With that hospital stay behind us, I am hoping things improve this week. Last night was a little scary. Blood pressure dropped to 70s/30s at one point yesterday. I called his nurse about every hour. I had to give him liquids and salty foods and then check it every hour or more. Thought he would end up back at hospital but he woke up and it's been fine all day (about 125/70). He hasn't had any blood pressure medicine since yesterday morning. Which is very odd for him to stay this low for this long without it. We are going to Dr. Russo's office Monday morning. I'm sure he's hemoglobin is still in the 8's so he won't be feeling good until it gets back to 11 or 12.
Local news station interviewed Bruce at hospital and will be coming to house tomorrow to film the kids. My sister in law, Mary, posted a story about Bruce going into ER bleeding and needing a kidney on Facebook and Craigs list. Someone saw it on Craigs list and sent it to reporter to try to help. The power of the internet at work! Someone else called to try to get tested to see if they are a match. We don't know who at this point. But it seems like this terrible experience has brought about some possibilities of a donor.
A living donor could make SUCH a difference in the out come. A living donor kidney lasts many years longer because it can be better matched. The donor kidney is taken out and put in quickly so it never "sits" like a kidney from a deceased donor would. And because Bruce needs his kidneys removed, this can be planned out so it's done as close as possible to his nephrectomy surgery. That means less down time for Bruce, he won't have to deal with trying to live on no kidneys and hemo dialysis and yet another surgery for PD catheter. He could end up not being able to work again until he got called on the transplant list. It would be a real miracle to get a living donor. I think it is something that he had given up on, so this has given him some new life.
Easter Everyday
8 years ago
Posts
Glad that Bruce is having a better few days. I left several comments on some older posts. Know you are very busy and may not be looking back for new messages, but one concerns a physician at University of Maryland who seems to specialize in doing nephrectomies simultaneously with the transplant surgery. Apparently he has had great success doing it this way.
ReplyDeleteWell let us know how the doc went today. Accordinng to the paperwork we got, a living donor can last almost double from that of a deceased donor.
ReplyDeleteI would love for there to be one surgery but due to United Health Care, we are limited to Lifelink in Tampa for the transplant. We cannot be multiple listed in other cities. The most we could hope for is a live donor and MAYBE they would do the transplant and nephrectomy at once. If not they can at least be planned close to one another and Bruce wouldn't have to try to live and function with no kidneys and extensive dialysis.
ReplyDeletewow.. we are on united healthcare too and had a huge upset in the spring with them.. half way thought about starting a blog like you did to keep all friends and family updated on our situation... things are better now but we cannot use the hospital in our city because they are no longer an in-network provider so we have to travel approx 120 miles for my hubbys transplant/office visits...
ReplyDelete