The transplant

Today saw us up at 3:00 in the morning for the drive in to get my mom a kidney. The check-in process was smooth and anti-climactic. I'm not sure what I was expecting. Doctors and nurses urgently shuffling around, spouting medical lingo, "nurse jenny I need 2 cc's of  xyz stat!"
Their were plenty of needles and pokes, backless nighty's, hair nets, and hand sanitizer to go around though. The prep went fairly quickly. Well, all but my moms i.v. that is. The first try went o.k. but not good enough, then their was the second try which had her vein blow out, and the third with another vein blow out (not a good start), forth times a charm right. After that they hooked her up to some prednazone (not sure of the spelling on that one) and it was smooth sailing......for that part anyway.

Right about now my sister is in the o.r. having the good doc. reaching in and pulling out a kidney, the left one just in case you all wanted to know. Something about it having a longer vein and artery, and less guts to move about.

For my mom, well..... she will now look something like this on the inside. Both her kidneys will remain, but will no longer be in use, and the new one gets tucked in the pocket of her hip so it will have some protection. Amazing!

Both my sister and my mom will be able to leave the hospital by this weekend. My sister, having had the kidney removed laparoscopicly will only have about a two week recovery time. My mom will be about two month, if we can keep her still that long.
We are all excited for things to settle down, and for my mom to be back to super human mom capacity. Faster than a speeding bullet, leaping tall buildings in a single bound, bending time and space to fit her schedule, moving mountains because they aren't conveniently located. You know mom stuff.

But....for right now, I wait, and happily so. Today is a great day.