Update

I attended a holiday party last night and was scolded by several of my friends. Apparently I haven’t been very diligent about updating the blog in recent weeks. I figured it would be boring for folks to hear that I’ve been lazy and doing very little, but that is at least an update and people are looking for any kind of information right now.

I continue to get back to a more normal routine with every passing day. I head back to work on Thursday and am looking forward to having social interaction with people beyond those that are pumping my gas and bagging my groceries. I have reduced my downtime during the day to a single nap around Oprah, I mean 4:00, I’ll miss my nap time the most when I return to the office this week.

Anna has reduced her appointments at the hospital to bi-weekly visits. She goes every Monday and Friday to have her blood and urine tested. Her doctor continues to be very pleased with her kidney function – everything is working well as it should be right now.

Last week we did get some uncertain results from the lab work. Anna’s white blood cell count was dangerously low, so low that her doctor was very concerned she was facing an infection somewhere in her body, potentially signaling the start of kidney rejection. Her orders were to go home over the weekend and not worry – yeah right. She returned on Monday and her white blood count did go up, but by very little. Again her doctor told her not to worry and that they would test again on Friday. This Friday the doctor decided that since her kidney was functioning so well and because Anna was showing no additional signs of infection (such as a fever) that they were going to tweak her medication levels and see if that would positively impact her cell count. Of course, when you are dealing with an organ transplant – you are never truly safe from the chance of rejection, but for now, things seem to be under control. We will just have to keep monitoring her white blood cells and pray for her count to continue to climb.

On a lighter note, I was reminded last night of a conversation I had with my kidney team two months before surgery. I was told that people never ask to see your nephrectomy scars post surgery as it is just a little bit too intrusive and personal for most folks. For the record, I want to say that my friends are indeed overly intrusive as I have been asked to show my kidney scars more times this week that I can count. The first person to ask to see my scars was my friend Dianne. I was at a holiday party on Thursday and it was the second thing she asked me after the obligatory “how are you feeling” question. I showed her my little laparoscopic scars, but told her she would have to wait on the big incision as it was below the beltline and I wasn’t about to drop my pants in the middle of the annual Maxwell PR party –that is, not without at least three more glasses of wine (kidding, ha ha). Then at my company’s holiday party last night, I was asked many, many times to show my scars. Talk about busy bodies huh? Just kidding, I don’t mind!