Today is the two-week anniversary for me and my stepdad, Gary, following our kidney donation/transplant surgeries. I’m happy to report that we are both doing well.

Yesterday, we both went to our follow-up appointments and got good reports from our doctors.

One big number to watch is the creatinine level in our blood. A normal level for someone with two kidneys is between 0.44 and 1.03. But in our case, we will have a new normal level after our single kidneys get used to their new workload. Here are my creatinine numbers:

Before the nephrectomy: 0.74
The day after the nephrectomy: 1.4
Two weeks after the nephrectomy: 1.23

It will be a while before we know what my “new normal” is. But it’s a good sign that it’s going down. That means my single kidney is slowly doing a better job filtering my blood.

My stepdad’s creatinine after the surgery was 1.2 and has gone up to 1.4. So, we are going to watch that. We hope it’s just a matter of his needing to hydrate more, but we’ll see what the doctor says. (To be honest, we don’t know what would help, but hydrating more couldn’t hurt.)

My blood pressure has always been good, and yesterday it was 120/80. So, that seems okay so far.

My recovery has gone well overall. I still have some pain in my abdomen and some weird pains I can’t explain. These are on the outside of my hips, on one elbow, and in the lower left side of my back. All these weird pains are like a burning sensation, a cross between a bruise feeling and almost a rash feeling. It’s hard to describe. Nothing is visible on the skin, so who knows what it is. Perhaps it has to do with how I was positioned on the OR table or how I am sleeping or something. But since my lab work looked okay yesterday, I’m not overly concerned and just hope they go away eventually. I’m trying to give up the pain medication completely and only take Tylenol as needed. I was off the pain meds completely, but then I went back on them with these pains.

That’s all for now. Time to go for our daily walk. It’s Christmastime, so I wish all who might read this soon the nicest Christmas ever!
-JB