I'm Canadian

I recently visited with my Uncle Jack!

Uncle Jack and I have a special bond.  We have both had kidney transplants.  His happened 26 or 27 years ago (kidneys generally only last 11 years in TODAY'S medicine, so the life of his kidney is nothing short of a miracle).  Mine happened a year and a half ago.

We rarely see each other, but when we do conversations are always turn to our medications, complications, hospital stays and "clean living" (his secret for being so healthy).

Uncle Jack was so excited about our last meeting that he told my mother how proud he was of me and how I have been dealing with the family kidney 'issue'.  Our kidney issues are hereditary. As patriarch of the Hope family, he provided me with documentation/family records that proved my great grandfather, his grandfather, immigrated to the US from Canada. Quebec to be exact.

Amazing! Now I know why I love poutine and it was only natural that I have always been drawn to all things Canadian.


(Additionally, via the same family records, I learned that my great uncle lost his life in the Cocoanut Grove fire of 1942.. I'll save this story for another blog post)

Happy World Kidney Day

How to celebrate??

• Kidney Beans for Lunch
• Make an appointment with your doctor
• Understand what your kidneys do
• Understand that 500,000 US Americans are treated for End Stage Renal Failure each year
• Donate to National Kidney Foundation or any other organization that promotes kidney health and research.
• Visit or volunteer at your nieghborhood dialysis center
• Update your donor status on your driver's license
• If you are healthy, offer to donate your kidney (you only need one to live). Post op drugs are AWESOME!!

No regulars so i'll type about my kidney

<p>I'm sitting at the transplant center waiting for my cytogam infusion. Which means sitting on my ass for four hours while meds slowly drip into my veins.&nbsp; My donor, at one time, came in contact with a herpes type virus that lies dormant in their organs.&nbsp; I knew the risks and signed off on taking a possibly infected kidney.  The doctors informed me that 8 cytogam infusions would help my body not contract the possible virus (a type of herpes).  Today's infusion is number seven, the eighth and final is scheduled for a month from now.

Infusion appointments are long and slow.  To complicate matters, i was late to the appointment by 10 minutes, and since the cytogam is made to order here at the hospital I have to always wait up to and hour if I'm late by five or ten minutes.

So here i sit waiting for my meds to arrive.

Prednisone and the man boob phenomena

On June 7, 2011 my wife gave me her kidney in order that I can survive, keep living, live a close to normal life.... IT WAS THE GREATEST GIFT I HAVE EVER RECIEVED... AND AM INDEBTED TO HER FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE... i will eventually go into more detail on this blog, regarding this event, in the future (after I have gathered my thoughts)... but for now i want to discuss the aftermath or one part of the aftermath:
Man Boobs
or Moobs if you are so inclined. 

See, in order that my body doesn't reject the new kidney, that is now inside me, I am given large quantities of drugs, medications or pills.  I average about 40 pills a day. All different kinds of pills.
It's successful in that i have limited side effects to the pills that I ingest.

However, there is one side effect that i have not been able to get away from....The Man Boob phenomena.  I believe i have gained these training bra sized lumps from the steroid prednisone.
I take my shirt off in the front of the mirror and think to myself "who is that pubescent little girl standing in front of me, OHHHH it is none other than myself"
I find myself jiggling top side as I walk the halls of my office... i bounce as I take the stairs to my basement... and i protrude through a shirt, that just a few weeks ago was fitting nicely.

Now that I have had the stent removed (another good story for later) and have the ok from my doctors and nurses at the Hume-Lee Transplant Clinic, I have taken on a more ACTIVE exercise regiment.
  Power Walking & Some Running for no less than 30 minutes a day. This WILL be increased to 45 minutes over the next few days with bicycling and swimming added.
I am hoping with the removal of the prednisone ( i started taking 5 pills a day after surgery, now down to 2 pills a day) from my pill regiment and the addition of more ACTIVE exercising, i will not only lose the 15 pounds my doctor wants i will reduce the size of my man lumps.

Thanks

Mighty!!!!

PS: if someone knows of a nice, cheap, clean & year round pool please contact me.

Thanks

What's The Long White Skinny Thing??

Can you guess?