My Road to Recovery

The day after surgery, I spent the morning getting fully acquainted with my patient controlled Morphine. I don't recall being in  a great deal of pain, but I assume that is thanks to my buddy Morphine. I remember I was feeling very woozy and very sore.

 The absolute best part of this first morning was being brought a large cup of tea and a couple of custard creams! It was the best cuppa I have ever had, swiftly followed by a slice of toast and my first round of meds.

Which included, 2 x 500mg Paracetamol, 1 x 500mg Ibuprofen, 2 x anti-nausea tablets, 2 x laxative, 1 x Omeprasol (cos ibuprofen can be harsh on the stomach) Plus, I could still click a button to get a hit of Morphine.

I also had to have a blood thinning injection every morning, which was THE most painful jab I have ever had!





Sleeping for any length of time was still difficult as the nurses wake you every hour for the first 24 - 48 hours to take your blood pressure and temperature, also known as "obs".

I have never had a catheter before and it wasn't all that bad really, a very strange experience though. As you still get the urge to pass water but you don't need to do anything to help it along. Very peculiar. The lazy girl in me could get quite used to never having to get out of bed to pee!!

My bag of wee wee!! 

I was able to return to eating and drinking as normal pretty much straight away and just after lunch on the first day, the nurses wanted me to get out of bed, so that they could change my bedding. I double clicked my morphine button and the nurses eased me up into a sitting position - this hurt like hell!!! They helped me into a chair. It actually felt quite nice to sit up properly. I was advised to take some deep breathes whilst seated. As I was taking the breaths, I noticed that my chest felt quite weezy, which caused me to cough. Which also hurt like hell, I was given a rolled up towel to support my abdomen wound when I coughed. 

This weeziness is completely normal after having had an anesthetic and they need you to breath deeply to help clear your lungs to minimise the risk of getting a chest infection. I had stopped smoking 6 weeks prior to surgery as advised and I am so glad i did, as I think this would have been far more uncomfortable if I hadn't.

I asked to see my brother, they put me in a wheel chair and wheeled me round to see him. This was an overwhelming experience. All my family, including my sister in law and nieces were at his bed side. My brother looked amazing! The sparkle was back in his eyes, he had colour in his cheeks again. It was at that moment that I realised just how sick he had been. I couldn't stay long, cos i felt very weak and faint, mainly due to the morphine.

I came off the morphine the next day because it was making me feel unwell and the pain wasn't that bad. They also removed my catheter (not as bad an experience as i had thought), which would force me to get up to walk to the toilet. That first non-catheter wee was very difficult, not painful, more like having to retrain your body to release the wee!! My sister in law gave me a good tip about pouring warm water over your nether regions as you sit on the loo, worked like a charm!! I highly recommend it, don't know if it will work for guys, but for the ladies definitely! 

Hospital does strange things to you, it makes you able to speak quite freely about your bowel movements to complete strangers, you get excited about going for a poo, you feel the need to report all aspects of that poo to anyone that will listen and you feel it necessary to high five your nearest and dearest or even the nurse, when you do eventually poo!! The combination of the fact that your bowels have been touched whilst in surgery and that Morphine can cause constipation, makes having a number 2 a very difficult experience, to say the least, hence the laxatives I had to take. So each poo you do is a relief and cause for celebration. Kidney transplant recovery is definitely not sexy!! So fair warning to your partner to expect to hear about your poos and expect some pretty gnarly farts too!!

I was discharged 5 days after surgery, they removed my wound drain which wasn't painful, just very uncomfortable. They changed all my dressings and taught me how to do it myself.

I said a final goodbye to my brother and went home.

The nurses and hospital staff on the Richard Bright ward of Guy's Hospital are utterly amazing. They are so friendly and helpful and I cannot thank them enough for taking such good care of my brother, my kidney and I.

After my first dressing change at home, i couldn't help but take a couple of snaps.

This is where they removed my kidney.

This is one of the 3 wounds where they inserted the instruments.

 

Going Under the Knife

I arrived at Guy's at 9am and reported for duty. I was feeling surprisingly calm, unbelievably hungry and in dire need of a cup of tea!! But I had to be nil by mouth from midnight!! Sad face.

I was told that surgery would be at 12pm. A young doctor came to see me, had me fill in the various forms and put a cannula in my hand, so that he could take some blood samples and it would be where the anesthetic would be administered later on. I changed into my sexy backless gown, disposable knickers and even sexier DVT socks.

 

Then one of the surgeons came to see me to explain the surgery, which was called a left hand assisted laproscopic nephrectomy. He then showed me where they would make their incisions and asked to draw on me.

 

Not what I had expected, I'll be honest! I thought my abdomen was going to look like a dot to dot, not just a single arrrow!! I was a little disappointed! It was now about 11:30am. My brother was on the male part of the ward, so I popped round to see him, he'd been taken for a quick round of dialysis as his potassium levels were high. I was then told that there was a delay as they were waiting for the blood results as soon as the Doctors have them, we can get started. My parents turned up at about 12pm, so we just sat and chilled out best we could waiting for news. 

The consultant anesthetist, also came to see me, to explain his role in the surgery. He asked when I had last eaten or drunk anything, I said about 10pm last night. He looked surprised, he then proceeded to tell me that as my surgery was an afternoon surgery, they usually recommend that the patient be nil by mouth for 6 hours prior to the surgery!! Basically meaning that I could have had a huge fry up and a bucket of tea before 6am!! I was gutted to say the least!! He promised me a big tea when I woke up!!   

Then at 2:45pm the nurse came to tell me it was go time. I said my goodbyes to my family and was wheeled down to theatre and into the anesthesia room. The nurse was really nice, I was asked to confirm my name and date of birth, at this point I felt very overwhelmed and started crying. The nurse was great, she calmed me down and told me that they are going to put me under in a minute and that everything was going to be ok and that I was very brave. My surgeon came to see me one last time, to make sure I was ok and was still good to continue, I agreed I was. 

The anesthetist, came over and explained that he was now going to put me under but first he was going to inject an anti-biotic. Then he said "so you make drinks for a living do you?" I said "I haven't for a while but yes".

 He asked if I make the best one for myself. I said yes, I make mine stronger. At this point I started to feel woozy and a bit drowsy, he asked if my drinks made me feel like this... At that point I had no choice but to close my eyes, they felt like they had bricks on them.

This is what my surgery would have looked like. I was laid on my side for 3 hours, with a gut full of gas, so that they could manipulate their instruments easier.

The next think I remember is coming to in the recovery room. Which, to me looked similar to the anesthesia room, so I began to freak out a little and asked why they had woken me, I'm supposed to be giving a kidney, you have to take me to surgery! The nice nurse, informed me that the surgery had been completed and I was in recovery, I still didn't believe her, so she lifted my sheet and showed me the wounds.

I was like "Oh!!" I looked at the clock and it was 7:30pm. I immediately asked about my brother and was told that he was still in surgery but would be out soon. I now had a catheter fitted, a patient controlled morphine drip, IV fluids and a wound drain, which you can see in the picture above. I was back on the ward for about 8:15pm. 

I wasn't in a great deal of pain, the morphine saw to that! I was just sore and a little uncomfortable. Once on the ward I was in and out of consciousness, thanks to the anesthesia and the morphine. The nurses would wake me every hour to take my blood pressure and my temperature, so it was difficult to get any real rest. I was told that my brother was now in recovery and doing well. (He later told me that when he came round in recovery, he demanded a vodka and orange and shouted for everyone to shut up, cos it was too noisy!! Clearly he had no idea where he was!!)   Once Jon was compos mentus, which we think was about 11pm, he was taken for a chest X-ray, a scan and an ECG, standard procedure so I'm told. He was eventually brought back to the ward at about 12:45am. They wheeled him into see me. He looked completely spaced out, bless him. We said a quick hi, etc. Then I'm pretty sure we both passed out!!

The Day Before Surgery

My brother had to be at Guy's this morning at 10am, to have a line in his neck fitted for the Plasma exchange. They are stripping his blood of any antibodies that will react with mine. The machine was very noisey. 

This is the machine. Pretty gnarly huh?

I'll be heading over tomorrow for 9am, when I'm sure I'll bloody starving. I have to be nil by mouth from midnight. No morning cuppa for me, gutted!! 

I've been weirdly calm today, had a few tears on the phone with my mum earlier. It's been a sort of surreal day. We've all been waiting for this day for what seems like forever and it's come round so quickly. 

I will continue blogging my recovery and may even have some before and after shots for ya!! 

The Mouse Ran Up the Clock

My brother and I went up to Guys on Thursday for our pre-op tests. We had more bloods taken, a urine test, a MRSA test, an ECG and our weight and height measured.

We also met with Guy's transplant co-ordinator and two other Donor's. My brother and I found this quite sad as one of the donors was giving his kidney to his 3 year old daughter. I was suddenly faced with the true magnitude of what we are doing. Myself and this stranger connected by our choice to save the lives of the people we love.
During this meeting they explained what would happen on the day of surgery. I will be admitted at 9am, the surgeon will come and see me and probably draw where he will make his incisions on my abdomen. At about 12:30 I will be taken to pre-op where they will administer the anesthetic, once under I will be given a catheter and taken into the theatre. The surgery will take about 3 hours. My brother will be brought down at about 1:30pm and the same will happen to him.
Once the surgery is complete we will be taken to recovery where we will be for about 3 hours, when we wake, we will have a few "attachments", as they call them, a catheter, a cannula in one hand connected to IV fluids and a cannula in the other hand connected to liquid morphine, which we can self-administer! Yipee!! My brother will have an extra attachment at his neck, near his collar bone. This is so they can administer drugs quickly should they need to, there was one other reason, but i forget. We will then be transferred to the ward.

24 hours after surgery, the catheters and self administered morphine drip will be removed and they will ask me to try and get out of bed and sit in a chair. The sooner I am up and about the quicker the healing process can begin. I will be in hospital for about 5 days, my brother will be there for 7-10 days. He will be receiving all kinds of anti-rejection meds and monitored closely for signs of rejection.

The next thing we need to do before surgery is meet the independent assessor from the Human Tissue Authority (HTA). They will interview us separately, they are making sure there is no coercion. We have to take our passport or driving license, our birth certificates and photo's of us together. Feels more like an immigration interview, making sure we are actually getting married out of love not a need to stay in the country!! However, I do understand why this has to be done.I just wasn't expecting it to be so indepth.

Only 9 days to go and I would be lying if I said I wasn't freaking out!!! The waiting is the hardest part, it's the suspense. Plus every TV programme I watch, surgery seems to crop up, even if the programme has nothing to do with surgery. I have a good network of friends and family around me that help keep me grounded and stop me from spinning out. There's a couple people missing from that network but I know that they are thinking of me and would be here if they could.