Well, all these months of worry and heartache about Tim receiving a kidney from his Uncle Kenny is finally a thing of the past. I was not worried about him needing a kidney transplant, but moreso going under for surgery. But with faith in God and faith in his team of hundreds of Doctors and Surgeon's this entire experience has been amazing.
The week before surgery Tim had to be cleared by all his specialist doctors. We had to go see his cardiologist and have a EKG and Echocardiogram to determine if he still had a plueral effusion around his heart (fluid). It had subsided around September but just to make sure everything went smoothly they wanted to double check. He still had some fluid around in there but nothing compared to when he was admitted in August for his cardiac emergency. Next we went to Tim's nephrologist (kidney Doctor) and had to be cleared by him. We have a fantastic relationship with this doctor as we have seen him every couple weeks since August. We knew he was on board with this transplant since day one so meeting with him was almost routine and he was cleared right away. He sat with us and explained that they are very excited to get this done for Tim and anticipated a great transplant story when this is all over. He was very comforting to me and told me to call him whenever I needed (or Text) if I needed someone to talk to. I thought that was very kind of him. (I only contacted him after the surgery to tell him the great news of success) and lastly we had to be cleared by rheumotology. That team decided in January that he was not ready for transplant as they did not know if the lupus would stay in remission. (they didnt want to risk the new kidney being affected by his disease)... we were most nervous about this because they could have been the deal breaker but even that was a piece of cake... Pre-Op was the Friday before surgery... and we were up and at the hospital from 6am to about 4pm.. he had an appointment to meet the anisthesiologist who was going to be in charge of putting him in his sleep for the surgery as well has his surgeon who was going to perform the surgery.
They were all pretty calm, nice, and funny with everything which made us more comfortable with the entire thing. The fact that these doctors are not uptight and arrogant makes it a lot better for me because I don't think anyone is better than anyone.. although I do find it admirable that they get to do this for a living.
The weekend flew by and we kept ourselves busy buy fixing the breaks on my car and taking Tim's son Jake to a bunch of fun places and Monday we kept calm by sitting in bed, spending some quality time together and watching House (I know... morbid right??)
The alarm beeped at 545 on tuesday but my eyes were already open. I turned over and Tim was snoring like he was having the best sleep of his life and our 30lb cat right by his side sprawled out in the middle of both of us snoring and probably dreaming about going outside and chasing squirrels. I listened as Tim's parents got up and put the coffee machine on, took turns in the bathroom and getting ready for the big day... I shut the alarm off and Tim's eyes opened. The deep blue eyes stared at me for about a minute as we sat there in silence.. He was as anxious as I was scared and together we got up and got dressed. We packed a few pairs of socks, underwear, and shirts... and the four of us got into the car and began our journey to Yale.
We got there around 6:30am and signed in. We were a half hour early but that was fine by us. about 10 of 7 Tim kissed his mom and dad goodbye and we took the elevator up to the third flood and signed him in. They checked his blood pressure which was slightly elevated but not enough to send him home (the nurse said) they had him slip into a baby purple Johnny coat and a baby blue hair net. The anisthesiologist came in and said hello. He couldnt have been any older than Tim.. explained to us about what they were going to do and put his IV in his arm. Tim joked around with him because at first he couldnt find the vein and said.. I hope you arent the one putting the kidney in!! (I shook my head).. the Dr. was hysterically laughing though and replied.. not incharge of the Kidney just incharge of your coma.. (too funny).. The surgeon came in and said hello.. and then around 8am.. his bed showed up and he was on his way. I watched him wheel off and gave him a kiss, told him I loved him and by 815 he was in the operating room.
Tims uncle was also in the same area as we were while they were prepping him for surgery. He went under about a half hour before Tim and by 1030 he was out of surgery. my heart skipped a beat when his Aunt called and said that the surgeon wanted to talk to her.. I got up and ran to the waiting room. She was already in talking with the Dr. She came out and said that everything went beautiful and that his kidney was very healthy and they were going to use it for the transplant. My chest felt like an elephant was sitting on it. Either I was going into cardiac arrest or I was so excited for the success of the Nephrectomy (Kidney extraction).. I sat with Aunt Angelyn until they allowed her to see Kenny (the donor) and I went downstairs. My best friend Fran was at the hospital giftshop waiting for me. We all sat down next to Tims parents and talked for about an hour. The surgeon paged us and we went upstairs and around 12pm and said that everything went awesome. He has a greek accent so it was hard to understand him because he talks so fast but we got out of it that he was doing great and making the pee pee... hahahaha.. So then we just waited for him to sleep for 90minutes and Tims mom and I went in to see him.. His anisthesiologist came up to me and said.. I didnt want you to see me eating lunch and wonder why he was out of surgery (lol they know im crazy) and said that his surgery went great and assured me that everything was fine. We saw Tim and being the jokester that he is asked who I was.. he knew I was so scared.. we laughed and within a half hour they had him up to his room. He was pain free thanks to the morphine pump. (more to come... im hungry)
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