Tomorrow my daughter goes under the knife for the first of two surgeries this Summer and I can tell you that I am a bit nervous to say the least.
I have written about Taylor’s kidney issues before but as a refresher, she has a disease called Nephronthesys which is a problem with the filters in her kidneys. Because of this genetic disorder that was carried unknowingly from both my wife Michelle and I, her kidneys were expected to fail by the time she was 13. She is 15 now.
A double Nephrectomy is an operation where both kidneys are removed and my daughter Taylor needs this as her genetically bad kidneys are not regulating water and she just pees it out too quickly and because of this she also does not get rid of waste products from her blood very well.
We have tried lots of different drugs to counteract this but sadly the side effects where worse than the cure.
Now Taylor’s kidneys have really dropped below working well at all and we are at the point where the best thing to do is get ready for a kidney transplant.
This as I mentioned is the first of two surgeries. After this 5 hour long Nephrectomy tomorrow Taylor will heal for 6 to 8 weeks and then we will do another surgery where I will donate a kidney for a kidney transplant to Taylor.
What happens after the Double Nephrectomy?
Tomorrow though is the tough surgery for me as a parent. Even though her kidneys are crap, they are the only ones shes got. So after tomorrow she will not have the dehydration problems but instead we will have to do dialysis every night.
We had training a few weeks ago for the dialysis and what it is in essence is a night time kidney replacement. There is a glucose and water fluid that will slowly fill in a cavity in her abdomen, the water will dwell there for 45 minutes or so, and then it is drained into a big bucket along with some waste products from her body.
The Dialysis treatment will do that process 8 or 10 times a night and then in the morning she will feel better until evening again when we will do that process all over.
So if you get a chance tomorrow think about us. I will try to live blog some of my thoughts on this process during the day tomorrow and hopefully we will all get to learn something.
Have a great night
Bill