My "Vacation"

Because my next round of test were scheduled over two days, I decided to take a few days off work to stay in Harrisburg and spend my downtime with Jen, Marty and Zoey. When I wasn't getting poked, prodded, scanned or bombarded with questions, I got to push Zoey around in a beer box, watch Glee and the Game Show Network, and release the Kraken with the Laus. This time was a welcome distraction from all of the kidney-related stress and I am so lucky to have such amazing friends.

The first day was a quick visit with a nurse to receive my vaccines and TB test. I really should know better by now than to expect these so-called "quick" visits to go off without a hitch. After getting some information from me and doing a little prep work, the nurse comes at me with the first injection without bothering to either a.) wash her hands, b.) wear gloves, or even c.) use some variety of hand sanitizer. I know it has been awhile since I have had to get any sort of shot, but I am almost positive that basic hygiene rules still apply. So I say to Dirty Nurse, "If you're not going to WASH your hands, could you at least throw on a pair of gloves or something?" To which she replied, "Oh my God, I totally forgot!" I'd like to point out here that directly behind my head was a Purell hand sanitizer dispenser. Directly above that were 3, count them 3, boxes of gloves. And directly to the right of those, was a freaking SINK. Just saying. Despite having skipped Nursing 101, Dirty Nurse was surprisingly quick and efficient with the shots, putting the pneumonia vaccine and TB test in my right arm and the flu and hepatitis vaccines in my left.

Day two got off to a painfully early start. First up was the group information session with Sandra, scheduled from 7:30 am to 8:30 am...exactly one hour of my life that I will never get back. This session was clearly designed for people who were preparing for their first transplant. I, of course, was the only person in the room who had been through it all before. I was given a huge binder filled to the brim with brochures, business cards and more information that you can possibly imagine on kidney transplantation. Still, the only new tidbits I walked away with were that you can now list at more than one facility if you so choose, and that the surgery to extract a kidney from a living donor is now laproscopic, which is pretty cool. Sandra did open with, "It is illegal to sell your organs," however, so I guess it was a total loss.

Also on the agenda for the day: blood work, EKG, echo cardiogram, and MRI. What I thought was just going to be my standard labs, ended up being close to 20 tubes of blood. Completely necessary, but yikes, I was shocked I had any left afterwards. The EKG and echo were done back to back and were quick, easy and painless. The dark room also gave me an opportunity to get a much-needed cat nap. The MRI, however, was a lot more difficult that I had anticipated. First, there was the issue of my piercings. My tongue ring wasn't a problem as I have had to take it out several times before for various surgeries. My Monroe piercing, though, is relatively new and I had only had it changed by a piercer before then. The little bugger proved to be a serious pain to get in and out, but I eventually prevailed. An overly ambitious nurse led me back to the MRI and we were ready to get started. Being my first MRI ever, I didn't know what to expect, but I have never been claustrophobic and wasn't nervous at all. I guess maybe I should have been. As I was being moved into the machine, a crazy wave of panic washed over me. My heart began to pound, I was sweating like it was my job and it was all I could do to keep myself from demanding that they let me out of there. I somehow managed to concentrate on my breathing and on Josh, the friendly MRI tech, talking to me through the headset. After a very rough five minutes or so, I calmed myself down and the rest of the half hour went smoothly. This was Thursday, and I haven't heard anything back yet, but I am doing my best to try not to think about it too much. Go liver!