Life after Transplant: Taking Care of My New Kidney

So, after I had my transplant, I felt like a completely different person.  The effect was like night and day.  I just felt so much more energy and just really being like my old self.  I really felt just great that I felt like the fatigue was gone.  I felt that I was back to my real normal self that I was used to be like.  I just felt so much better.

Something someone mentioned to me was that my skin color had changed over time, and I was sort of a little washed out and kind of gray, which I hadn’t noticed, but this friend of ours said your color is so much better than it was before. 

Things I had to think about was really ways to take care of this new kidney.  A great description that I got from one of my providers was the kidney really wants to swim and really just be happy with you drinking lots of water and your kidneys swimming in there, and so I like that visual. With all that water, that helps the kidney function.

I really want to take care of this new kidney. I didn’t want to do anything to mess this up.  Just the thought of losing this healthy new kidney that was donated to me it was just the worst thought ever if I didn’t take care of this kidney and something could happen to that kidney.  I was told it happens fairly often where people don’t take care of a new kidney that’s donated to them with drinking and eating right.

I can’t even imagine.  It would be horrible if I did something like that, and if I did something like that and messed up this great opportunity, almost like a new lease on life that I had been given if I don’t take care of this kidney. 

Drinking water was huge. Just eating healthily. High blood pressure isn’t your friend, so, just watching sodium, caffeine, things like that.

I’m a little clumsy.  So, I have to be careful if I’m doing anything like riding a bike, but just kind of common sense as far as taking care of this kidney.