Mom Gets Kidney

A year and 47 days. That’s how long it took for my mom to get an kidney.  The call came about 12:30am on Feb. 26, 2009.  Which happens to be our anniversary (Ken & I).   You wait for that call all this time then when it comes you think what do I do now..

My mother headed down to Tampa General Hospital around 5:30 in the morning.  I tried to go back to bed after we got the call. But that wasn’t easy.  So I didn’t get that much sleep that night.  I got up around 7am and see what was going on.  My mom still didn’t know if she was really getting the kidney.  Only that the Dr.s were doing a lot of tests.  So I decided to call and see what was going on.  She was indeed going into surgery to have a kidney put in.  I then went and called my dad.  Which my mom surprising hadn’t called my dad yet.  So I did.  I guess with everything going on, she really didn’t think about that.

I headed down to my mom’s house to help clean it up.  Then headed the next day down to Tampa General Hospital.  By then she was already back in her room.  It took around 8-10 hours for the surgery.  Everything went well.  The kidney started working right away, which was nice to hear.  It was an 22 year old kidney and a perfect match.

I ended up staying down there for about 7 days.  I had to do that until my dad could get home.  To help my mom out with there house. I stayed at my sisters house for a few days.  When they were ready to discharged her she was ready to go.  Frankly so was I.  I got tired of staying around the hospital.  It was nice to go.  The kidney has been working great so far.

It is amazing that they can do transplants now like this.  My mom will always have to have to medication so her body will not reject the kidney.  So she will always be under a Dr.s care. But at least she is not on dialysis and is still alive.  She is getting her life back… She has a long recovery but in the long run it will be a BIG change for her. She will not have to carry that dialysis machine around when ever they travel.  Also she can start doing hobbies she hasn’t been able to do for a while.

A family had to make a decision on weather to donate there love ones organs.  This may have been an easy decision or not.  But that decision has made my mom’s life so much better.  I would just like to thank that family for doing that.  I use to carry a organ donor card, but it has since gotten losted. I think I’ll start carrying one again.