#25 One Month Anniversary

Today is the one month anniversary of Fred's arrival into our family.  Wow it's amazing to see what all has transpired over the last two months.  I am happy to report that everyone is doing pretty good.  There is still healing going on on both sides.  The Donor, is doing pretty well, but still isn't back to 100% presurgery.  He still gets tired a bit easily, and just doesn't quite have all him oommppfff back yet.
Mom is doing miraculous and already has her first trip planned for the end of April.  She still is urinating every 45 minutes, which bugs her at night.  But she is not complaining about it.  Her incision still is quite tender and still healing.  She says it feeling better but still very sore.  She is doing quite a lot around the house.  She's back to cooking and cleaning, stuff she enjoys doing.  It's not like my dad is being a jerk and backing off or anything like that lol.  He helps too, (not the cooking part, he'd likely accidentally poison mom if he did that).
We are all looking forward to visiting my brother, sister and kids.  I also am looking forward to this gourmet meal my mom is going to cook her donor one of these days.  mmmmm  I hope I am invited.

#24 Self Sufficient

Well today was a great day! Why might you ask?  Because mom had her stent removed today!!!  Which means her body is functioning on it's own fully and completely!!!!!  Yeaya!!  Besides her daily medication (which she will have to take for the rest of her life), she has no other instruments, gadgets, etc helping her survive.  They have decided to leave her fistula in for good.  When they went to install her fistula, they had a hard time, because mom does not have very god veins, and they actually had to remove a vein from her leg I believe, to construct the one she has.  So instead of surgically removing it, and having to reconstruct one if by chance her kidney fails, they are just going to leave it there.  However she is gaining weight so it does not look as dramatic as it did before.
That's right folks, I said she is gaining weight!!!  She's always been skinny-minny in her adult life,  but she was at that TOO SKINNY point during dialysis.  She also has ENERGY!!!!!  She gets worn out easily, but at least she has it in her to do stuff, which is why she gets worn out.  She hasn't been able to really leave the house yet, she still isn't allowed to drive, and being around the public isn't good for her because her system is still vulnerable.  The last thing she needs is to get sick.
Her only complaint, and she doesn't even complain about it, is since she didn't have to urinate for 2 years, her bladder atrophied a bit.  So she has to use the bathroom about every 45 minutes.  This doesn't pose a problem during the day, but it has been interrupting her sleep.  But she is also on order to be drinking 3 liters of liquids a day, so I think that also contributes to the frequency.
The thing she is looking forward to the most is traveling across many many states to visit my brother and his family at the end of April.  I have volunteered to go with them on this nearly cross country drive.  I also have volunteered to do most of the driving.  I wonder how that will go with mom's frequent bathroom requirement.  Maybe we should pursue this in a Nasa girl, murderous cross country getaway fashion..........