This will be an update on Brandon so as to keep a record of his adventures after transplant. First, his kidney is doing great. It's GFR, which in simple terms is a rating of how well the kidney is performing, has topped out at over 100. The day of his transplant, it was an 8. It almost can't get any better. Amazing, in one day he went from being in kidney failure and surviving on daily dialysis to having absolutely no sign of kidney distress at all. The pancreas is still working great also and Brandon has not needed any insulin shots since the transplant which was almost a month ago.
Of course to balance out the good news, there always seems to be some bad news. The bad news for Brandon was he had to go back in the hospital for a week due to "C-Diff" which is a bad infection in the intestines. It is highly contagious to people on antibiotics. It seems the antibiotics kills off the good antibodies at the same time it is killing the bad ones. Without the good antibodies, bad stuff like C-Diff can find an opening at do its dirty work. It is a serious infection for everyone, but especially for transplant patients because they are taking anti-rejection medication to prevent their body from attacking the new organs.
We had not heard of C-diff before his diagnosis but were quickly educated afterwards. I won't go into it here but for all of my RV friends and readers, never forget to wear disposable gloves when emptying your waste tanks. Clorox is the most reliable thing to kill the spores which can live on most any surface, such as gloves, hoses, etc for days or even weeks. A spray bottle with diluted Clorox and Clorox wipes will forever be in my storage compartment.
Brandon is home again and needs to build his strength back up. He is weak and doesn't have much of an appetite. Some transplant recipients claim they take on some of the eating likes and dislikes from their donor. We will see how it goes as he begins eating again. Hopefully, the C-diff will be the only major set-back and he can continue to improve daily.
As always, our thoughts and prayers go out the donor who help make all of the good things happen in Brandon's life. I hope you know that he is taking care of your kidney and pancreas and is always thankful for your action to become an organ donor. Hopefully, he will be able to learn more about you in the future. I hope the family of the donor is comforted in knowing what their family member did for Brandon, a total stranger. May God bless them and show them mercy in their time of grief.
I have a hard time making a post without a picture so I've chosen one of my favorites from about 4 years ago.
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| A "thinking bench" looking out over Lake Michigan |
Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.
Best wishes for Brandon. The good from all this is I now know about C-diff and will be using the safety procedures in the future and passing on the education to others. Thank you for the update.
ReplyDeleteThanks Barney. Be careful on your trip back to the Promise Land (Texas). :)
DeleteHappy to hear the kidney and pancreas are still performing well. Scary to hear about the C-diff. Sounds like the treatment was successful. Interesting about taking on the eating likes and dislikes of the donor. Here's wishing for Brandon's appetite to return and his strength to build up.
ReplyDeleteThanks Barb. By the way, your blog is way behind due for an update.
DeleteBest wishes for Brandon and all of your family. Thank you for the update's on Brandon and will keep him in my prayers.
ReplyDeleteSue
Thank you Sue.
DeleteNice name (my late mother's name).
Thanks for the update. I hope Brandon regains his strength soon.
ReplyDeleteEven though I had gloves available for dumping I rarely wore them. I did wash my hands immediately after dumping but now I wonder if that was really enough. I hope I didn't infect anyone else.
Hello Linda. I too had gloves but they were not the disposable kind. Any contamination I picked up at the dump station stayed with those gloves until I would replace them (about once a month). I don't think we infected others, it is just amazing we weren't infected. Oh well, part of getting C-dif is you usually have to be on anti-biotics. Hope all is going well for you and yours.
DeleteThank you for the update on Brandon. That's something about the food dislikes and likes. You all our in our prayers along with our thoughts for the family of the donor.
ReplyDeleteThanks K&S. Organic wine???? really?
DeleteI have always worn disposable gloves when dealing with my holding tanks, and have found that the ones I like best are called food handlers gloves, their the gloves you see people wearing at a deli when they're touching your food. Their very inexpensive, and very large so their easy to take on and off unlike a skintight doctors glove.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip Darrell and all my best to Brandon.
Tom