Advanced Meeting

On Tuesday, I had my Advanced Meeting for transplant recipients. It lasted about an hour. My dad and I went to it. I recorded it on my personal little recording device, so my mom could listen to it later on.

We arrived at the hospital by 8:30 because I had a meeting with the wound care people first. They said the same things as usual about my stump. They wanted to try a different bandage this time. That didn't work out so well. It made my stump bleed. >:( We'll never use that stuff again.

Then, we had a bunch of time to kill before the transplant meeting at 12:30, so we went to visit my sister at her bank. I wore a mask everywhere I went that day, so I wouldn't catch anyone's cold. I also carried a little bottle of Purell with me to keep my hands sanitized.

After visiting Hilary, dad was hungry and Hilary suggested a donut place. It took us awhile to find the Donut Whole, but it was worth it. I stayed in the car while dad went inside. Apparently, he couldn't decide what to get, and since he was SO hungry, he bought 3 different donuts so we could try them all out.

I had never had a donut with bacon on it. It was alright. The maple topping covered up the bacon for the most part. I liked the chocolate rice crispie donut best, but dad preffered the triple chocolate donut. Notice a theme? I didn't get any glazed or anything normal because dad went in by himself. The bacon donut was a suggested by Hilary, the other two were dad ideas. My dad LOVES chocolate.

Anyway, then we returned to the hospital and took a nap in the car. We still had lots of time before the meeting. Finally, the meeting time came around and we went inside to attend.

The meeting was hosted by the same lady that did the first meeting I ever went to. She's friendly and really funny. She keeps you awake even when talking about boring stuff. Some of the meeting wasn't relevant for me as it was intended for people who don't have a living donor.

Most of the information was about life AFTER the transplant. We covered the massive amounts of medicine I'll be on, how many times I'll have to come back and meet with people, and the worst part...how many times I will have to come back and get a kidney biopsy.

A kidney biopsy means getting shot. OK, not a normal shot. First you get a normal shot of pain killer to deaden your side. Then, they take a giant version of an ear piercing gun and shoot you in the kidney. It's quick, but hurts. It goes into you and yanks out a little chunk of kidney that they can run tests on. I'm not looking forward to that.

Other than that, I just have to come and talk to them all the time. It means a lot of time in the car driving to and from Wichita. Lots of gas money, and time off work for my mom to drive me.

Well, that's enough for now. Next time I'll blog about the transplant process and what happens immediately before and after. Later! :)

Grace and Peace,
-Nat