Dialysis Day 38

Cramping

I asked them to keep me at 63.0 kilos on Saturday. But I over-filtrated. I left at 62.4 kilos. I felt terrible on Sunday. I had pain on my left shoulder and all down my side. I assume I was dehydrated...so I drank ALOT of water and Gatorade. Jason and my dad wouldn't let me go more than a few seconds without taking a giant gulp! It got to the point that I started feeling full and my ankles started swelling. I think that somewhere between 62.5 and 63.0 kilos will be where we need to be for a while.

Volunteer Donors

I've already had a few people volunteer to get tested. All of the testing is non-invasive and not painful. There are blood tests and possible ultrasounds and CAT scans. My health insurance will pay for the tests and the surgery. Plus, I learned that they can do the donor's surgery laparoscopically! There are three small incisions in the abdomen and a small cut down low by the groin. It's an easy surgery to recover from. Within a year the remaining kidney gets larger and take over the function of the other kidney.

I know I've said this before, but if you are even remotely interested in being a donor, please let me know. You can get tested even if you aren't sure if you want to go through the surgery. If you are a match and get cold feet, you just have to tell the transplant team and they will tell me that you aren't a match. That way I don't have to know who is declining. I understand that this is a huge decision to make and I will have no hard feelings either way.

Another Nurse

She seemed nice enough...until she called me chubby. I know, I really should be gaining weight and being chubby wouldn't really be a bad thing, but I'm not anywhere near chubby! In fact, alot of people are saying I'm "skin and bones."

She's got the monitor turned so that I can see it and not just hear it. I'm not sure I like seeing the heart rate. Every time baby moves off the monitor it drops really low and scares me. But, we always find her again and everything is fine. They tell me that when she gets bigger and has less room to move around it will be easier to keep the monitor on her.