It is hard to fully grasp what has happened in our lives. On October 7th, my husband, Phillip, donated his right kidney to me. Since surgery, I have been laying low and healing: no blogging and no internet, lots of naps and nourishing food. It is fabulous – I highly…
On our flight back from the last book tour stop in Spokane, Phillip and I made an exhaustive list of things we wanted to get done before the transplant. It is unique that we will both be in surgery, and we wanted to have our home and lives a well…
My kidney transplant date is set and it is just a little more than a week away on October 1st! My donor? Well, that is my gorgeous, generous, loving, amazing husband Phillip! And now I’m crying… I am a huge puddle of gratitude for the way all of this is…
The time came last week for me to begin temporarily scaling back. This is the most important thing you can do to preserve and honor your health when you’re hitting a rough patch or going through a flare-up. This is also the hardest thing for driven, goal oriented individuals like…
Illness requires us to let go of a lot of things. I sometimes think it’s a spiritual quest toward non-attachment. Priorities become clearer as we need to clear our plates to allow for healing. I had to let go of two things today. I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow where…
The cankles have arrived! It’s lovely to watch your ankle expand during the day to eventually swallow any definition you previously had between your calves and feet. The one lesson this has taught me is that strappy sandals are not a good choice at this point in my care. We…
I am now in kidney failure. I found out last Thursday, the same day Chronic Resilience was officially released. Life is wonderfully ironic. It is weird to type that word. Failure. It doesn’t feel like failure; it feels like my kidney worked really hard for more than 34 years and…
I sometimes joke that I’m on “Symptom Watch 2013.” As I come closer to kidney failure, my doctors have warned me that I may begin experiencing symptoms of uremia (a buildup of uremic acid) soon. This has resulted in a whole series of mind games. Every completely normal yawn, itch…
My favorite thing on this Friday is laughter. I mean, who doesn’t love laughing? When you have an chronic health condition, it is practically essential. Of course funny movies are good. Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory can be hilarious, but could you find humor in your own medical…
Phillip and I met with the transplant nephrologist (kidney specialist) on Monday afternoon. We came armed with a huge list of questions. I haven’t been to the transplant center as a patient since my evaluation back in the summer of 2011. This meeting was to re-establish care and get informed…