Going into major surgery sure makes me feel out of control! Let’s face it, I’ll be knocked unconscious where I don’t even remember time passing and during that time, someone will open me up and take out a major organ.
I felt I needed to find something to give me some element of control. Something to do in preparation. I emailed some friends who told me about a book I have found really helpful. It’s called Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster. It’s a book and a relaxation CD. The woman who wrote it has a 5 step system for relaxing and specific steps to do before and after surgery to help people recover.
She has tested the methods clinically and the people going through it heal faster, need less time in the hospital and need less pain meds.
I’ve been going through it and it has helped. I can’t attest to whether it works since I have nothing to compare it to. But just having something to work on/focus on has really helped. If you are going to surgery, you may want to check it out.
Anyone have anything they did to help them prepare for surgery? I'm looking anything specific--no matter how weird or simple. Thanks!
Friday, January 29, 2010
Case Study--Seller Sold Home in 19 Days and He Picked the Price
Jason is a real estate investor and had a Puyallup home to sell. He had bought it with the intention to fix it up and sell it. Once he contacted me, I did an analysis of the current market value it might get once it was market ready. From there, he knew which repairs would make sense. He didn’t want to either over improve or under improve the home.
After the repairs were done, I paid for the home to be pre-inspected, staged and professionally photographed. We talked about pricing and he decided on an initial list price. After some showings with no offers, we were strongly talking about dropping the price.
We then got an offer which was lower than our planned price drop. I recommended we drop the price so that either the 1st buyer would up their offer or another buyer would show. The first buyer came up to our price, only 19 days after coming on the market.
After the repairs were done, I paid for the home to be pre-inspected, staged and professionally photographed. We talked about pricing and he decided on an initial list price. After some showings with no offers, we were strongly talking about dropping the price.
We then got an offer which was lower than our planned price drop. I recommended we drop the price so that either the 1st buyer would up their offer or another buyer would show. The first buyer came up to our price, only 19 days after coming on the market.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
What is Kidney Recovery Like?
I’ve heard it’s very similar to recovering from a C section except you get uninterrupted sleep afterwards.
From what I understand, the day after, it hurts to move even your eyeballs. Then you deal with your GI tract starting to wake up. You feel the gas the surgeon used to fill up your abdominal cavity escaping and I hear that is not the most pleasant.
My surgery is on a Monday morning (7 am start) and they told me 40% of people are out on Wednesday, 50% are out on Thursday and 10% on Friday.
10 days after the surgery, I’ll go in for a follow up appointment which I hear people are 50% are doing great and 50% are still healing. By the 2 week mark, you feel pretty good.
Biggest thing is I can’t lift more than 10 lbs (i.e. either of my 2 boys) for 6 weeks. That’ll be the hardest part for me. We wrestle a lot. If you have questions, let me know and I’ll post what I know.
From what I understand, the day after, it hurts to move even your eyeballs. Then you deal with your GI tract starting to wake up. You feel the gas the surgeon used to fill up your abdominal cavity escaping and I hear that is not the most pleasant.
My surgery is on a Monday morning (7 am start) and they told me 40% of people are out on Wednesday, 50% are out on Thursday and 10% on Friday.
10 days after the surgery, I’ll go in for a follow up appointment which I hear people are 50% are doing great and 50% are still healing. By the 2 week mark, you feel pretty good.
Biggest thing is I can’t lift more than 10 lbs (i.e. either of my 2 boys) for 6 weeks. That’ll be the hardest part for me. We wrestle a lot. If you have questions, let me know and I’ll post what I know.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Who is Receiving the Kidney?
A few of you have asked who will receive the kidney I'm donating. Well, frankly I don't know. I do know that it will go into person in the operating room next to me within minutes of them taking it out.
For altruistic donations (which is what they call what I'm doing), the hospital has a policy of not having the donor and recipient meet for 6 months after the surgery. This is for a number of reasons. The big one is the recipient sometimes feels a huge weight of reciprocity to the donor. They feel like they owe them and so focus on paying back rather than healing.
Also, this recipient has a friend who will donate their kidney as soon as this recipient gets one. This means that at least 2 people will receive a kidney because of the chain started. Pretty exciting!
More coming soon!
For altruistic donations (which is what they call what I'm doing), the hospital has a policy of not having the donor and recipient meet for 6 months after the surgery. This is for a number of reasons. The big one is the recipient sometimes feels a huge weight of reciprocity to the donor. They feel like they owe them and so focus on paying back rather than healing.
Also, this recipient has a friend who will donate their kidney as soon as this recipient gets one. This means that at least 2 people will receive a kidney because of the chain started. Pretty exciting!
More coming soon!
Monday, January 25, 2010
Donating my kidney--February 8th!
A lot has happened since my last post. The big news is I have a date to donate my kidney—February 8th at Swedish in Seattle!
Okay, so a lot has happened since my last post. To catch up a bit, I started the process with both UW and Swedish but Swedish seemed to really be on the ball.
The biggest part was I really felt good about the surgeon (180 degree difference from my experience at VM). The VM guy had nothing prepared, only asked us what our questions were and kept looking at his watch and phone like we were a real inconvenience to him.
The guy at Swedish said he had some standard things he likes to go over and then he’d take questions afterwards. He then explained the history of kidney donations, his experience (over 200 successful ones!), all the risk factors they look for and how my numbers stack up to those and the entire procedure. 2.5 hours later, I left knowing I had found my surgeon—someone who I trust, knew what they’re doing and really seems to care about me…rather than me just being a warm body with a kidney.
So 2 weeks from now, I’ll be coming out of recovery. I’ll post more soon so stay tuned!
Okay, so a lot has happened since my last post. To catch up a bit, I started the process with both UW and Swedish but Swedish seemed to really be on the ball.
The biggest part was I really felt good about the surgeon (180 degree difference from my experience at VM). The VM guy had nothing prepared, only asked us what our questions were and kept looking at his watch and phone like we were a real inconvenience to him.
The guy at Swedish said he had some standard things he likes to go over and then he’d take questions afterwards. He then explained the history of kidney donations, his experience (over 200 successful ones!), all the risk factors they look for and how my numbers stack up to those and the entire procedure. 2.5 hours later, I left knowing I had found my surgeon—someone who I trust, knew what they’re doing and really seems to care about me…rather than me just being a warm body with a kidney.
So 2 weeks from now, I’ll be coming out of recovery. I’ll post more soon so stay tuned!
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