I haven’t posted in awhile. There are new folks reading this. I think I’m self-conscious about what I say, which happens every other week or so…

A summary of how the new kidney is doing:

• I’ll head back to Durham on Friday; I won’t drive myself; this is 1-2 weeks sooner than I originally though I’d be able to go home, so it was welcome news to hear from the docs that I could go home
• I still need to head back to Charlotte next week and then every week or two for a little while to have follow-up visits with the Carolinas Medical Center nephrologists
• Eventually, my care will transfer to the D nephs
• Pain is still an issue, though, as with most surgeries, this is normal and should eventually subside
• There are some side effects from meds, but they’re not nearly as bad as they could be
• My creatinine has stabilized at 2.3, which is too high (but much, much lower than it was two weeks ago); this is likely due to too much Prograf (one of tow main anti-rejection drugs that I’ll take forever); decreasing the Prograf should lower my creatinine; perhaps it will be at healthy-kidney levels when my bloodwork is redone next week
• I’m down 20 pounds from what I weighed when I left the hospital 12 days ago; the first 10 pounds left me within 24 hours; there had been lots of saline pumped into me during my stay; the second 10 pounds were likely due to a combination of me not eating so much and me having not let the dialysis clinic take off all the fluid that could have come off; so, I’ve really lost about 10 pounds since going in for the surgery
• Two days until I see Herman, Aremid, and Zellouisa again; it will have been 18 days since I’ve seen them; it will be the longest I have done without seeing Aremid; it will have been the longest I’ve gone without seeing A & Z since a business trip to Hawaii back in February 1999.