Later that day I was feeling good and so I told Philip I wanted to go to the craft store to buy yarn for a blanket I was making.  Again…too much.  So, yesterday Philip told me I wasn’t allowed to leave the house.  And I succeeded.  I did walk to the dumpster to take out trash and get the mail, but that was it.  We’ve had a couple visitors to bring food, which is lovely.

Today I started weening myself off the pain meds by taking a little bit less than normal.  The bottle started to look like it would get empty soon so it seemed like a good idea.  We’ll see how it goes.

The excitement of the surgery and everything has worn off slightly, but I’m still jazzed.  I still feel like I did the right thing, and I’m still really happy my recipient is doing well.  Although, the flat tire and feeling sick all the time, is definitely bringing me back to reality pretty quickly.  But my fiance is still here for the next few days, so I can’t complain too much.  Once he leaves, I’ll complain a lot.  And I’ll get back to what this blog is really about.

I got to meet my recipient which was a pretty amazing experience.  She had a lot of visitors which was slightly overwhelming to Philip and I who have only been with each other in this whole process.  I came and they immediately gave me some gifts and some cards.  It was wonderful.  I still don’t feel deserving, but I definitely appreciate all the kindness coming my way.

Hopefully she’ll be released today and continue to feel better and my kidney will be as good to her as its been to me for the last 25 years!

We checked in and after a short wait, we headed up to my surgery prep room and Philip waited in the family waiting room.  I got my gown on, had my vitals taken, and had the most PAINFUL IV placed.  Before I knew it, I was meeting all kinds of nurses and doctors and thankfully Philip was allowed in the room with me.  Finally, they took me down to surgery.  All I remember is lying on the OR table and telling the nurse that it didn’t look like Grey’s Anatomy.  Next thing I remember is someone waking me up.  My eyes were swollen from all the fluids and I was really nauseous.  Thankfully I eventually got to the point where I could be in my room with Philip.  I slept A LOT.

The first night was frustrating.  We had nurses telling us conflicting things and we both just wanted to go to bed.  One minute we had to stay awake because they wanted me to try moving, the next minute,  I had to drink a glass of Sprite, then take something…It was just a problem with lack of communication between staff members and also from the staff to Philip and me.  But, ultimately, we did get off to sleep.

In the middle of the night, my IV beeped because it was empty, so I’m paging the nurse and I look over and my sweet fiance is staring at his phone saying “I’m so sorry, baby, I’m so sorry!”  I finally say “What are you doing?”  To which he replies “I can’t figure out how to turn my alarm off!”  Yes, he was in desperate need of sleep as well.

The day after my surgery was rough.  The doctors told me it would be the worst, but they had me wake up and walk around and finally made it possible for me to use the restroom.  Yesterday was when I learned that my sister had outed me on Twitter as the donor for one of her friends.

The basic gist of the story is:  My sister follows the blog of another 3 day walker.  This blogger wrote a post about a friend who needed a kidney.  Both my sister and I had the right blood type, so we got tested.  I was found to be a match before my sister, and the rest is history.  On the morning of my surgery, Philip was holding my bag which happens to be a 3day bag.  The aforementioned blogger noticed it and put two and two together.  Before I knew it, people in the 3 day community were reading my blog.  I even had a Twitter hashtag.  I’m not really a twitter user, but basically, people were thanking me for donating.

Tears filled my eyes as I read the words of all of these people who knew my recipient and were thanking me.  Somehow in the insanity of travel and tests and everything leading up to this surgery, I forgot a little bit about my recipient (told ya I was selfish!).  And because I don’t know much about her, it all hit me at once.  I still don’t feel like I’ve done anything above and beyond what God’s asked for me to do, but I am thankful that I took this opportunity that God presented me with and made all these people who know my recipient so happy.

While there’s some pain and frustration, I am feeling infinitely better today and more as the time goes on.  No regrets.

PS:  All this kidney talk makes me think of… “Mr. Tribianni, it looks like you have kidney stones.”  ”What else could it be?”  ”Kidney stones.”  ”Or…?”  ”Kidney stooooones!”

Today eased my mind a lot.  People kept telling me I was healthy and in good shape, which makes me think the surgery should go smoothly (I’m not superstitious, so I have no trouble saying things like this.)  I will say that I am very happy that my fiance will be with me for the surgery.  I’m a strong, independent woman, but sometimes it’s not as much fun being alone.  Especially when your surgeon is giving you the obligatory speech about all the things that could go wrong.

One thing that entertained me was when the surgeon said before any surgeon he needs to go over the benefits and risks with the patients.  Direct quote:  “So, let’s be clear on your benefits.  There are none.”

Granted, a lot of people think I’m crazy for donating my kidney to a stranger.  But I think the surgeon was a little harsh in saying there are no benefits.  Frankly, in my opinion, giving a stranger my kidney might inspire someone else (possibly a reader of my blog?) to do the same.  Then their story might inspire someone else.  And so forth and so on.  Ultimately, if this continued, wouldn’t we all benefit because someone’s life is being saved?  I don’t know the statistics on kidney failure, but I assume most people have at least interacted with someone who has had kidney failure or connected to someone who needed a kidney.

I’m a really selfish person in most aspects of my life.  I’m 25, unmarried without children, and until I move in with my fiance in the fall, I will have lived alone for 3 years.  I’ve become very accustomed to things being done my way.  I like my downtime.  I like spending my money the way I want to.  I like eating junk instead of cooking a meal for myself.  I like having cats because I can leave them alone for days and not worry about them.  But this surgery is an opportunity for me to stop thinking entirely about myself.  I won’t lie, I am stressed out about how quickly it will take me to get back to work, how much money I will miss out on, not being able to train for the 3day or run when I want to.  I also think about how nice it will be to relax for a couple weeks while I’m recovering.  This is definitely NOT a totally selfless act.  But I’m glad that I could test my character in this way.  I’m glad God could present this opportunity to me and I could actually ignore how it would affect my life and focus on who it would help.

It’s not some great act of generosity.  I feel like a fraud when people say I’m “giving the gift of life” or how selfless I am.  It’s just right.  It’s just what we’re supposed to do for each other.  No more, no less.

Secondly, I’m engaged!  On Sunday, I went out to dinner with a wonderful friend of mine, and we came back to my place to hang out play with my cats.  She says “I have a cd for you to listen to, let me get it out of my car.”  She comes back in, and we put it in, and because I was completely in denial, I didn’t realize it was my boyfriend singing a song he had written for me (after all, he lives in OK, how could my friend possibly have gotten a cd from him?)  The very last line of the song was “Will you marry me?” and instead of recording that on to the cd, he came through my front door and sang it in person with ring in hand.  Yes, feel free to make gagging noises.

Being newly engaged has been a wonderful distraction from the fact that I am donating my kidney in a week and a half.  I just bought our plane tickets for the week of the surgery and that was hard.  I am excited about this experience and I really feel as though I am doing the right thing, but it’s getting closer and I’m getting nervous.  Plus, my ring is getting resized so I don’t even have that to distract me from my nervousness :-p

Tuesday is my pre-op appointment so I am confident that will answer some questions and also leave me with some new ones.  And you will all get to be a part of that.  (All 4 of you.)

Thank goodness it went well!  The woman I spoke with had 20+ years on me and had donated to her husband a few months ago.  My main questions were about recovery time, because, as selfish as it sounds, I can’t be out of work for too long.  I simply can’t afford it.  My plan was to return to work in 2 weeks time, even though the official hospital record says recovery could take up to 6 weeks.  I had decided that because I’m young and healthy and active, it won’t take me that long.  This woman eased my mind.  While she was out of work for a month, she said she could’ve gone back earlier (Her husband was also in recovery mode, so some time was spent with him.).  Some of the best quotes from her were “You won’t believe how quickly you’ll start feeling back to normal” and “If I had another one to donate, I would do it, it was that easy of a surgery.”

My surgery is 3 weeks from today and I’m starting to get nervous.  I don’t have any concerns that I can spell out right now, but I just feel on edge about the whole thing.  But that conversation yesterday helped.

On a totally different note, my sister and brother-in-law officially announced that they’re pregnant!  If you care at all about it, you can read the whole story on their blog…

“Oh Max, Rory is very low maintenance.  Kind of like that robot kid in AI, only way less mother-obsessed.  Oh my God, that kid was so annoying.  I would have pushed him out of the car while it was still moving.”  - 2.3

I’ve seen this movie before, many years ago.  I remember it being good, but I also remember the ending making me feel really uncomfortable.  I may have had trouble sleeping afterwards.  I mean, both Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg played big roles in this movie, and they’ve managed to scare the crap out of me for pretty much my entire life between ET and the Shining.  I also remember it being very long.  So, here goes.

1. I can’t imagine strictly limiting pregnancies.  In that world would there be better sex education and more reasonably priced birth control?  Because that would be great.
2. The doctor in the cryogenics lab was in an episode of How I Met Your Mother I just watched.  He was wearing a toupee at Marshall and Lily’s wedding.
3. Why would you want a kid that never ages?  I feel like that would get annoying.
4. Haley Joel Osment was a cute kid.  Unlike his stupid little sister on the Hannah Montana show.
5. That’s a freaking awesome bed.  I want a bed that’s kind of like a space pod with a moon light behind it.
6. Why would you leave a huge decision like imprinting on a robot child to have for the rest of your life to your very unstable wife who is mourning the loss of her own son?  Clearly she’s not the best person to do this.
7. How come the dad doesn’t imprint on the kid?  I thought this movie was futuristic.  The woman is doing all the cooking and cleaning and is the only one who is parenting this robot kid.  Sounds like the stone age to me.
8. Martin is Matt from Lizzie Maguire!  I miss Lizzie Maguire.
9. Ewwww….spinach is bad for robots.Martin’s kind of evil.
10. Ok, I know he looks real, but he’s still just a robot.  Just take him to the lab and have him destroyed.  He tried to kill your human son.
11. You don’t really need to do much to Jude Law to make him look like this perfect, artificial man.  He kind of already looks that way.
12.  Also, I really want to watch I Heart Huckabees now.
13. Giant moon balloon…how cool is that?
14. As a former nanny, it makes me sad that they used robots as nannies.
15. No!  Teddy!
16. Jon Hamm?  Nice cameo, Jon.
17. Maybe building robots that can feel was a bad plan, guys.
18. Mad Eye Moody?  Either I watch too much tv, or this movie is filled with a lot of random actors.
19. Adrien Grenier?  Really?!
20. This Dr. Know thing is like texting Google.
21. I’m going to assume that robots were not created to lie.  So how can you frame one for murder?  There has to be some kind of secret camera or something in them to see for sure if they actually murdered someone.
22. They tricked David.  Bastards.
23. Here’s my question.  If you can create an artificial child, make it capable of love and dreaming…why can’t you reverse the imprinting on one?
24. I feel like there wouldn’t be that much of a market for artificial children.  They’re kind of creepy.
25. Now I remember why the ending creeped me out.  Stupid aliens.

Lorelai:  But the life we had is going to morph into this like mutation that we could never possibly have conceived.

Rory:  Like the giant ants in ‘Them!’? – 2.03

As with most horror movies I’m asked to watch for this blog, I started this one early in the morning so I would have the whole day to recover from it before having to go to sleep tonight.  I also took my shower before watching it, because I have a feeling I might be scared to afterwards.  I know it’s only a 50’s horror movie, which normally isn’t scary…but it’s about bugs.  I don’t do bugs.

1. Man, I can just picture cute little 50’s girls at the drive in with boys in their school sweaters getting all cozy in the front seat because they’re scared of this movie.
2. Creepy stuff always happens in New Mexico.  And a little girl holding a doll?!  They’re just asking to creep people out.
3. This would never happen now.  A town wouldn’t be wiped out by giant ants without the rest of the world knowing.  Someone would put it on Facebook.  Probably with pictures or video.
4. They all seem awfully calm about shooting at this giant ant…
5. My bible doesn’t have any prophecy about giant ants.  Ok, I’ll admit, I haven’t read the whole thing.  Maybe it does.
6. I like how they’re teaching Dr. Medford to speak on a walkie talkie.  “Say over.”  “But I’ve just said it.”  “Say over and out if you’re finished.”  “But she knows I’m finished!”
7. I’m pretty sure this movie’s not going to scare me.  The ants aren’t all that scary looking.  And no one else in the movie seems all that freaked out.  Except for that little girl.  She’s freaking out.
8. I think in this situation, I would say “Screw women’s rights.”  You don’t want women in the giant ant nest?  Sounds good to me.
9. Um, clearly an ant is coming through that hole, guys.  Maybe do something before it does.
10. Ewwwwww….giant ant eggs.  Ten bucks says we get to see them hatch.
11. There’s something scary about winged queen ants…
12. Ants make slaves out of their prisoners?  Is that science, Dr. Medford?
13. Oh Texans, they say the craziest things.  Flying saucers shaped like ants?  That’s just crazy.
14. The alcoholic ward of the hospital seems fun.  “Make me a seargent!  Give me the booze!”
15. Reservoir basins all look the same to me.  Like the location of the drag race at the end of Grease.
16. Ok, the head of the air force just made an emergency announcement that the city is under attack by giant ants.  Why is no one reacting?
17. I hope Peterson lives.  I like him.  He saves little kids.
18. Don’t tell her that her kids are alive until you get them out and away from the ants!
19. No Peterson!!!
20. Damn that atomic bomb.

“You can’t see a Billy Jack movie too many times.”  - 2.3

The only stuff I know about this movie is what they show in Gilmore Girls.  Otherwise, I’m out.

1. Nice theme music.  I love the 70s.
2. It seems silly to try to catch horses while you’re riding on horses.
3. We’re only 5 minutes in and I’m thoroughly convinced that Billy Jack is the most badass guy in the world.
4. Hepatitis, a sore tooth, and pregnant?  You hit the jackpot, little lady.
5. I want to be Billy Jack’s apprentice.  I want to be an apprentice to a badass.
6. Totally shot down, Bernard.  Maybe it’s because your name is Bernard.
7. How can you be suspicious of pacifists?  You pour flour on people who aren’t white to make them white and then get suspicious of their intentions?
8. Holy crap, Billy Jack!  You just beat the hell out of those kids!
9. Dude, you were doing so well with your bare feet.  How did they get the best of you?
10. Next time the police come in to your school to search for something, just pick up a guitar and sing really loudly.  Words of wisdom, kids.
11. It’s Johnny Fever!  Oh, WKRP in Cincinnati.
12. That’s the most exciting City Council meeting I’ve ever seen.
13. Hold on, Billy gets bitten by a snake over and over again in order to have a vision?  …Crazy…
14. Poor Martin.  He’s got a broken leg, he’s just going to buy some paint, and the cop hits him in the stomach with a pipe.
15. Street theatre is funny.
16. Pulling a knife on a girl and forcing her to take her clothes off?  Oh, you’re such a man.
17. I would drive my car into the lake too over having a dislocated elbow.
18. What the hell is wrong with this Bernard kid?  Kidnap and rape?  Seriously?
19. That pacifist chick is badass, shooting a gun at the bad guys.
20. They killed Martin?!  What the hell!
21. Billy Jack just killed a guy with a karate chop.  Freaking awesome.
22. This seems like an awful lot of trouble for one runaway.
23. Aw, Jean loves Billy Jack.
24. She gets shot in the leg and his response is “You crazy nut.”
25. This is not the Billy Jack movie that they watched on Gilmore Girls…  I hope you all with let that slide.

A little more violent than I tend to like.  But it was interesting.  I wish I had a Billy Jack in my life to kick some ass when necessary.

I recently made the decision to become a kidney donor.  I don’t know my recipient personally, but I had heard about her through a friend of a friend.  I have always been a big advocate of organ donation.  My uncle would not be here today if someone hadn’t made the decision to be an organ donor and give him the gift of a new heart.  I’ve donated blood mostly whenever I can (with the exception of the times I couldn’t after getting tattoos…oops!), and I’m on the bone marrow donor list as well.  When this opportunity came up, in my opinion, it fell in the same category as all of those other things I’ve been so passionate about.  Many people argue that this is on a much larger scale, and I understand that opinion.  I just don’t necessarily agree with it.

The process began with some simple blood tests.  Then the 24-hour urine test, that I will not detail for you.  After those tests all came back well, I was flown to the hospital where the surgery will take place and did some more tests.  I had, unfortunately been hit by one of the most intensely contagious and violent stomach viruses when I  was at their hospital (all of my friends back home were just as sick as me), so a lot of these tests needed to be redone.  But after a meeting with the doctor, a meeting with a social worker, an MRI, an EKG, an ultrasound, and an exercise stress test, I was found to be a match.

Now came my big decision.  I think that during this entire process, I was fairly certain that there was no way I would be healthy enough to be selected as a match.  So, reality set in when I had to make the major decision to donate or not to donate.

Some criticism I had faced was “What if a family member needs a kidney in the future and you already gave yours away?”  My answer for that question is, hopefully, if no other friends or family members can donate, then some stranger will feel the same way I do about organ donation and be willing to help.  It’s a long shot, but I’m hoping that in my decision to do this, maybe it will inspire others.  If more people were willing to donate, then we wouldn’t have as many people waiting for kidneys for years.  Another popular question I’ve gotten is “What happens if one day you need a kidney?”  While the possibility is always there, my family has no history of kidney problems, and I’m healthy enough to donate one now, so I really don’t foresee that happening.  However, God forbid that happens, again, I hope that if no family or friends can donate, someone will be willing to donate to a stranger.

When it came time to make my decision it was up to several factors.  I had a few people in my life that I had to speak to about it.  And at least 2 people whose opinion was so important that if they said no, I wouldn’t have done it.  My sister supported my decision 100%.  After all, she was right behind in being tested for my recipient.  Her husband, aka the best brother-in-law in the world, was supportive, but nervous.  While I’m still not sure if he totally understands it, I know he loves me and wants me to do what I feel is right.  My boyfriend was another important person for me to talk about.  We’re in a serious relationship and we discuss marriage in the future and having a family.  I was concerned about the possibility that donating would hinder my ability to have children in the future.  I felt this was a very important factor for him to understand and weigh in on.  I spoke with my doctors and did some of my own research and found that as long as I’m completely honest with my OB/GYN when I do decide to become pregnant (MANY years down the road), that I would be safe, and many other women have donated and had children in the future.  With the support of these important people in my life, I made my decision.

My pre-op appointment will be on June 14th and my surgery will be June 23rd.  I will stay where my surgery is for a few days and then come back home for my recovery.  Thankfully, my boyfriend is a teacher and has summers off, so he is able to be with me during the whole process.  I also have a very supportive church family who will be there for me during my recovery.

Organ donation is a very controversial topic and I’ve been kind of quiet about it during this whole process, but I think it’s important for my friends and family to get some insight into why I’m doing this and why I would advocate that anyone follow me.

I’ll be posting more about this as more happens with it, and feel free to ask any questions!  This website is one I referred to fairly often in this process.