Dear friends and readers,
I wondered what to title this post. My posts became especially irregular after my failing kidney transplant resulted in returning to reliance on dialysis three times a week for five hours to live. What most people don’t realize (and I understand why) is how draining (no pun intended) dialysis is and what it entails in changes to energy and diet. For example you can only have a small amount of fluids orally between each dialysis treatment.
Basically I would report to my local hospital here in Penticton and they would put two needles in my left arm.
My left arm during hemodialysis
My left arm has a fistula that allows thick needles to be inserted for about 4 hours. One needle and tube allows the blood flow into a hemodialysis machine basically a pump that assists the heart to push the blood through a filter. Over a period of four hours my blood supply would pass through the filter removing toxins and water that a healthy kidney normally would. A second tube and needle returns the blood back into the left arm. It’s a loop!
What is the new hope? April 24, about 8 weeks ago I received a new kidney transplant !! Yes and what a miracle it was to find a match. Match depend on blood type and antibodies and lots of other things that I don’t understand. My antibodies were high and there was a 99% to 1% chance for me to find a transplant match. They told me to expect to wait years and years for the remote chance.
But I was blessed, and I found a match immediately, a really excellent match. Amazing!
My transplant was aided (prompted) by the fact that a special amazing friend of mine, donated one of his kidneys to someone else who needed one in Ontario. It’s called a shared donor chain. One person or a chain of persons all donate to help someone if they donate to help someone else. I was on a chain gang !
The day before my new transplant, me and my son Dave Jr.
April 23 My family traveled with me to Vancouver, BC to Vancouver General Hospital. They do hundreds of transplants a year but the demand is high and many are still dying waiting on the list because while most people would accept an organ, most people have still not signed a consent to be a donor.
April 24, they wheeled me to the surgery room and I remember nothing more accept my donor was wheeled out of surgery just before they wheeled me in.
A little bruised on my arm from surgery needles
I was out of the hospital after only six days but continued to stay locally for six weeks of followup, bloodtests and meetings with nurses, doctors and others for six weeks.
Now the surgery did have some complications and so did the recovery but I am energized and returned home finally after six weeks post surgery followup 400 kilometers away from my Okanagan home.
New hope, no more dialysis, new energy, longer healthier life, travel, …. life! My bruises have faded, my incisions are healing and I blessed and grateful.
Thank you for sincerely for reading and your likes and/or questions or comments- I will reply to each of you who adds a comment individually. I missed everyone and it feels wonderful to be posting and sharing my news.
Welcome home Dad from my son
I also have been doing some walking along the lakeshore or inside the hockey rink if the wind outside is too bitter.
