R&R

At home and recovery is going nicely. I am still sore on the inside which is getting a bit old! Everyone keeps reminding me that the surgery was only 2 weeks ago and that it takes time to heal up. It is just such a strange sensation that i have inside i don't know how to describe it. It is not pain, just discomfort. I feel like i am bruised on the inside. But everyday it gets a bit better. Unfortunately though, last night Collette and i both came down with the flu or perhaps a cold. Sore throat, fever, stuffy nose. Icky to say the least! It is Jordan's birthday this weekend but we might have to celebrate her birthday with her sometime next week. Molly can't risk getting sick so we need to steer clear of her place! She pretty much has no immune system right now due to the anti-rejection medication that she is on so a common cold could make her very ill. Better safe than sorry and this way Jordan's birthday will last for a week!!

Molly and i are both so happy to be home. Staying in a hotel is only fun for the first day or two. We really missed being at home and being able to cook. You don't realize how much you miss home cooked food until you are without it for over a week!
Most of the glue has come off my incisions now and they are just red but they look really nice. The surgeon did an amazing job of closing me up so my scars should not be that bad at all! I am just so thankful that it is all done and that Molly's body is responding well to the new kidney. I was pretty scared before the surgery. There are so many things that can go wrong and when the doctors tell you all the risks it really makes you start to think about all the things that could happen. My biggest fear was that my kidney would clot coming out of my body and then i would be out a kidney and Molly would have to wait for a cadaver kidney.  But thank God, none of that happened!

It is crazy how smooth everything went. We are so lucky that everything went so well and that Molly's body is responding so well. Hopefully this will be the only transplant she will ever need. The important thing is she is back home and is able to be a mom and run her business like she has been wanting to do for so many months. She finally has the energy to do the things she could not do for the past several months.

Thanks for all the phone calls and text messages. I have not had a chance to get back to everyone, it can be a little overwhelming! I am just trying to take it easy and rest as much as i can. But i appreciate all the thoughts and prayers. I am healing up nicely, just trying to not push things too hard. That has been the toughest part is trying to stay seated when i feel like there is so much i could be doing! But i guess there is plenty of time to do things when i am back to 100%.

My nieces and Ethan at their cheer performance.

Me and my other mama, Pat!!

At the park

Back to what i love to do most, cook!

Vegan pizza!

Home.

Got home tonight. It is really good to be home. I can't wait for Molly to join me back in Vegas. She should be able to come home early next week and do all of her follow up care here in Vegas. She is very sick of being in the hotel and can't wait to come home. Even though she is very anxious to get home the important thing is that she is alive and she has a brand new healthy kidney!! My mom received an email from a friend of hers that said that she lost one of her closest friends a few weeks ago while she was waiting on a transplant that never came through. Molly and i were so lucky that we were not only a match, but a perfect match and on top of that, the transplant and our recoveries (so far) have been perfectly smooth. I think when you are in the situation that we were in you try not to think of the gravity of the situation. That death is a very real possibility. Now that we are one week out of transplant and my kidney is doing so well in Molly's body i can really appreciate all of the odds we overcame and how blessed we are that everything went so smooth.

We had the best 2 surgeons that UMC had to offer. Molly had the Chief of Surgery performing her surgery and i had the Assistant Chief of Surgery doing mine. We were so lucky to have Dr. Gruessner and Dr. Jie operating on us. I can't thank them enough. Everyone at UMC was so kind to us and treated us not like patients but like family. I could not have asked for a better experience than the one that we had. I did not realize what an outstanding transplant program that the University of Arizona had. Today we were invited to a press conference for the transplant program that highlighted some of their patients stories. We got a chance to meet several other patients that had undergone so many types of transplants. Everything from heart, liver, pancreas, kidney, intestines, and even 2 men that underwent hand transplants! Their program is truly amazing and they are able to attract the most competent surgeons to their university.  Here is a link to the press release and we are hoping to get some of the video soon.
http://www.umcarizona.org/body.cfm?xyzpdqabc=0&id=260&action=detail&ref=547

After the press conference we went to lunch and then my dad drove Collette and i to the airport. After a short flight home one of my coworkers met us at the airport with a wheelchair to wheel me over to the parking lot at the tracon!! Thank you Stav!!! I thought that was so sweet! I was able to see some of my homies from work for a few minutes and visit. It was really good to see the guys from work, even though i can't say i miss being at work too much, i certainly miss all the people i work with.

After leaving work we stopped at Collette's parent's house to pick up that sonny boy Ethan and head home. He kept saying how much he loved us and missed us and kept making sure of where and how to hug me so he would not hurt me! It is so good to be home. I am so ready to relax and keep recovering in the peace of our home.
Thanks for all the continued thoughts and prayers. Molly and i were able to do something really special and something that is going to have a very positive impact on both our lives. I will forever be grateful to have such an amazing strong sister. I am so happy that i could be the one to help her get better. It is the best thing i have ever been able to do and i am SO HAPPY that everything went well!!! I love you McB!!!

Before the press conference started.

The man that received a double hand transplant. He was incredible.

The amazing Dr. Gruessner

Talking with Dr. Gruessner after the press conference.

Molly and her hero Dr. Rob!! He is the one that removed her hemocath!

Almost home.

Okay so we are now leaving tomorrow instead of today. We need to do a press conference tomorrow with our surgeons. I guess since we are the first Las Vegas patients they want us at their press thingie. So we will be back home  tomorrow afternoon! Molly has to stay for another 4-5 days or so. We both are anxious to get back home and in our own beds!!  Molly is doing well, today she is pretty weak. It is crazy how fast you run out of energy after being in the hospital. My first few days out the simplest things would wear me out. We went to lunch on Sunday and it was just about all i could handle! So her and my dad went to get some food, hopefully she will eat a steak. She has been very cautious about eating healthy and taking very good care of her new kidney which is great, but i think eating something hearty will help restore some of her energy.

Her protein levels in her urine are down to .8 which is where mine are as well. That is a normal level and just before transplant her levels were above 9.0! Her ankles are all skinny and normal sized now, her face has thinned out!! Her body has adjusted perfectly to the new kidney. I am so glad to see her not having to struggle with some of the things she had been for the past several months. Now her daily struggles will be different. She has no immune system from the anti rejection drugs she is on. This means she needs to be very careful when out in public. She absolutely can not be exposed to germs that will cause a cold or flu. This could make her extremely sick. She has to take 27 pills a day. Eventually they can adjust her meds and lower her dosages, but for now it is a crazy amount of pills she must take. She also has to measure all of her fluid input and output to ensure the kidney is functioning properly, as well as take her blood pressure, weight, and temperature several times a day. It is more work now that she has the new kidney than being sick was, but i think once she is healed she will feel 100% better than she did and that is what is important. As time goes on this routine will be shaved down and she won't have to do as much checking vitals and medication. That is the time i am looking forward to for her the most!

As far as my healing is going i think i have a bit more pain than Molly does, but i don't have to do any of the maintenance that she does.  I just have to heal and then i will be good to go! I do have to get check ups at the doctor at one month, three months, six months, then yearly to make sure my one kidney is doing it's job. Molly just had one very large incision on her tummy as they placed my kidney in the front of her abdomen by her bladder. I have 4 incisions, 3 small and one large one where the doctor stuck his hand in and pulled my kidney out. They are all healing very nicely, it is just hard to stand or walk for long periods of time. It feels like tiny people are hanging on my insides pulling down when i stand up!! So after standing too long it becomes quite uncomfortable. But each day it gets a little better and i get a little stronger. My voice still has not returned to full strength. I feel like i can't project my voice fully and that i have to take several breaths while speaking. I suppose it has something to do with the tube that was down my throat for surgery. Molly says she is having the same issue with her voice. It too gets a little better everyday.

But no matter what we have to go through during recovery it is all more than worth it. Making Molly's quality of life return to a mostly normal state is so worth any pain involved in the process. Now that it is all over and my kidney is safely in her body, i can let go of all the fear that i had going into the surgery. I was so afraid that something would happen and i am so grateful that it did not. Right when we got started the transplant team asked me why i wanted to donate my kidney to Molly and how would i feel if i was not a match. The answer to the first question was easy and self explanatory. The second question i told them that i would feel really sad if i could not be the one to give Molly a kidney. I know if i was not a match or i was not healthy enough there would have been nothing i could have done, but i still would have always felt disappointed that i could not be the one. So i am more than elated that things worked out  the way they did.

                                           Out of the hospital!!!

                                            Recovering poolside!!

                                           This is the life...

                                           No more swollen ankles!!!

                                          Running a little booze through my kidney....

                                           My beautiful caretaker/driver/nurse/ywfl

 

                                           getting my ass kicked at checkers!

                                           Getting my ass kicked at rummie! (you would think she would let me win)

                                           Vegan tastic breakfast. We discovered a new sweetener.

 

                                           Vegan blueberry waffles. YUMMY!!!

                                          Vegan Buckwheat waffles with strawberries.

Day 3 after the surgery and i think this might have been the most painful day. My stomach is so bloated that none of the shorts i brought fit me right now and all i can wear is sweatpants!! Hopefully it will all be downhill from here!

Molly is doing well and should get out of the hospital tomorrow and join us in our hotel room. Our maid is the sweetest little lady. My mom told her about why we are down here and she said she would make sure our room was sanitized really well for Molly. She is on immunosuppressent drugs and is very susceptible to infections like cold and flu. So we have to make sure that she is avoiding exposure to viruses as much as we can. It will be nice having her at our hotel with us. Since i got out yesterday afternoon i have just rested and watched movies. We went out to eat for lunch today and that took a lot out of me. I also started the day trying to only take tylenol and that did not last long! I did not realize how much pain i was in and how much it is affecting my body. So now i am just going to rest and take it easy.

I call tomorrow to schedule my first post op appointment. Hopefully Dr. Jie will release me back to Vegas and i can do the rest of my follow up with my primary care doctor. It would be nice to be recovering at home. But anything beats the hospital. I am so glad to be out of there and can't wait for Molly to join us tomorrow.

Everything is still going well, the kidney is still functioning perfectly. There is always a chance of rejection and complications so Molly has to be checked every other day to make sure everything is going well. I can't wait for the day when she feels recovered from surgery and can feel the full benefit of a healthy kidney! I am so happy that we were such a good match and that the surgery was so easy went so well. Hopefully this will be the only kidney Molly will ever need and she won't ever have to go through this part ever again!!

Thank you for all the prayers and thoughts and phone calls and text messages! We have not been able to get back to everyone, just know that we appreciate all the love and support that is coming our way, we are just so tired from all that has happened and are trying to slowly respond to everyone's messages. I feel so lucky to know so many amazing supportive people. This would have been so much harder without the support of our friends and family.

We watched "The Dilemma" this afternoon and we are going to watch "Dinner for Shmucks" tonight. My dad bought a dvd player for the hotel room that we can hook up to the tv so we don't have to watch movies on the laptop. And of course he came down here with a huge selection of movies for us to choose from! If anyone knows my dad they know he rolls deep with DVDs and shmatas! He has been an amazing help and care giver this week. My Aunt Linda and my mom are here as well and have been looking after our every need too. Collette has been my personal care giver and she has not left my side hardly at all! We even had a slumber party the last night in the hospital! Good thing we are both midgy and we fit nicely in my hospital bed. We watched some TV and chatted and then we fell asleep. She slept right through all my doctor and nurse check up's in the middle of the night!

Goodnight from Tucson.

Two days out

For two days after surgery i am actually feeling great! My stomach hurts pretty bad. They made one large incision on my bikini line, similar to a c-section incision, then one in my belly button (vomit), then two smaller incisions on my left torso and one above my belly button. Right after surgery the pain from where my kidney used to be was horrible. It felt like the worst cramps i have ever had, but isolated to one small area. It was quite painful. But every time i get up and walk around, it hurts a bit less. 

The first day i was on a morphine/delodin drip that had a button i could push when i needed the meds. That stuff was pretty powerful and made me nauseous and gave me a pretty bad headache. So yesterday afternoon my doc took me off the drip and let me get on oral meds instead. At first they were giving me 2 percocet, but that was even too much. I am down to one pill every 4-6 hours and hope to be just on tylenol by the end of the night. The pain killers make me so sick to my stomach they had to give me 3 treatments of anti-nausea medication. 

I have not been sleeping more than just a few hours at a time. The doctors and nurses come in every couple hours to check my vitals and give shots of something to prevent blood clots in my tummy. They have also taken blood from me a few times. The first few shots and blood draws were not bad because i was on pain meds, so i didn't feel a thing!! 

Last night at midnight Collette came back to hang out because neither one of us could sleep. So we chilled in my hospital bed and watched tv and then passed out. She slept through 4 of my doctors/nurses visits during the night! One doc was even like, am i going to wake her up if i turn on the light?? Yeah, there was no waking her up!! Everyone is so exhausted from this whole situation. 

I get to go home from the hospital today. Molly gets to go home on Monday, which means she will get her hemocath out as well, which she is really looking forward to. The crazy thing is that when my left kidney was in my body i used to get flank pain from it. Now that it is in Molly's front right side she said she can feel the throbbing sensation i felt when it was in my body! Weird! I guess that is how we know it is working for sure :)

                                                   trying to not get pneumonia!

                                                    my fluid line.

                                            The day after surgery

                                          My First post-op Coke!!!! Yum!!

So now we are just hanging out waiting for discharge. Collette already picked up my prescriptions and has all my stuff ready to go! We are going to walk the halls a bit more to try to get my shoulder pain under control. 

Surgery Day

We all woke up at 5:15 AM, got ready and headed to UMC Tucson. When we arrived the staff was wonderful & got Sara & Molly into the Pre-Op rooms right across from each other. One of the fabulous Nurses turned on some old school R & B on Pandora for Sara! True to form, Chaka Kahn came on and Sara said, "Ohhhhh Shit.... its Chaka!" Hahahhaha! Soon after the anesthesiologists came over and put in 1 of 3 possible IVs. Sara may have to have a line in her neck. The surgery is going to be laparoscopic with 2-3 small incisions. I have been instructed to bring Sara ice chips, chap stick and smuggle in some good food with a Coke. Dr. G came over to talk to Sara about the surgery and then the anesthesiologists came back with the magic cocktail for Sara before they wheeled her away. In less than 20 seconds she was saying something about rainbows and unicorns while giggling! Molly is now talking to the surgical nurses that will be with her surgeon about the process she will undergo. I will update the blog and facebook as soon as we get information back from the surgeons.

One night in Tucson

I don't think any of us will get much sleep tonight. Our traveling group we have started to call the "transplant team". We were joking about making t-shirts today, we were laughing so hard i almost was crying! We have been laughing a lot, which is good. It helps keep my mind off being nervous.

I am getting ready for bed. We are all meeting in the lobby at 5:40am. We have to be at the hospital at 6:00am and they take me right in for anesthesia and then surgery. I should be done around 11 or noon. Molly will go in shortly after and will begin surgery around 7:30. The idea is to get her ready to receive my kidney as close to it coming out of my body as possible. 

Okay, time for bed. Check the blogs tomorrow and Facebook. Collette and my mom will be updating when they get updates from the doctors and when we are all done. We have both have received so many texts and emails today wishing us well and letting us know you are all praying for a successful transplant and recovery. Thank you to everyone. We are so blessed to have so many wonderful caring people in our lives. 

Here is to my last night of sleep with 2 kidneys!! Goodnight little left kidney, please make Molly better :)

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, TRANSPLANT!!!!

I can't believe we are only days away from transplant. I keep dreaming about it. I have dreams i am on the operating table. I have dreams i forgot to remove my earrings. I am nervous and excited. I know everything will go well, but i am still nervous about it. I am scared about how much pain i will be in afterwards! But we will have plenty of pain meds to keep us sane. Better living through chemistry!!

My mom and dad and Collette will be updating our blogs, give forward account, and facebook during and after the surgery. There are simply too many people to contact so they decided the easiest way is to just update those instead of trying to reach out to all our friends and family individually. Molly's blog is http://mollyvincent.blogspot.com/. The giveforward link is http://www.giveforward.com/mollyvincent.
Hopefully that will keep everyone informed on how things are going.

We are going to dinner tonight to celebrate my oldest sister, Elisa, for getting teacher of the month award at the high school she teaches at! I can't imagine teaching high school aged kids...i don't know how she does it! Clearly she is a lot more patient than i am! Then tomorrow we are having dinner with Collette's parents and getting everything ready for our flight Wednesday morning. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts that everyone has been putting out. I have been told by so many people that they have us on prayer lists for the next few weeks all over the country! We are so lucky and blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives. You guys are the best!!!

Hot hot heat

Tucson is about 10 degrees warmer than Vegas is right now....it's hot out there!!! Today i had my pre operative appointment with Dr. Jie, who will be preforming my surgery. He studied and practiced at the University of Minnesota before moving to the University of Arizona. He was very nice and explained in detail the surgery and what i can expect along with possible complications. He was so detailed and professional, but also very friendly and funny, which made me feel at ease. I feel so much better knowing that he will be the one taking my kidney out of my body. Nance, who is the head of the transplant team out here was also at my doctor's appointment. We have seen her at their clinics up in Las Vegas a few times, so it was really nice to see a friendly face and know that the team actually cares about each case individually.

Then i went to my pre-anesthesia clinic. The nurses there were so nice and so funny! We have to go back tomorrow for Molly's appointments and then we get to go home to Vegas until early next week.  So far we are trying to scope out Tucson to find all the good places to eat and hang out. After we are released from the hospital we will have a couple weeks to kill down here. Luckily one of my union buddies used to live here and he and his wife have given us a great list of things to see and do and lots of great places to eat!

Now we have all night to hang out by the pool or go get something to eat! Molly is not feeling so great. The hemo-cath in her neck is really painful and makes it hard for her to get comfortable enough to sleep. We are going to ask her surgeon how soon after the surgery she can get it removed. Sometimes they need to keep it in for a few weeks to make sure the kidney is working and that there is no need for dialysis. Hopefully as soon as my kidney is hooked up it will start working!!

Destiny

August 11, 1977 i had a fever of 104. We were at our family cabin on Lake Minnewawa in McGregor, MN.  I was just over one month old. My parents took me to the ER and they thought i had a kidney or bladder infection and sent us back to the cabin with antibiotics. A few days later i was not only not getting any better, i had gotten much worse. At 4:00 am my parents friends Jack and Raggedy drove my mom and me back to the Twin Cities to get me to Fairview Southdale Hospital. I was admitted and after tests they found i had encephalitis and meningitis.

Of course i have no memory of all of this, as i was only one month old. But i have heard the story my entire life. My mom would always tell me about how sick i was and how i had tubes all over my body and how there was a chance i could have died or been left deaf or with brain damage. Somehow i got better and healed without complications. Now, being the baby of the family my mom and dad always treated me as such, spoiling me and making me feel like the most special kid on the planet. Knowing that i had almost died as an infant always gave me a sense of purpose. Like my life was spared for a reason and that someday i was going to do or be something amazing.

I found a tremendous sense of purpose serving my union. It was something that i loved and that made me feel like i could make a real difference at my local. It was very gratifying and very difficult at the same time. I had so much passion and energy for protecting the rights of my members. But it still did not provide me with the sense of accomplishment that i was searching for. It wasn't until a few weeks ago when we were at my sister's doctors appointment that my mom said to me, "remember when you were sick as a baby? What if the reason God spared your life was so that 33 years later you could help Molly live?". In that moment i knew with so much clarity that my purpose in life was to help Molly.

I have never had so much clarity or peace about a decision that i have had to make. And at work i make hundreds of decisions each day. This one was so easy. There was no struggling internally or weighing the options. It was so simple.

Tomorrow and Thursday we have our first Pre-op appointments in Tucson. We have to get the standard blood and urine tests to check our renal functions, a blood cross match test to see how my organ will fair in Molly's body, and meet with the anesthesiologist. Then we will come home for the weekend and fly back to Tucson early next week for our transplant date May 12. There are so many things that have been going through my head the past week. I am excited, scared, nervous, and seriously elated that i get to help my sister get back to feeling better and living a mostly normal life. I have been dreaming about it at night. I wonder what my body will feel like with only one kidney! I am sure no different but i can't help but wonder if the left side of my body will feel empty!

I can't believe the day we have joked and talked about for the past 4 years is finally here next week. Through this whole process there are so many hurdles you must get over to get to transplant. I have always had this feeling that everything would work out this way. That this is the way it was meant to happen. I still hold that optimism going in to next weeks surgery. This is the way things were meant to happen. And while i don't have my own personal religious beliefs quite worked out all the way yet, i know i believe in God and the power of positive thought. I truly believe that all the prayers and positive thoughts sent out into the universe have helped us get to the place we are now and will help get us through a successful transplant and recovery. Thank you to all that have said a prayer, held Molly and i in white light, or had a moment of positive energy for us. It means more to me than you can know.