April 17, 2011 is an important date around here. It's Andrew's 10 year kidney transplant anniversary. (Technically 2 of his kidneys are 33 years old and one is almost 39 years old.) Yes you did the math right. . . Andrew has 3 kidneys. What most people are not aware of is that in a kidney transplant patient the doctors don't remove the non-functioning kidneys they leave them in the body. In Andrew's case his kidneys were diseased, and the doctors waited until his kidney function was almost completely gone before doing the transplant. Another interesting part about a kidney transplant is that the transplanted kidney is placed in the front abdomen, not in the same place as the other kidneys. Therefore the only real restrictions Andrew has in his physical activity, is no full contact sports. Football is out, the doctors frown on several hundred pounds swishing a kidney that is not as well protected in the abdomen.
So we will be celebrating the big 10 year milestone with Janine's family on Sunday while we still live here in Utah. I think that the menu is going to be something like Cafe Rio pork salad knock offs with homemade kidney shaped tortillas. Happy 10th Kidney Day!
1 comment:
I didn't know they didn't take out the diseased kidney and that they put the new one in the front of the abdomen!
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