Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Today Really Sucked!

Like REALLY sucked.  We got to the hospital at 5:45 this morning to get checked in and prepped.  After J and I go through all the formalities of registration and the nurses' questions, we each get changed into our high-fashion hospital gowns, slippers, and hats.  I love hospital couture, by the way.  I find it so light and airy!  This is where the morning starts to go to hell in the proverbial handbasket.  J and I are sharing a pre-op room and techs, but have separate nurses.  While one tech is taking his admission vital signs, the other is butchering my arm in a severely botched attempt at placing an IV.  I am not joking about this; it took every ounce of severely depleted restraint I had to not punch this woman in the face as she stuck me the first time with a way too big IV way too agressively, pushed it through the vein so hard that she blew it, and watched as blood not only poured from said mangled vein onto my arm, but collected under the skin and formed a beautiful golf-ball sized lump.  I told her as nicely as I could to get the damn thing out of my arm because it hurt, a lot.  She said "Oh, I guess it does, it's a little puffy."  YA THINK?!?!  She kind of moseyed over to the other side of the bed and mumbled something about having to try again with a smaller gauge needle.  I was not very gracious in my thanks for that.  While Wonder Tech #1 is setting up for IV attempt Part Deux, her dusty, trusty sidekick shuffles over to get my vital signs.  Having heard her arguing with J about his blood pressure and last food intake and whatnot, I was less than impressed before she showed her face on my side of the curtain.  My disdain with her was only solidified when she proceeded to argue with me about keeping my swollen, painful arm still so she could get a good blood pressure reading on me while her cohort fished for a vein in my other arm.  I seriously contemplated head-butting her for a split second, if only to shut her the hell up!  When the Crypt Keeper tech finally finished her business in our room, she scuttled away, never to be seen again.  Wonder Tech then went to J's side of the room and tortured him with not one, not two, but THREE attempts to get a good line.  Poor guy was dehydrated because of our NPO (nothing by mouth) status as of midnight, as well as the tremendously unpleasant bowel prep he had to do (I was spared this particular torture, I may not be so lucky soon.  More on that to come.).  He is also not a fan of needles, and by the end of this involuntary piercing festival, was as pale as the sheet on his bed.  

After reading about this little adventure, I'm sure you're asking yourself "What a morning!  I'm sure surgery was a breeze!"  Nope.  NOPE, NOPE, NOPE!  If you've never had surgery before, let me break this part down for you really quick.  After answering a ton of questions that you've answered a million times before for your pre-op nurse, you get your IV placed (as established above, but hopefully with more skilled techs than we had today).  Then your ENTIRE surgical team comes in, along with their students, colleagues, friends, spouses, parents, and children.  If you're really lucky, they might bring their dogs.  Then you answer their questions, sign consents (or autographs, depending on who they are and what they want), if necessary, they shave you, and allow them to draw on you (for surgical site purposes.  They aren't artists after all).  At this point in our morning, the urologist on the case came down and explained his part of the surgery to us (mostly J, as he is the lead surgeon on his part of the case.)  My surgeon was in as well, going over my part of the surgery.  This is where it gets majorly hinky; remember a few weeks ago when I wrote about my funky anatomy?  Well, turns out that it's more of a challenge than we initially thought.  Because of the placement of the major vein that supplies the kidneys, if they were to just go in and take the kidney and try to place it in J, that would leave a renal vein about a half inch long to supply it.  Not nearly long enough.  We find this out minutes before we are supposed to be in the OR.  Our surgeons stepped out for a few minutes, came back and J's surgeon says "I am about to be a very unpopular surgeon this morning".  My heart SANK.  I had an idea of what was coming at us before he said it.  When he told us what I just got done typing, the first thing that came to my mind was "Well isn't that just a punch in the face?  My anatomy sucks and now we can't do this."  We got *this* close, only to be told "Hey, sorry to tell you this, but I only skimmed over your actual CT scan and went by the report said, so we thought we could go with the traditional approach.  We were way wrong.  Whoops."  So now we get to play the waiting game for two more months, and are on the books (supposedly) for May 1st.  For the love of all things, everything had better fall into place the right way, and I mean everything, so that this can go according to Plan B on May 1st.

I'm exhausted, so I'm off to bed.  Good night, and please send good vibes our way.  We really need them.

Monday, February 24, 2014

The countdown is on!

We're in the home stretch.  Less than 2 days left until Lefty is moved from his current home to a new address.  It has been a whirlwind for sure; I really don't know if transplants move this fast normally.  We started this process officially on December 9th.  From start to finish, it has taken just shy of three months to get to this point.  I know Joe is ready to be two kidneys lighter.  The coming days and weeks will be an adventure for sure.  I'm just about ready; new furniture is in, house for the most part is clean(ish).  It's nearly impossible to keep it as clean as I want with a precocious 21 month old running the roost, which is okay.  I just have to keep chasing Cheerios out from under the couch.  

I don't really have much else to add today, I'm exhausted and still have a ton of stuff to get done (laundry is almost about to be checked off my list!).  I will try to post a couple of quick updates throughout the week.  Have no fear, SuperBean is here!!!

Good night friends!  :)

Monday, February 17, 2014

We're almost there, folks!

In 8 days, I will do something that will drastically change someone's life.  In 8 days, I will be an organ donor.  In some people's eyes, this will make me a super hero.  In my eyes, I will just be me.  Gina, but with one less kidney.  I wonder if the hospital gives out capes as parting gifts?  That would be funny; you get a cape when you sign your discharge papers.  "Thanks for giving away your kidney, here's your shiny green cape.  Sidekick not included."  Speaking of parting gifts, did you know that there is a market for transplant donor and recipient gifts?!?! For some strange reason, I decided to Google funny recipient gifts, and lo and behold, the first two websites that came up were CafePress and Zazzle.  They each have tons of those useless (read: tote bags that you'll never use and keychains destined for the junk drawer) trinkets that people love to give.  Some of the stuff is cute and funny, but nothing I would buy.  There are people who love that kind of stuff though, so now you know!  

Tomorrow is "Bye bye Old Couch Day" and Wednesday the new furniture is being delivered.  The house has been as thoroughly cleaned as I can possibly get it, save for scrubbing the walls and ceiling with bleach.  Ain't nobody got time fo' dat!  Clean floors, bathroom, kitchen, and bedroom.  Groceries, check-ish (still need a few things).  At this point, I can't even think of what else I need to do.  I'm just winging it, not gonna lie.  The next week is going to be a whirlwind, for sure.  Can't wait!

Off to bed, I'm wiped out!  Until next time... 

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Pointless Post

I'm really only posting because I feel like I haven't in a really long time; in truth, it's only been a week.  Tomorrow is both J's and my pre-op appointment.  His is exponentially more lengthy than mine, and for the life of me, I can't remember what exactly he has to do tomorrow.  I will be signing my consent forms and meeting with my surgical team.  I already had all my pre-op labs done (yes, more blood and peeing into cups) last week.  We're getting down to it, peeps; 14 days, nine hours till The Great Kidney Swap of 2014.  Tomorrow is also the day I *should* be purchasing my new couches!  SQUEEEEE!  I am ridiculously excited.  I am a simple creature, I know.  Nothing else very exciting happening here.  Actually, this past week has been really kind of emotional for me.  So many different things are going on inside my head that I am kind of having a hard time dealing with it.  PLEASE NOTE: this has no bearing on the transplant whatsoever!!!  This is due to outside circumstances (read: dwindling support) as this process goes on.  As I said previously, I have some amazing friends, co-workers, and a few family members that still give a damn and have been an amazing source of strength.  Thank you all!  I will never forget how much you all supported me.  The rest is what it is.  I can't change it, I can only move past it, and I am starting to.  I just keep telling myself that the most important thing in all of this is that J is healthy and that he buys me those fries.  

Anyway, how about that awesome snowstorm the East Coast is supposed to get, huh?  It's supposed to start here in Maryland tomorrow evening and from what I hear, continue through till Thursday evening.  ICK!!!  

Have a good night everyone!

Monday, February 3, 2014

Well alrighty then!

I got word today that my repeat labs came back okay.  I will have to discuss those weird findings with my primary care physician and discuss where we go from here.  I have been told that it will not affect the transplant process or my health after.  *WHEW!!!*  Remember that "5-ish" weeks I was telling you all about last week?  That is officially 4 weeks and 2 days from now.  That's right boys and girls, I got work today that unless there is some ridiculously apocalyptic occurrence between now and then, I will be forever separated from Lefty.  Well physically anyway.  J will be the proud new owner of a shiny new kidney, and be availed of all the perks therein.  Like peeing normally and being able to eat french fries.  And I be able to say that I can leave a lasting legacy for my family.  I am so proud to be able to be a part of this process!  As I said previously, I only ever imagined donating an organ or tissue after my death, and I was totally okay with that.  But being able to do this while I am still living and breathing, and being able to walk down to my friends room and see that he is doing well means so much more to me than words can ever express.  And I will be the one to visit him first, because I want those french fries!!!  

All the above being said, I am fully aware that the next few weeks will be nothing short of a whirlwind.  I am also very aware that it will be very stressful; it already is.  I would be a lying liar who lies if I said that I wasn't scared to death, but I am amazingly fortunate to have awesome family and friends who have stepped up and offered their support in so many ways: they have listened when I want to talk about the process, offered help when the surgery happens, and kept me from losing my mind when I start to get scared.  I tend to get wrapped up inside my own thoughts sometimes, which leads to over-analyzing situations, which then leads to me freaking out.  I tend to have these "freak out sessions" with my friends, and they have been amazing.  I have not forgotten that I have those that aren't a part of this journey; I am disappointed, but I have obviously gotten this far without that support so I am fully confident that I will be without it afterward.  I like to think that I am a much stronger woman than people give me credit for.  

Ladies and gentlemen, I must go.  I have a few things to mull over and a lot of organizing to do.  And menu-planning, and a schedule for the kiddo for when I have out-of-town family down to help, and I have to shop for a new couch, and......

See you later!