One Month Down and a little BUMP in the Road...

It is hard to believe that it has now been one month since Doug received a kidney from our dear friend Dan! One month!!! All in all things have been going well. Doug is still on leave from work and recovering. His only complaint is some residual incision pain when he sits, drives and coughs. It is to be expected as he is still healing. I think sometimes he forgets that it’s only been a little over 4 weeks from when he had a major surgery! Now to the little BUMP and yes, BUMPS are to be expected from time to time. Doug recently graduated from twice a week to weekly blood draws but what the doctors have noticed is a consistent slight increase in the creatinine. To refresh your memory from a previous blog entry the blood creatinine level is a good indicator of how well the kidney is functioning. Every recipients creatinine levels run differently but Doug’s rose to 1.47, which is general is not bad but he doctors to want to look into it further to make sure they were not missing anything. They gave us a few thoughts to why this was happening but 2/3 thoughts were ruled out quickly. Doug had an ultrasound yesterday and it showed a small pocket of fluid that is pressing on the bladder and ureter causing the ureter to dilate therefore causing a slight reflux of urine back into the kidney. Why is this happening? There are two thoughts: (1) The fluid is left over from the surgical drain being removed. (2) The fluid is a pocket of urine which could be coming from a leak in the ureter. If in fact this is the case the leak will need to surgically corrected. Obviously, #1 would be our choice and an easy fix but we won’t know anything until the fluid is drained and sent for culture.

How is Dan? Allison assures me that Dan is doing well. He has been back to work for a few weeks now. He did have to make a trip to the doctor as one of the surgical spots isn’t 100% healed but the doctor said that everything was fine. He is also still having a lack of energy at times and tires easily but all in all “He is good!” It’s funny, there are studies and articles about organ recipients receiving certain traits from their donors. I think Doug has picked up a love of Mexican food as he now craves it all the time. I told Dan before the surgery that he can only pass on good traits to Doug…so far so good!

We are still in awe at the gift that Dan has given Doug! To see where Doug was prior to surgery and to see him today…physically he is a different person! Dan has told me to stop thanking him but it is hard to not thank him for what he has done for Doug and our family! TYD!!

I will update the blog regarding the results from the aspiration tests that will be done tomorrow as we have them!

Thanks for continuing to follow our journey!