What do nephrologists say to non-compliant patients? “Urine trouble”!
Obviously, the daily updates have stopped as life has returned back to normal and the amount of time for journaling and posting has diminished. We thought it would be a good idea for us to both provide a one month update on our recovery status + future updates for interesting things that come up along the way. A month is a great mile marker to touch on as our transplant team continually mentioned the 4-6 week recovery time frame more times than I could keep track of. But I did get the point!
Here are my stats at around the one month timeframe:
- My diet and routines are back to normal.
- Really the only thing I’ve avoided (pretty well, but not perfectly) is to not lift anything heavy and risk injuring the internal stitches.
- Note: Although the external scars are healing well and look good, it can give a false sense of security because it takes longer for the internal incisions within the abdominal wall to heal. Remembering not to overexert myself when I feel fine is one of my bigger struggles.
- Sometimes when laying on my right side I can detect a dull sensation where my kidney used to be there on my left side. It is likely due to organs shifting a bit in there. There are visceral nerve fibers located throughout the organs and the dull sensation is probably a result of the extra space and the surgery site continuing to heal. It doesn’t hurt, I just notice it from time to time and it should acclimate and go away.
- One thing I can tell for sure is the lower flanks of my back muscles have been a little sore the past 2 weeks. As my abdominal muscles are weaker than normal and still healing, my back is overcompensating to keep my posture upright. Quite a few people noticed I was not hunched over a bit while walking, so that makes sense why my back is a bit tender, but still doesn’t require any Tylenol.
- Mental and emotional status. As best as I can self-diagnose, I believe I’m right back to “normal” or “average”. Throughout this healing process I’ve had no regrets and do not feel depressed. I feel pretty great actually.
- Speaking of diagnosing “average” – I may have left out a critically funny and self-deprecating observation that, in order to be fully transparent, I have to share with you. As part of the multi-faceted clinical testing process, I had a virtual meeting with a transplant team psychologist. I was honestly more nervous about this than I was of needles. Diving into whatever thoughts and feelings and difficult questions I might get – being analyzed from my responses, is outside of my comfort zone. So, needless to say I was very curious to see what the clinical results were from this interview. I heard the other day that, “An emotionally stable parent will raise emotionally stable children.” What does my clinically reviewed, psychological analysis look like other than my typical symptoms of being a typical middle-aged male? What new would I get to deliver to my parents? Here is my favorite quote from the evaluation, one which will likely make my parents so proud:
- “Intelligence is estimated to be at least in the average range, although this was not formally assessed.” My brother-in-laws will only read the first part of the sentence and never let me hear the end of this. I, on the other hand, can still hold out hope that if a formal assessment takes place their charts wouldn’t go that high…
- Looking back at my overall scheduled appointments thus far, there were approximately 62. This includes phone calls, and clinic visits with some being efficiently and consecutively lined up within a single appointment.
Related Post:
Chad’s one month update:
One Month Post-Kidney Transplant… Post