Living Kidney Donation

Posts Tagged ‘heart ultrasound’

Sorting out last minute hitches i.e. Heart ultrasound

I had to wait a few days before an appointment was given to me. Before I heard, I emailed my co-ordinator a couple of times, flapping around a bit with meaningless questions! lol … Finally the ultrasound department rang me with an appointment for 2 days before the operation. I emailed my co-ordinator to tell her, although I am sure she would have already been told. I also asked when we would get the results? Could I come straight over to her department and sit and wait for them? She responded saying she was not sure if they would give me the results straight away but she had given the anaesthetist my phone number so he could ring me asap once he heard.

The anaesthetist actually telephoned me that evening to put my mind at rest. He reassured me that there was nothing major wrong with my heart at all, that he was just a very very thorough person and wanted absolutely everything covered. I was not to worry. I very much appreciated not only his phone call which did put my mind totally at rest over this, but I very much appreciated him as well. I had 120%+ faith in the whole transplant team. If I was not, I would not be doing this. I was really more concerned for the recipient and how they would feel should the operation have to be postponed until this “wiggle” was sorted. It was the time scale I think that got me anxious. Had all this happened with plenty of time to spare, then it would have been just one more test I had to have. But only 2 days from the operation was not leaving much time to spare should any further tests be required.
click here to read more about the last minute hitch!

 Living Donor Pre Assessment Clinic including final meeting with surgeon, anaesthetist, pharmacist and Transplant co-ordinator.

By law you have to have some medical checks done within 2 weeks prior to the operation. This is to ensure that you are fit and healthy just prior to the operation. Some of the evaluation tests were done a few months ago, so up to date ones would be required. 

I arrived early in the morning at the hospital, knowing I would be there most of the day. Here is a list (as presented to me at the hospital) as to what the day would hold. I was at the hospital for around 5 hours and the following took place but not necessarily in this order:

Tests I had done:
1. Blood and urine samples (they took 20 tubes of blood! yes .. 20!)
2. MRSA swab (gave me a loooong q-tip I had to wipe the inside of my nose with)
3. Chest X-ray
4. ECG

I was seen by:
1. Consultant Surgeon
2. Anaesthetist
3. Pharmacist
4. Transplant Co-ordinator

1. Consultant Surgeon:
My Consultant Surgeon explained that he would not be available to do the operation.  There would be two other surgeons. He told me a bit about them. I was a little unsettled about this, as familiarity of people/faces goes towards a relaxing atmosphere and I felt I knew my current  Surgeon and felt very relaxed in his company. But then I thought I am going to be out of it anyway under anaesthetic, so won’t really matter, so I was okay with that.

The surgeon went through the procedure from admission to after the operation. He drew a picture showing where the incisions would be and why. There would be a small incision just above the belly button, through this the camera would go.  Two more would placed to the right of the camera incision – one just under the rib cage and the other same distance below the camera one. Through those two the surgical instruments would go. My surgeon comically called them “chopsticks”. Another small incision would go to the right of the one just under the rib cage. Through this incision an instrument would go that would move the liver out of the way which is very close to the right kidney. Those four small incisions would be around 1-2cms (the one above the belly button actually ended up around 4cms the others were very small though). The final incision is along the bikini line and would be around 6 inches. It is through that the kidney is extracted.  He also explained that it would be hard to move around in my abdomen as not much room, so they inflate me like a large balloon with carbon dioxide. An after effect of this could be that some gas could escape up into the shoulder blade area and afterwards cause some discomfort for a few days (it did! lol).
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