1. Shortly before noon, after waiting for about sixteen hours, a transplant coordinator in New Jersey called me. His message: You are going to have a new left kidney. Report to Providence Sacred Heart as soon as possible." That was about it and Debbie and I pulled ourselves together and hit the road.
2. Once we arrived at Sacred Heart and I got situated in a room, I was inundated with medical pros doing a variety of things: putting an IV port in my arm, about a dozen or so blood draws, a COVID test, and other things. Then another long wait to report to PreOp. Once transported to PreOp, the surgeon visited us and so did his nurse and after a bit the anesthesiologist dosed me with a drug that took me almost entirely out of this world and I was transported to the surgery room.
3. I don't know how long I was unconscious, but I woke up to feeling intense pressure in my bladder while a tech performed an ultrasound on the new kidney to make sure the surgeon had inserted the new kidney into my belly without any leaks or other problems.
I kept hearing excitement. Everyone in that room enthused about how well the surgery went. The ultrasound confirmed their joyous news.
By about 12:30 Sunday morning, I was comfortably ensconced in my Intensive Care Unit bed and put under the care of Nurse Brian.
The intense bladder pressure lessened. The surgery site was painful only if I moved, so when I lay still in bed (which was easy), I was comfortable, without pain.
The surgery left my mouth very dry. Nurse Brian gave me ice chips and small sips of water to moisten my mouth, but not too much at once out of caution that I keep from throwing up.
I alternated for the rest of the night between sleep and being treated in different ways. Nurse Brian encouraged me all through the night that I was "rockin' this transplant" and that my recovery already was moving along speedily.
I kept thinking of all the trips I've made since November to the rehab gym and to the Fitness Center and concluded that working out prepared my body very well for this surgery.
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