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Twenty days out from our kidney transplant

Submitted by Bill Jackson on Tue, 03/24/2009 - 06:18

Some of you might have read my last blog update Nine days out from our kidney transplant. Since that is so outdated now I'll fill you in on all that God has done through your prayers. Twice a week, on Sundays and Thursdays, they draw my blood. The next day we meet one on one with the transplant team to interpret the labs. They measure lots of different levels, creatinine (the amount of poison in my blood), phosphorus, potassium, yada yada. It's all very technical but since the kidneys are basically the quarback of the internal chemistry in the body all those levels must be very precise or you are in big trouble, thus kidney disease and the attempt of dialysis to "cleanse" the blood as well as regulate blood pressure, dispense proper fluids, and give the body so many chemicals that it needs they don't know the half of what a kidney even does. Unfortunately dialysis can only do about 10% of what a kidney supposed to do. It is an amazing organ and what is even more amazing is that God gave us two. That's how important they are.

 Today I had my best report yet. Ya'll have creatinine counts around .7-1.0. I went on dialysis when my creatinine was about 6.0. By Jan it was up to about 9.0. My urine was almost clear. I'm excited to report that my creatinine is now 2.0 and my urine is normal looking. They said that it might improve a bit more but it's almost there. My Potassium and Phosphorus levels are now pretty normal.
 
You might have heard that my body had a mild rejection of Betsy's kidney. I stayed in the hospital for almost nine days and took some serious anti-rejection drugs until the creatinine was about 3.2 and then they let me go home. Pain meds make you seriously constipated and that took almost two weeks to get better. It was aweful. I was pleading for a C-section by the end but they told me it had to be natiural childbirth. The baby was born two weeks overdue.
 
I am also a steroid induced diabetic. This will end as they reduce the steroids, which should be within the month. I have that little monitor that pricks your finger and checks your glucose level. I then have to give myself insulin shots as needed.
 
As I wrote in the first blog, the worst part has been the neuropathy in my feet. I lost the peripheral nerves in my toes due to kidney disease in October. The heavy post-op steriods were making it three times worse than the kidney disease ever was. It was like a guy showed up every afternoon with a blow torch and started burning my feet. Our daughter, Meg, suggested that I soak my toes in ice water. It was brilliant. The ice numbed my toes for about 15 min and then I would dip them again. Now that they are lowering some of the meds, its easing up a bit. Thanks for all your heart-felt prayers on behalf of my toes. Since word gets out you can't believe the amount of email that I get from neuropathy sufferers. It really is the most miserable disease you've never heard of.
 
We have had this perfect little apartment to use in Poway so we can go to the hospital four times a week. We will be home for good two weeks from tonight. We will then drive to UCSD for a lab and then stay one night in the aparment and come home. After six months they will release me permanently to the care of my nephrologist at Kaiser Riverside.
 
If all stays on track they say that by the six week mark I will be out of the woods and they will medically say that the kidney will have "taken."
 
Next week the real world begins (PTL). I teach the first Paul class on Tues night for our seminary and then teach a ten hour intensive on Acts on the weekend. I have two concerns, one is that the hospital bed really jacked up my back. I can't stand for long periods of time and unless it gets better I will now have to begin to teach from a captain's chair. Second, my energy is not back to normal (I tire easily).
 
I'll fill you in on all the things that are out ahead a bit later but I once again quote the verse from Paul to the Philippians, "Through your prayers and the help of the Holy Spirit this will work out for my deliverance."
 
Love you all and I rest in our prayers together for all that God has ahead. Blessings, Jax