October 3, 2007 Janet Update

Janet reported to Methodist Hospital yesterday at 5:30 AM as planned, her brother Joel having reported at 3:00 PM the day before, since the doner preparation starts the night before transplant. Joel went into surgery about 8:00 AM, with Janet wheeled off about 9:45 AM. Each had their own surgery suite and team of doctors, which coordinated their work to reach critical milestones at designated times, each team going into holding patterns as required when the other get delayed. The object is to have the doner kidney extracted from Joel and implanted imediately into Janet. The exchange happened about about noon, and Janet was taken to recovery about 3:00 PM. Joel finished a couple of hours earlier, as more of his surgery was completed prior to kidney removal.



Recovery for both took about 1.5 hours, then they were transfered to their permanant hospital beds, Joel in the doner preop area, and Janet in the transplant intermediate care unit since she requres more instrumented continuous monitoring and constant nursing attention. As expected both were tired and sore from the day long proceedures, and rested as best they could with the continuous checks on condition and vital signs. Janet's bigest complait was thirst and frustration that she could not be given anything to drink until all signs of the anesthisia and potential nausia had passed, which didn't occur until after 9:00 PM. Joel felt like he had been punched in the stomach by a 2 ton gorilla.



The transplanted kidney was extacted in perfect condition and imediately began to do its thing once the connection proceedures were completed. By this morning Janet's blood tests are showing all parameters within acceptible ranges, and continued movement in the proper direction. Some variation in body temperature and blood pressure is still present, but not unexpected. Due to the dose levels of antirejection medications, they are being administered via the IV lines, and as expected are creating a little fog in the wheel house, although not nearly what we were prepared for. This morning she got out of bed and sat in a chair for an hour, and had her first solid meal about noon. She is tired and the recovery is not painless, but amazingly, within a couple of hours of the transplant she indicated she was already feeling energy levels she hasn't experienced in a couple of years since here kidneys lost function. So far so good.



Joel is recoverying on schedule as well. He too got out of bed for the first time this morning, and also with severe pain. His tubes have been removed, and he is cleared for all the walking he can stand to work out the soreness, which is expected to diminish with exercise. He is expected to be discharged from the hospital tomorrow, to conitnue a few days of rehab at the Hill house before returning to Portland for additional down time to complete the healing process.



Janet and I want everyone to know how much we have and continue to appreciate the caring and support everyone has given her. It has done wonders to minimize the lonliness and keep the optimizm in the future. If all goes well, her hospital stay may only be three or four more days. Stay tuned.