I talked to one of my surgeon’s residents first. I remember meeting him both before and after
surgery. He asked me how I was feeling,
had a look at my incisions and said they were looking good. He noted the
swelling, particularly around the biggest incision, and said that would
gradually go away over the next six months or so. He asked me whether I was peeing OK, and
whether there was any blood in my urine.
Everything is fine in that department.
He asked me if I had any questions. I asked him whether he knew anything about
how the transplant had gone with my kidney.
He said he knew that the transplant went well, and my kidney was working
just fine in the new person, “So you can know you’ve really made a big
difference in someone’s life.”
The only follow-up for me, he explained, is that in three
months I need to go to my family doctor to have my creatinine levels checked,
and then once yearly after that. He
encouraged me to take care of my health, and try to avoid developing high blood
pressure, which is affected by salt intake.
It was a short little visit. He
said I could go, or I could wait and see the surgeon if I had questions for
him.
I did decide to wait.
I had not seen the surgeon since our brief conversation in the operating
room, and I wanted to thank him personally.