so very good to hear yer ok and kickin.
hope ya recover soon and have some happy holidays :)
----- Original Message -----
From: Take a wild, friggin guess
To: SkunkworksAMA_at_yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 10:37 PM
Subject: [SkunkworksAMA] Now I know how Frankenstein's monster felt...
Hey all-
I returned home from Saint Louis last night, but was far too
exhausted to do anything worthwhile. One thing I've noticed is that I
have a real limited amount of energy, and it appears only a couple
times a day, so I have to pace myself.
I got the call on the 14th of November, and both my mom and I had to
get our shit together and then she drove me up to St. Louis. I was
prepped overnight, and had both surgeries performed over a 5-6 hour
period. I think it was around 6am or so. In any case, the docs
replaced my pancreas with a functioning one, and put in one good
kidney.
I was in ICU for awhile, then went through all the fun painful shit
for the first week after surgery. All I can say is: catheters are not
fun. I had more tubes and hoses in me than the six-million dollar man.
I got released for a week, but a fever and nausea forced me to
return. After getting tons of strong antibiotics, enough blood
cultures and withdrawals to drain a horse, and almost no sleep for a
week, it was discovered that one of the pills I was taking was causing
the fever. (This is besides the little touch of pneumonia that I had).
Currently, I'm on 18-20 pills a day, though those will decrease over
time as my immune system is slowly rebuilt. The docs have all been
very impressed with the results; all my various levels are within the
normal range, including my blood sugars. It's mighty nice to not have
diabetes anymore. Makes all the agony worth it.
It may be a while before I can draw; some of the medications I'm on
cause tremors in my hands, so it's a little tricky to do any kind of
decent work. Luckily, those medications will be deleted from the
roster in a few more weeks.
I lucked out in the approval process. The docs voted me in
unanimously, and my general health was far greater than the usual
kidney/pancreas patient. No known allergies, no diseases or viruses.
The donor turned out to be an excellent match, and the organs bonded
without a hitch. My only regret is that an otherwise healthy young
man of 18 years of age had to die of obviously unnatural causes. I am
still awaiting a special thank-you form from the hospital which I can
fill out and send to the donor's parents. It seems the hospital does
not allow free-form letters, and I reckon that makes sense.
Special thanks to the doctors and staff of SLUH, the donor and his
parents for their selfless gift, the good wishes and thoughts of
everybody on the group and elsewhere, to my mom for being a caregiver
while I was recuperating, and to Des for taking all her vacation days,
sick days and personal days to be with me and help out in any way she
could. I know the road to complete recovery will be long and slow,
but I'm certain it can be traveled without too much incident.
In other news, I'm really chomping at the bit to get back to
drawing, but I'll have to wait until everything smoothes out again.
Also, I'm surprised I'm not itching like crazy, since they pretty much
shaved me from my upper chest to my crotch, and even part of my upper
thighs. I normally look like a friggin' carpet, as far as the hair
department goes, but everything is growing back quietly. Thank
goodness for that!
I've got a lot of e-mails still, but I'll have to work on those when
I can. Just sitting here typing this has tired me out. :( Oh yeah,
I also lost about 24 pounds after the surgery, which was nearly all
water. Since my OEM kidneys were barely functioning, I had a good
build-up of extra fluid. Seems the transplant has taken care of that
little issue. Sweet. Of course, now everyone thinks I'm scrawny
again, since I'm only 146 pounds. Gotta bulk that back up once I get
the okay to start lifting again!
Okay, I gotta take a rest. Just wanted to say howdy and let
everyone know I'm still kickin'. And thanks again everyone, for your
prayers and good wishes. I'll be back online within the next couple
days. Talk to you all soon, and have a good holiday season!
--JMH, now with a 10-inch long scar along the underside. New and
improved!
Received on Wed Dec 19 2007 - 20:14:09 CST