Night and the day after

7:30 pm I had gas so bad I ran my poor wife off the second floor. I was BAD!

8:00 pm I decided it was time for bed. We had already eaten dinner and I am tired. The Tylenol has worn off but I am feeling good.

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The Day After

11/18/06

early am I’m not sure what time it is. Probably close to 4:00 am. But it could be 11:00 pm. I won’t look at the clock. I could probably get up. I feel rested, but if it’s too early then this isn’t the sleep wake cycle that I want to be on.

The soreness at the biopsy spot has woken me up a few times during the night as I turn over in my sleep. It’s down to an ache. More like a bruise.

I try to go back to sleep.

8:00 am My wife’s alarm goes off at 8:00 am. I guess it’s time to get up. She falls back to sleep. I get up to go to the bathroom.

I was able to get out of bed fine. I have many thoughts of the surgery resonating through my mind. Mostly the recovery.

Mary Grace (the hospital Psych) was very concerned about post surgery depression for me, as a donor. She was also very concerned about at home care after the surgery.

My wife has been given approval to take time off after the surgery. But a schedule hasn’t actually been thought about. For me and my work the months of November and December are our slowest. There are few installations or travel during the holidays. But for my wife, this is their busiest time of the year. She has job security. I do not.

Once my test results are in (from these past three days) and UPMC determines that I am a viable donor. I will approach the CEO of the company I work for to see what my options are. Of course, I would like to be able to keep my salary as I undergo the surgery and recovery. Much of my work can actually be done remotely. They could have equipment shipped to my house and I could do what I need to do then ship it on to the customer. I won’t be able to travel for some time which is a part of my job at times.

If they won’t keep me, I am prepared to leave – on the spot.

8:30 am I decided it was time to pull the band aid off my pale white hairy Buddha belly. (There’s a visual for you).

I started to cut the band aid off with a small pair of scissors and wasn’t very successful. So I grabbed a corner of the band aid and RIPPED it off.

Ohhhhh, that hurt!!!!!

I have quite a bit of hair on my body. So yanking a band aid is like a micro waxing.

I see two spots that are scabbed over. One looks like where the two lidocain injections went in and the other from the biopsy needle. They are small with the biopsy spot the largest.

I was told they took out a pencil lead sized section of my liver. I don’t know if it was a #2 a .03, .05, .07 mm either.

As I feel the area around the spot. The sorest part is were the doctors finger was pressing very hard into my stomach.