Wow, so apparently I'm no good at updating my blog.
Christmas was good. A little stressful, but it was nice to have family around and to get to see everyone. It was Keenan's first Christmas, and of course he got spoiled. I got spoiled too because I got to spend so much time with him. It was nice to be able to see him.
Ringing in the new year was fun. Matt and I went to our friend's house for a new years party. It was a blast hehe. I got to see some friends I hadn't seen in over a year. It was definitely good times.
After the new year things got a little stressful. Keenan's liver started to go into failure making surgery necessary as soon as possible. I went back down to Toronto just to do some new blood work and x-rays, and then the surgery got booked. The surgery happened on January 9th. Honestly, I wasn't very nervous. It felt like everyone kept watching me, waiting for me to breakdown and have an anxiety attack or something, but in all honesty I was hardly nervous at all. It just felt like the right thing to do.
Having never had major surgery before I didn't know what to expect. I just cleared my head and took everything as it came. My biggest concern was that there could still be a chance I couldn't be the donor. If they opened me up and found something wrong with my liver, something that was undetectable from all the tests, then it would have all been for nothing. But, fortunately everything was fine. My surgery was about 5 hours I think. I don't know for sure. All I remember is a group of people talking to me, the anesthetist trying to get the IV in my hand (which really hurt I might add), the surgeon coming up and saying hello, and then the nurse putting the oxygen mask on my face. These were my last moments before sleep took over....
The nurse puts the oxygen mask on my face
'Take a few deep breaths for me'
I take a deep breath
'It's supposed to smell like grape. I'm not sure if it does.'
I take another deep breath 'It kind of does.'
I start fading in and out, I hear the nurse say 'She's going...'
And the next thing I know I'm waking up to the delightful feeling of being extibated, and wretching from the feeling of it. Yes, I was one of those fortunate 2% of people who have memories of being extibated LOL. Hey, if I'm going to be lucky at something lol.
Either way I don't regret a minute of it. It hasn't been an easy road to recovery, but I suppose it could have been worse. They had me up walking the day after surgery. It wasn't easy, and I hated the physio guy for it at the time, but 4 days later I was released from the hospital. All of the doctors were amazed at how quickly I recovered. Problem is, it seems to have slowed down a bit. It didn't help that I caught a stomach bug two days ago and was puking up my socks for half a day (complete with explosive bum of course), and ended up in the hospital again. They shot me up with morphine and gravol and sent me home. It just has to run its course. Problem is, I'm still not feeling 100% and it's been 2 days. Usually I bounce back from a stomach flu like it's nothing....but apparently my recovery time is delayed. I'm still getting bouts of nausea, nothing that makes me want to throw up, but enough to make me really uncomfortable and miserable.
I JUST WANT TO FEEL NORMAL AGAIN!!!!!
It's hard to work on recovering from surgery when you're busy worrying about whether or not you're going to vomit in the next few minutes. Leave it to me though. I'm home from Toronto only a few days and I catch a stomach flu lol. AAAAAAARRRGGHHHH!!!! One day at a time I guess, eh? Either way I'm not thrilled...I feel useless. I can't even get up enough energy to make supper. Matt says he doesn't mind, but he's not home most of the time. He's been working a lot since I got home. Leaving it up to me to do everything around the apartment. I haven't been doing much, because I'm not supposed to, but I feel guilty laying around all day. Like I said...I just want to feel better. In a lot of ways I feel like I'm relearning my digestive system. Things don't work like they used to lol. And now because of this flu, my stomach is a lot touchier than it used to be. Fun times. Fun times.
But, the great news is (and my whole reason for doing this) is that Keenan is doing fantastic! He looks so great! He's made it through the first two milestones. He made it through the initial rejection, and he made it through the first 48 hours. Now the next milestone is the first 3 months. He's out of Sick Kids now, and he's living with mommy and daddy at the Ronald McDonald House in Toronto. They'll be down in Toronto for a few months and then he gets to come home. YAY!! Here are a few pictures from after the surgery. These pictures were taken at the 2 week point.
Sara
