11/23/2017
On October 18th at noon, I received the call from Swedish Transplant Center that I was a match for a deceased donor kidney. I immediately left work and spent a couple of hours packing and making sure loose ends at home would be taken care of during our absence. Got on the plane at 530pm, flew to Seattle, and underwent the transplant surgery at 8am on the 19th.
The kidney was nearly a perfect match and began functioning immediately after the transplant. Within two days, my body's toxicity was down to near normal levels and after five days, I was discharged from the hospital.
We were fortunate to secure temporary apartment housing with a non-profit charity, the "Transplant House". It is run by individuals who are also past transplant recipients.
The next four weeks consisted mainly of multiple trips per week for bloodwork labs and follow up clinics with the transplant team. I healed remarkably fast and was cleared to return home to Fairbanks on November 21st.
I am now taking immunosuppressants, and will be for the rest of my life in order to keep my body from rejecting the kidney. I must be very careful now as I am much more susceptible to infections, colds, viruses, and certain cancers.
Based on my overall progress in healing and recovering, I am hopeful that I will be able to return to work by mid to late December.
The Swedish Transplant team was phenomenal and made the entire process extremely easy to work through. I'm very grateful for them.
