tough days

Saturday was a rough day for Annie and I. After all of the good news and advances, we were bound to have our setbacks. Don't get alarmed though. Both kidneys are still working a-OK.

I got up early Saturday morning after taking my dose of vicodin and had breakfast. I sat with three other house visitors and Sheri, the house coordinator, and we talked while my dad made my family french toast. It's fun to hear the visitors' stories and how they made it hear. From what they've told me, they've been through plenty of health battles but their transplants have made a world of difference and "they're ready to start living again" as one of them told me. I think I'm the only donor here out of the bunch so they kind of look at me with this bright, shiny light. It definitely warms my heart.

At breakfast, though, I was feeling kinda dizzy so I layed down and took a two-hour nap that made me feel a lot better. But by then bloating had started to become a factor and was making me pretty uncomfortable. I called Annie before my nap and I had woken her up. She said she had a rough night and wasn't feeling well. During my nap my parents went to the hospital to go visit her.

My parents came back and then we all went to go see her a few hours later. She was in and out of a heavily medicated sleep and in a considerable amount of pain. She was very constipated and nothing was working for her. When she was transferred into a different bed to be wheeled down to get her bowels X-rayed, she said "Amber, I'm so sorry. I'm letting you down. Please don't be mad." It made me so sad to hear here say that, but I told her that I wasn't disappointed, that she'll be fine and get better soon. Nothing could make me disappointed in her.

I think being there and seeing her in so much pain made me feel really bad because I could just feel myself becoming sick. I asked my dad to take me back to the transplant house and so he, Kendall, Drew and I headed back, but we needed to stop at a grocery store to pick up a few things. I was so weak and tired, I got to ride in one of those motorized carts. I'm sure I looked pretty humorous to a lot of people. A nice older man helped me learn how to run it and soon I was slowly zooming off among the grocery aisles. The man told me he'd be watching me to make sure he wouldn't have to ticket me for speeding. I told him that he'd having nothing to worry about. :)

My main problem was that I was feeling really bloated and so we went to the store to buy a laxative. I did take it and I did feel some relief when I got home but it made me feel incredibly nauseous when I was trying to eat my meager dinner. I had my dad go and get me Sprite so I sipped that for an hour and when I felt better I nibbled on pretzels for another hour. I was still feeling nasty and gross but I was able to take my pain meds and go to sleep. One thing that I was excited about was that I was able to sleep on my right side for parts of the night. I can't tell you just how good it felt to relieve my back of some of the pressure.