My KT Journey

This is it! I was admitted to the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) in the afternoon of May 2, 2023, two days before my kidney transplant. My donor son followed the next day.

The nurse on duty informed me that I would undergo dialysis on my first night. When I told her that my AV fistula was no longer working, my nephrologist was informed, and a surgeon confirmed it after the scan. I was brought to the operating room, and an IJ catheter was made. My HD was scheduled at 10 p.m. but pushed through at past 2 a.m. At 6 a.m., I took my first set of antirejection meds. The HD was repeated in the afternoon because my BUN was still high.

At around 5 a.m. the following day, I and my donor son were wheeled to our operating rooms. I was reciting Psalm 23 while the team was preparing me for the surgery. My son's nephrectomy started at past 7 a.m. and the transplant followed once the kidney was ready. From the recovery room, I think I was brought back to my room at past 4 p.m.

Thank God for seeing us through the operations. Special thanks to my sister-in-law, Glenda, who assisted me during my confinement, my doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff. 

This journey made me experience a lot of firsts:

• used a wheelchair

• got inserted with an IJ catheter

• underwent two dialysis sessions in one day

• transfused with 6 bags of platelets a few hours before KT

• started taking immunosuppressants and antirejection meds as well as other anti-meds and a whole lot more

• transfused with 1 bag of blood because my hemoglobin dropped to 5.3 g/dL

• used a catheter for peeing

• required to drink at least 3 liters of water per day (while on dialysis for 1 year and 8 months, my goal was 800 ml per day)

• stayed in the hospital for 10 days

My donor son was discharged three days after his nephrectomy. I was allowed to go home on the 7th day after KT but left the following day.

Thanks be to God for giving us the strength to overcome all the new experiences and receive His provisions while we were at the hospital. 

God is good all the time! 🙏

Goodness of God

God's goodness never fails. He is ever faithful and true. 

Road to Kidney Transplant

My HD sessions were smooth at the start. We would wake up at 4:00 am and leave the house 30 minutes after to be at the HD center at around 5:00 am for the first batch. As time went on, I began to experience its complications.

After more than a year of HD, my chest x-ray revealed heart enlargement (cardiomegaly) most likely due to exerting too much pressure to push around 2.8 liters of blood into the machine for cleansing. The echocardiogram showed mild regurgitation in three of my heart valves.

I was prescribed to take an anticoagulant even before I started my HD. Heparin, also a coagulant, was often injected during HD but through time, my platelets significantly decreased.  In March this year, flushing of saline solution was done every hour to avoid blood clotting and clogging the bloodline and dialyzer.

For one month, I experienced swelling due to fluid retention. I had to undergo HD three times a week to remove excess fluids then onward, the volume used for flushing was added to the total volume of blood for HD.

Because of these problems, I started to pray for a kidney transplant and a donor in June 2022. During our weekly online prayer meeting, I also requested our newly designated church Pastor to pray for it. When the plan was discussed with my family, my daughter immediately volunteered to be my donor. I said I would wait for her to finish her Ph.D. degree as a scholar in the US in December 2024. However, my vascular surgeon, the one who did my AV fistula, advised me to go for it while I was still stable and strong. Hence, I planned to enlist myself in the deceased organ donor program of NKTI-HOPE. Whichever comes first would be alright, I thought. When I went home after my initial consultation and discussed it with my family, my son said he would be my donor. What a blessing to have the full support of my family!

My donor and I started our workups on December 19, 2022. We were supposed to do the crossmatching, blood typing, and tissue typing first before we proceeded to the other lab tests but I firmly believed that we were matched and advised my donor son to do the other required tests to maximize our stay at NKTI. Yes, we are matched and then resumed the other tests in the second half of January. My son got cleared first but I was delayed for one month because of my UTI. Yes, there were delays but we believed that these happened to ensure that I am fit to undergo the transplant surgery and my donor son is fit to donate his kidney. Finally, we both got cleared by the first week of April and then applied for the Z package of PhilHealth. Our operation was rescheduled for another week because of some issues with its approval. We finally got the approval on the scheduled date of my hospital admission.

The worst HD experience happened in my last session before KT. My machine malfunctioned during the last hour of my session before the scheduled flushing was done. I had to transfer to another device. This resulted in a blood clot that clogged the bloodline and the dialyzer. The nurse tried to manually return the blood that just entered the bloodline but it was already clotted. Poor me! I lost so much blood and even worse, my AV fistula failed to bruit the following morning. Oh no! 🙏

📷 Google Image

Bali, Indonesia

From dialysis to dialysis. It was my first ever international travel since I started my dialysis treatments. My schedule is Tuesdays and Fridays. We're at the dialysis center before 5 a.m. and my session usually ends by 10:30 a.m. Thus I have three days off until the next session after Friday's treatment.

We were blessed to find a tour package that fit my dialysis schedule. So after my Friday session, we proceeded to the airport for our 6:45 p.m. flight to Bali, Indonesia on January 6, 2023.

On the first day, we were surprised to know that ours was just like a private tour. Bobby and I were the only passengers together with our car driver. Wow! We had been used to joining other people on bus tours. We visited the arts, cultural (centers of gold and silver works, woodcarvings, and Balinese paintings), and religious sites. 

The second day was a visit to the famous Bali swing. I am not a fan of swings due to my motion sickness so it was Bobby who got to enjoy the tallest swing and I just joined to try the other swings, minus the actual swinging but just for photo ops. Then we proceeded to a famous temple by the sea but we did not get to enter it because of the high tide. Besides the weather was too hot then.

After resting in the hotel in the afternoon, we walked a few blocks to a public beach. Plastic wrappers, used plastic cups, and empty water bottles scattered on the beachfront disappointed us. 

The morning of our last day was a visit to Tanjung Benoa Beach for some water recreational guides. Bobby got to experience the banana boat, flying fish, and jet ski. I forfeited my vouchers because I did not want to force my right arm where my fistula for dialysis is located.

Then it was time to proceed to Denpasar airport for our return flight before midnight to Manila. We got out of the airport at past 4 a.m. and I was able to sleep at home for an hour before heading to the dialysis center for my treatment.

Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to travel, your guidance, and protection.

Thankful for 2022

As I bid goodbye to 2022, I'm deeply grateful to God for His blessings. Let me count my blessings and name them one by one:

- I survived Covid-19 for the second time even when I was already undergoing hemodialysis.

- I was able to avail of special dialysis in the same center I go to for regular treatment because of my COVID-19 disease.

- Bobby and Cyd manifested symptoms of the disease but theirs was a mild case and they recovered fast.

- I was able to join our high school batch reunion and as their speaker, I had the chance to share with them my faith journey and led them to accept the Lord as their personal Savior and Lord.

- Amyel was granted a teaching assistantship supporting one year of her Ph.D. study.

- Cyril finished his work contract and learned new knowledge and skills.

- Bobby and I retired from CvSU after 37 years and 35 years of service, respectively.

- Bobby and I had a reunion with family in Gingoog City.

- My donor and I started our workups at NKTI.

- The family continued to serve the Lord through the church in our respective ways.

- The Lord never failed to provide for our daily needs and we had been channels of His blessings to relatives and others.

- I am deeply touched by the concern of family, friends, and brethren who keep checking on me and praying for and with me.

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22-23)

Thank you, Lord! I need not fear what the future holds because You hold the future.