A few days ago, Mrs ruleoflaw and I celebrated the four year anniversary of my kidney transplant.
We made a pot roast with carrots, potatoes, and gravy. The vegetables were fresh from our garden.
We had a glass of wine and drank to good health with many more years of love. I would not have survived this without her.
My daughter/donor, knitolitics was unable to be with us but will always be with me in more than spirit. Her kidney rests under a very neat scar on the lower right side of my abdomen. It’s working quite well. Thanks to the miracles of modern communication I was able to thank her in real time.
The scar will always remind me of the immense talent of David P. Al-Adra, MD, PhD, FACS, who also performed knitolitics’ extraction.
One of my recovery goals was to be able to walk down to city hall and vote in the 2020 election.
Twenty-one days after the surgery I was able to do just that. As you may recall, our guy won.
(At that time I was walking about a half mile per day. Now I’m averaging about six miles per day.)
When In-person early voting begins, I’ll be making that walk again.
The average for post-KT (kidney transplant) survival is five years. This average includes all KT patients, from those whose new kidney never revives to those who live another 50 years.
Immunosupressants make organ transplants possible and I will be taking them for the rest of my life. They have some unfortunate but manageable side effects. Staying alive as an insulin-dependent diabetic is a trade I’ll gladly make. Every day is a gift. Hopefully, I’ll be making that walk to vote in the mid-terms and after that for Kamala Harris’ reelection.
Imagine my chagrin when I realized we had worn the exact same outfit to the party.
I am deeply grateful for all the support and love I’ve been shown throughout this process. Sometimes “thoughts and prayers” and “positive energy” seem paltry, but I appreciate them nonetheless. If you want to demonstrate what “pro-life” really means, check out these links:
Donations to support Transplant, Organ and Tissue donation services are gladly accepted here.
If you are feeling especially saintly, you might even consider becoming a living kidney donor.
The Covid epidemic delayed my surgery and continues to put my immune-suppressed life at risk.
The lunacy of a second Trump administration is not something I want to contemplate.
You know what to do.
