Love Handles Still There!

[caption id="attachment_1334" align="alignleft" width="177" caption="Me - 15 mins before going into operating theater. Doped up on nerves and excitement!"][/caption]

Well, it's been a week now since the kidney transplant surgery and all is well.  The transplant was a success and the kidney has 'kicked in' immediately in the recipient's body.  I didn't know this, but for some recipients, the new kidney might take a few days or even weeks to start working.  But not for my recipient - my kidney (his now) was working overtime!   I talked to his wife and she said it was working too well!  It had cleared about 9 kg / 20 pounds of fluids from his body in a couple days!  In fact, it is working so well at clearing out the toxins and fluids that the nurse had to put him back on an IV / saline drip to keep him hydrated.  Too funny!  As one friend puts it, I have super bionic kidneys - and now the recipient has one too!

I am doing well - the pain is diminishing daily and I am able to do more and more each day.  It really ONLY hurts now when I bend over too fast or laugh or cough or sneeze or sit up too quickly or blow my nose or hiccup or burp or brush my teeth too vigorously or turn my shoulders to the side or strain too hard on the toilet or roll over in bed or walk too fast or walk up stairs or walk down stairs or walk too upright or right after eating or drinking or when taking a really deep breath or...or...or....  So as you can see, I am really doing great; improving everyday (as long as I sit absolutely still on the sofa)!   ;-)

My surgeon told me that I can start trying to run again in a couple weeks, as the pain decreases and as I am able.  So I am truly itching to get out of the house again!  Just have to wait until my internal organs return to their normal positions - they had to move things around to get access to the kidney.  And until I don't feel so bloated!  During surgery, they had pumped my abdomen full of gas/air to make room for the video camera and surgical instruments.  And I still have some of that residual gas left in me, plus all the natural gas that my body produces on its own - makes for a very bloated belly region, as you can see from the 'after' photo.

And as you can see, there are 3 holes (hence the name keyhole surgery) about half an inch in diameter across my belly, from the left side to my bellybutton, where they stick the camera and instruments through.  And a longer 12 cm / 5 inch incision just under the belt-line where they take the kidney out from.  My surgeon asked permission to video the whole surgery, so I might ask him to post it to youtube so you can all watch!   Just kidding - he did video it, but it is for his own personal performance evaluation.  I hope.  ;-)

And look - they forgot to take my love handles away!   Might have to go back and have them do it all over again and take those love handles away!  NOT!  And yes, that is my natural skin color - yellowish white!  ;-)  Ok, I'll keep you updated - thanks again to everyone from all over the world for your support, prayers, emails, comments, etc.  Thanks for joining us on this journey.  Can't wait until the next one!