And so, an update from me . . . .

The other side of the kidney team. I have no complaints at all. In fact, I've never felt healthier in my life. Joyce and I made a trip to Denver this past weekend, and had a meeting at the hospital. The lab results are good, and everybody is pleased with my progress. The folks at the hospital are going to turn Terry and me into poster kids, doing a feature about our transplant on their website. When that happens, I'll post a notice about it on this blog, and provide an address.
Sometimes I wonder if they even removed one of my kidneys . . . .

Another update from Terry--he's off to the races!

This is Terry's blog update from two days ago. It sounds like the kidney is working very well indeed. 

Finalé

4 1/2 weeks post op. My new kidney is working fine, lab numbers are right where thy belong for a good working, healthy kidney. Wounds all healing nicely. No pain at the incision site. It's a total success.

From here on out there will be labs every week, clinic visits every couple of weeks. gradual decreases in the anti rejection meds to a maintenance level. And life goes on with a average life span for a transplanted kidney of 20 years. If it, and I, last that long I'll be 90 years old.

But as I've mentioned before I'm having severe back pain with any weight bearing activity. Undoubtedly surgery will be planned as soon as possible, hopefully the first part of July. This back pain seems totally unrelated to the kidney problems. It's its own separate disease. I am getting used to the wheelchair and today plan my first trip off by myself.

But who wants a blog about an old guys back disease. There's plenty of these in every block. A kidney transplant, that's a bit different.

So with a thank you first to Paul, then to the transplant team, then all of you  people who have made 635 visits on this web site in the month or so it's been open, and finally to ingrid and Itzhak. I will say buena salud y bien viajar. Love Terry

Taylor Willie graduates from the 8th grade . . . .

 On Wednesday night, our granddaughter Taylor graduated from the 8th grade at the Bayfield, Colorado, middle school. The big surprise of the evening for Joyce and me was seeing her deliver the student speech to the class. We thought she was very poised. We thought it was probably the best student graduation speech that has ever been delivered.

Kidneys and treehomes « maffay/m’a fait

This is the written and visual response of my French family to the kidney transplant that took place TWO WEEKS ago. There are some nice photos of Gabriel and Julia and the new treehouse. And, as always with Pia, there is some pretty interesting text too.

This information was posted on Pia's blog, and you can access it by clicking on the link.

Kidneys and treehomes « maffay/m’a fait

CaringBridge / terrytyler / Welcome

Here is a post I received from Terry's blog today. It sounds like he's having way too much fun with that new kidney.

CaringBridge / terrytyler / Welcome

Anaesthesia and Re-entry

Re-entry

This morning I had an email from my daughter Pia writing from her home in France to remind me that I had left the story of the blog hanging somewhere between Denver and Durango. That's the danger of starting a blog. Someone might be reading it and want the stream to keep flowing.

We made it back to Durango last Thursday, right on schedule. The trip was pretty easy for me; Doug did all the driving. It was a beautiful sunny Colorado day. When I got home up on the mountain I made sure to pee in the front yard over by the trees, and I patted Monty the dog on the head. Then I went downstairs to get a bottle of Boyer champagne and I put it in the fridge while I sat on the deck in the sunshine and waited for Joyce to come home from work. Nine days and one slight body alteration later, I was home.

Anaesthesia

My closest point of contact with the surgery was, interestingly, the thing that kept me from having to experience it directly. I'll have more to say about the process of going into that good night. But for the present I'm still trying to come to terms with the re-entry from the land of nothing. Never has my mind gone in so many different directions at once as it did during that little journey.

It begins in the recovery room. Total blackness starts to make way for very dim light. There are voices, then faces, then memories. But of course the memories have nothing to do with what has just happened to my body. These are memories of jobs I might not have finished completely, bills I might not have paid, billings I might not have gotten to my clients, term papers (yes, some of the memories go way back) I might not have handed in to my professors. It was the old "inadequacy dream," and it wouldn't go away.

I remember wanting to just get moving and finish everything before it drove me crazy. I tried to move my arms, my legs. No luck. I tried to sit up. No luck. I tried to talk, and I remember there was a sound. But I don't think the sound formed words.

The sweet face and voice of the nurse was my introduction to the new reality of the recovery room. The gentle insistence of that voice and her constant presence helped me get shut of all that imagined responsibility and inadequacy, and I just relaxed into the pillow. Slowly I came to recognize the world around me and my place in it. And I liked it.

Ready or Not, here we come, back to Durango

Tomorrow (Thursday) Doug and I will point the wondertruck southwest and step on the gas. We got clearance from the folks at the Kidney Transplant Center today. They have declared me the new poster child for the donor program, saying my progress since surgery 6 days ago has been nothing short of remarkable. Aw shucks.

I can't praise my donor team at Porter enough. They have been wonderful to work with. And I feel that the surgery must have been flawless. Certainly there have been no complications from the surgery, and there has been almost no pain. For the past two days I haven't even taken Tylenol as a pain killer. No pain at all. Today I asked the surgeon if he was sure he did anything when he was inside my mid-section. A master of understatement, he just smiled.

When I was in the clinic today, they asked if I'd be willing to go down the hall and talk with a potential donor who was showing signs of nervousness. I don't know if I allayed her fears or not, but I thought I'd start out by bending forward and touching my toes. She probably thought, "What a jerk!" But she was smiling when I left.

It will be good to be home in Durango. I will have been gone for nine days. Nine very productive days, that have given me new perspectives on many things in my life. In a transplant like the one Terry and I have just gone through it is the donor who reaps the rewards. I am completely humbled by the people I have met, and the process I have gone through. I'm sure it will take me some time to get my mind around all of it.