Outpatient Clinic - Oct 16, 2012

Home for a couple days, getting re-accustomed to kids' schedules.  Today I was busy, well, busy for me. I had my first clinic appointment at the Transplant Clinic. Surprise...there was a lot of waiting. Got there at 10:15, was seen about 12:30.  I did, however, have a new experience in the waiting room...hunger! I have not been hungry since transplant, only forcing myself to eat when I could.

So, yay! Being hungry is good. I found a hospital coffee shop and bought a tuna sandwich. It's was really good, well, a quarter of it was...I was full at that point...baby steps… 
 

I was so tired by the time I was called in, but I pepped up because everything in the appointment was good. First off, because I got to leave. (Other diabetics might understand this. One reason why I dislike going to appointments was that I was always afraid they were going to keep me there.) Not today. My new creatinine level is 2.1(normal is in the 1's)!! My nurse made some medication adjustments based on my drug levels. We went over the changes to medications made by the doctor while I was in the hospital and the prescribed drugs my insurance doesn't cover. 



 
My nausea has pretty much subsided :) . I lost all 15 lbs(yes, 15 lbs) of water weight. My incisions are healing well, maybe a little too well. My nurse takes out about half of my staples, and on plenty of them, my skin had started healing over the staple. She asks about my pain levels, I'm still really sore, but truthfully it is improving. I ask her why my old kidneys are hurting because that really doesn't make sense to me. She explains to me with a diagram how the new kidney and pancreas were added, and where, and how the surgeons had to rearrange all my organs to make room. These organs are not designed to be touched or moved, so everything in my abdomen should probably hurt. It doesn't take the hurt away, but it's good to know there's an explanation. She tells me people often need the Vicodin for up to 2 weeks, depending on their amount of activity. Hmmm. Ok. I'm trying to wean myself off, but haven't been successful yet.  






 

I got to see a more clear idea of where my new organs are, and where the old ones are. The whole thing is just impressive that people are so intelligent and resourceful to have come up with this. So, inside my body now looks like a combination of these 2 pics, with 3 kidneys and 2 pancreata(yes, I looked up what the plural of pancreas). My extra kidney is on my left and extra pancreas on the right.