Since I am getting a lot of inquiries about my parents, I thought I would quickly give an update regarding their health and exactly what happened.
As some of you know, my father has been struggling with his health for the last 4 years, first with diabetes, second with a foot infection resulting in amputation (diabetes related) and lastly with kidney failure (again diabetes related).
So the journey begins…
If your kidney’s fail you must go on dialysis. I never knew exactly
what a kidney does, but it is pretty amazing. It isn’t like that
useless appendix that we can live without. Without the function of the
kidneys we wouldn’t be able to survive.
Here are some quick facts about what the kidneys do:
- Every day, your kidneys process about 200 quarts of blood to sift out
about 2 quarts of waste products and extra water. The waste and extra
water become urine. - The wastes in your blood come from the normal breakdown of active
tissues and from the food you eat. Your body uses the food for energy
and self-repair. After your body has taken what it needs from the food,
waste is sent to the blood. If your kidneys did not remove these
wastes, the wastes would build up in the blood and damage your body. - Your kidneys measure out chemicals like sodium, phosphorus, and
potassium and release them back to the blood to return to the body. In
this way, your kidneys regulate the body’s level of these substances.
The right balance is necessary for life, but excess levels can be
harmful.
(More Info)
Dialysis basically is a mechanical way to do what the kidneys do. You are hooked up to a machine and with an input and an output to your blood system. You sit for 3 – 5 hours and the machine extracts your blood, cleans it removing the chemicals mentioned above and puts it back in you. Pretty amazing!
My dad had to go for dialysis 3 days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. To get to the hospital was a big ordeal and after he would feel like crap, so by the time he was getting better the next day, guess what? One more sleep and he was back at dialysis doing the whole thing over again. Dad also experience blood pressure fluctuations that made him feel crappy a lot of the time.
So enough was enough. My dad is a universal recipient blood type AB+ so he could receive any kidney. But with the donor system even though he was at the top of the list, I guess if someone came up as a match for a donor kidney, they always outranked him. So really even though we were optimistic that he would get a donor, we always kept my moms cell phone ready and waiting during long weekends since more accidents happen during holidays and long weekend, it could have been still a very long wait. It is morbid to think what I just mentioned, but it is the truth. And I’m sure that many of those deaths that happened were to people who weren’t kidney donors. So it is important, but of course not mandatory to consider being an organ donor so you can help others improve their quality of lives or even save their lives. (Public service announcement over)
So with no end in sight, my mom began the testing to become a living donor, to give her kidney to my dad. Luckily, even though so many cards have been stacked against him over these past years, my mom was a match and the transplant was a go.
Let me just take a minute to say how proud I am of my mom. They could have continued on until a donor came up, but she had the courage to do it. The recovery is a lot harder on the donor because when you think about it, the donor’s body has to make up for a lost organ, the recipient is getting something that will help the body so the recovery is normally quicker. It is a very selfless thing to do to give a kidney, she is a wonderful woman!
Anyway, on June 28th they went in for the operation. My mom went in first for the four hour procedure to have the kidney removed and my dad went in early in the afternoon for the actual transplant. My mom, always in good spirits even though it was mixed with pain (but the benefit of morphine) came out with no problems. And as it turns out, her kidney was actually bigger than my dad’s original kidney! So it was ready to do the job.
My dad went in around one for the transplant. He was in for about 4 hours also while they put it in and connected up all the plumbing. He was moved to post op recovery for a couple and then was up in his room by 1AM that night.
And so the recovery began. Within a day my dad’s creatinine level (a measurement used to gauge kidney function) was decreasing quickly to a normal level. We were very excited! The kidney was working, and really well.
On day 4 my mom was at home and on day 7 my dad was at home. My mom is slowly getting her energy back and is occasionally nauseous but that is to be expected. She is healing up well. My dad’s kidney is still functioning at a good rate and he is also now healing well. So both are well on the road to recovery. The kidney can still reject up to 3 months, but we are optimistic that he will continue to heal up 100%.
My mom is now medication free, but it is a different story for my dad and all kidney recipients. He has to take pills in the morning and at night for anti-rejection, for life. He gets them adjusted every time he sees the doctor which right now is 2 times a week for 4 hours at a time (blood work, nurse visit, social worker, and doctor consultation) but the visits become less frequent. If he misses his pills for 6 hours there is a chance the body could go into rejection mode. So it is pretty amazing that the pills can trick the body into thinking the new kidney needs to be there.
I just found out the other day that all the medications and dialysis that my dad is on is covered by the Kidney Foundation. That is awesome because some of the medications were up to $1500 a shot! So if you are ever looking for a worthy charity, the Kidney Foundation is definitely worth looking at. It is amazing how many people are affected by kidney disease or kidney related problems. Also the Nephrology department has been fantastic at St.Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver. They treated my parents really well. Except we do have a food complaint, my dad HATES deviled egg sandwiches and the hospital kept on giving it to him, so he had to right a nasty note to them… and also the hard boiled eggs that come with breakfast are disgusting…be warned!
So all and all, the operation was a success. Both my parents are troopers and are pulling through. Hopefully once my dad is fully recovered they can get their lives back to some normalcy, minus one leg, and continue to enjoy life, maybe some travel, and possibly a new puppy (shhh, my dad doesn’t know it yet, but by Christmas, I bet there will be a new dog in the house).
So thank you all for your concern and well wishes.
If you made it this far… congrats! It was a long post.