All my pieces set me free....

Well a week later... and I'm doing OK.
Things are healing pretty nicely. Thanks for all the texts and inquiries.
I am grateful to have friends that care. I'm still  not "into" this but it's done. I'm officially "F'd".
That is fistula'ed.
Or as the shiny, happy, medical people say - I have a brand new "VASCULAR ACCESS".

Joy.

The next event on the horizon is the new stress test.

I'll be sure to keep you posted.

The Other Side

Just got word, the doctor said everything went very well with surgery and my Dad will be in recovery for about an hour now. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers.

Kara

About to be F'd

Here we go

Time keeps on slipping....

Less than 24 hours til Operation F.

I wasn't sure it was even going to go down as the past two days I have been a little unwell.
There has been a round of flu going on at the office and it caught up with me on Monday.
However, my tried and true remedy seems to have pulled me out of the clutches. The symptoms came on like gang-busters Monday morning at work so at lunch I went to the nearest drugstore and bought a large bottle of chewable Vitamin C 500mg and I took mega doses immediately and repeated them every 4-6 hours. Tuesday I was home feeling pretty much like crud but with lots of sleep and lots of C, I am back at things today.

And now tomorrow......

Quite frankly, I am just really wigged about the whole deal. I mean the operation is only supposed to take an hour and a half and it will only be a 4 - 6 inch incision in my forearm but the whole thought of having some of my circulatory system rewired has me a bit on edge. About 15 years ago I had operations on both forearms to address some nerve issues and to this day, things are still not 100%.
I still never fathom myself actually being on dialysis and so this whole deal could just be a rather expensive (both monetarily and physical dexterity wise) insurance policy.
But if it keeps me on the active transplant list......

I am praying for calm.

One Step Forward....Two Steps Back...

So I heard back from my transplant coordinator and seems they have a new hoop for me to jump through now.

They want to me to take another stress test. This one on a tread mill. The stress test this past week was all chemically induced via IV. For this next test they want me to get my heart rate up to a given point in a given time and if that doesn't happen, then I need to have a heart catherazation done.

With all this fun going on...who needs Disneyland?

And.....until I get all of this behind me....I am currently on the bench.

That is...Not Transplantable.

Freakin Grrrrrrr.

Five days to F stop.

Yearly Inspection

I had my yearly check-up at the transplant center yesterday complete with stress test, ekg, bloodwork, meetings with the surgeon, transplant coordinator, financial counselor and topped it off with the crème de la crème - the mental health evaluation.
Argh.
The the results of all these tests won't be in for a few days.
Dr. Yang reassured me that he had not "lost my number" when I asked why I haven't been called with a kp offer in forever, rather he cited just the lack of good organs being donated as the culprit.
He assures me that my day is on the horizon. So I guess we will see.

Seven days left to F - Day.
But who's counting?