What a difference a day makes

After feeling so down yesterday, I had an early clinic appointment this morning and the doctor I spoke to (in contrast to last week) was really friendly and helpful, answered all my questions and gave me some insight into what's ahead. My bloods are coming back with all the right numbers and my new kidney is working at almost the maximum that they'd expect right now. I still feel quite poorly at times, and I've got 3-6 months of this heavy duty immunosuppressant and therapies to get through. The risk of rejection or problems is at it's greatest right now, but by the summer my drug regime should be a lot more manageable, hopefully.

The average life span of a transplanted kidney right now is 12-14 years... it could be lots shorter or longer, but I've got the best possible chance of longevity, having been young for a transplant, having a young and healthy living donor and not having any other accompanying health problems. I'm very lucky also to have avoided dialysis.

My priority once I've healed up from the surgery is gonna be getting fit, and then finding myself some sort of activity to keep me active; I definitely need to learn some sort of new skill to keep me interested. Climbing, circus skills, some light martial art like tai chi... could be anything! In the meantime, while I'm still stuck at home recovering, I may try learning some new cooking skills to pass the time and help with the whole not getting too fat thing.

Got a quiet dinner planned for tonight's NYE celebrations... looking forward to 2009 more than I could possibly have hoped!!