15, 2009- Peritoneal Dialysis goes very slow. Spending 5-8 hrs per day on the "exchanges" at home. Sell a few homes! Feeling Better! Very good actually; go to gym or walk everyday! Real estate "consulting" is mostly pro-bono, but I'm happy to do it!
*Jan 26 - Unorganized dialysis nurse finally says, "something is wrong" ordered xrays & ultimately exploratory surgery
*Jan 29- Surgeon finds falopian tube sucked up against catheter. Visit with all friends that work at Centennial, including 2 surgeons, 1 nurse, & 1 anesthesiologist.
*Jan 30 - PD goes oh so fast. We cry with joy! I see the light
*Jan 31 - Ah Oh. The exchanges are fast, but then they stop. Not enough fluid comes out. I begin to grow, gaining pounds everyday.
*Feb 2 - in 2 days I gain 8 or 9 lbs. Another surgery scheduled, then canceled. Never talk to surgeon because he is calling home line instead of cell. I go a few days w/o checking home line.
*Feb 9- lots of visits to doctors. finally at a face to face with surgeon (i've now gained 15 lbs) he thinks that the peritoneal cavity is leaking into surrounding tissue. Most of my weight gain is squishy fluid in groin, legs & chest. On alert to go to emergency room. The only thing to do is another surgery with emergency catheter installed in jugular to do hemo dialysis.
*Feb 11 - weigh 128 lbs on way to hospital at 5am. Hard to sit, walk, breath, ect. very uncomfortable. Shoes do not fit, nor does clothing. Am admitted for 2 days. After the surgery, I have 2 hemo dialysis rounds, then back home the next day. Scales say 108 lbs - they took 20 lbs off of me!
*Feb 14 - Happy Valentines day! Am currently having hemo dialysis "in center"....3 hours to go!

So the last few days have been full of emotions: john has kept me laughing, we were laughing the whole time the morning of the surgery. We had the whole pre-op room coming down to see what was up because everyone was making so much noise. One of the nurses even said that we were the fun room. After surgery friends brought sushi for the whole room and you know I love my friends so much because apparently i fell asleep and snored in front of all of them. John & mother fought over who was going to stay with me, John bragging about his air mattress. John stayed, flirted with the nurses, then told them not to wake us up all night! Unfortunately the alarms in other rooms kept him up. I was too drugged to be awake and I thought the bed was very nice.

I feel good and a few friends were concerned when I told them that I did real estate most of Friday - putting up signs, showing a few houses, dragging branches to the street at my rental property. I had a very nice walk with Kim & Lorrie. Dr Wolf has made a few house calls over the last few days. Luckily I am playing scrabble - 10 or 11 games on Facebook right now, and I'm still managing some leads over Bruce & John. My mental acuity continues to challenge them! ha Love all the notes and the visits and feel honestly quite lucky. The dialysis centers are a reminder of how good I have it. I think I will spare you the descriptions of the other patients and the scene here.