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.