Wow, I can not believe it's been almost two years since I last updated my blog! I can't tell you how many times I meant to do, but then I would get busy and it would get pushed to the bottom of my to do list.
I'll explain more about this later, but I'm currently mentoring someone who is in the process of trying to become a living donor. I shared my blog with her so she could get an idea of what all was involved with the testing and so she could learn more about my experience. I got a text from her after she read it, and she told me that she shared my blog with her boyfriend. He read my last post, which said it wouldn't be my last, and then saw I hadn't posted since. He panicked and thought I died, which caused him to panic about his girlfriend donating and dying!!! That was definitely not my intention when I signed up to mentor his girlfriend! I guess that was the motivation I needed to finally get on here and post an update. If her boyfriend is reading this, I promise I'm still alive and all is well, and she will be just fine too!!!
So, it's obviously been quite a while since my last update. When I last posted, I was a month out from surgery and I was still adjusting to my new normal. I'm sure there are a lot of details that I've forgotten about since it's been so long, but I will try to fill you in on the things I remember.
August 2015:
In August, I had my 6 month follow up appointment at The Mayo Clinic. I had a bunch of blood drawn, had to give a urine sample, and had to do a renal clearance test. After that I met with a nephrologist and also with my donor coordinator. Everything looked good for the most part, but my remaining kidney was not picking up the slack as well as the doctor would have liked. I think I was only around 42% function, which is not much more than what I had right after surgery. They like you to be around 60-80% after 6 months. It wasn't cause for alarm, but if my function wasn't higher by the time my 1 year follow up came around, then they might start to get concerned. My incision had healed just like it should, no hernias, no other issues...so I was all good!
October 2015:
In October, I was finally able to meet my recipient Todd! He and his wife live a couple of hours outside of Chicago, so I flew to Chicago and met them there for the weekend. I was a little nervous to meet Todd and I wasn't really sure what to expect. Would things be awkward? What do you say when meeting someone who has a part of you inside of them? All kinds of things were running through my head. Luckily, it was not awkward at all! They picked me up from the airport, and as soon as I got in the car it was sort of like we had known each other forever and we were just old friends catching up. We had a great weekend! There was lots of eating, shopping, a few drinks here and there, and lots of fun since it also happened to be Halloween. We had originally planned on running a 5k while we were there, but that morning happened to be cold and rainy so we chickened out halfway to the race and went back to the hotel instead. All in all, it was a great weekend and it was nice to spend some time getting to know Todd and Jennifer.
February 2016:
It was technically a few weeks early, but in February I had my one year follow up at the Mayo Clinic. I couldn't believe it had already been a year! I had the usual urine and blood tests as well as the iothalamate clearance test. I even gave some extra blood for the Biobank to be used for research at Mayo. All of my results were great! My creatinine was 1.3 (it was 1.0 the day before I donated) and my kidney function was at 69%, so there was no longer any concern there! My incision healed normally and overall I felt great, so they sent me on my merry way until my two year follow up.
Speaking of my two year follow up, since I am waaaaaay late in posting this update, it's almost time for my follow up! I promise I won't wait so long to update on that. :)
Overall, my first year after surgery was great! I got really lucky and had a pretty easy recovery with minimal side effects. I ran my first 5k (without having to stop and walk) about 3 and a half months after donating. That was a HUGE accomplishment for me!
Over the last few weeks, I've had a lot of exciting things going on related to this whole experience...but I can't share all the details quite yet! ;) Soon though, I promise!
One last thing before I close out this update. Remember that picture of my kidney that I had requested during my surgery, but it seemed like I was never going to get it? Well I finally did!! Here's my left kidney in all its glory!
