One Year Anniversary!

It's been a whole year! A year ago today my daughter donated her kidney to me so that I could continue to live and enjoy the life I'm so blessed to have a second chance at enjoying and filling with meaning. With my husband Kevin and Desirae's boyfriend Steve by our sides, my daughter and I made it through our surgeries and onto the road of recovery and beyond. I'm just so happy to be here now, sitting and writing this blog!

Rather than recount the whole experience, I thought I'd share ten highlights from what was a most surreal experience, those things I found most touching, funny or just plain memorable.

Kidney Transplant Top 10 Memories

1. How courageous Desirae was ... I was and am so very proud of her!
2. Being rolled back into the operating room and then greeted by my surgeon, Dr. Desai, definitely my medical hero.
3. Seeing Kevin's face and holding his hand when I woke up hours later in the ICU.
4. The nurses and medical techs on the transplant unit ~ their kindness and their skill.
5. The visiting doctor and his posse of medical interns - literally a crowd of smiling and studious faces at my bedside every morning.
6. The snow, who could forget the blizzards of February 2010! I watched from my hospital window as the snow fell and fell and fell from the winter sky, engulfing everything in white.
7. The Johns Hopkins Cupola and the twinkly, shining lights from the city of Baltimore I could see outside my window. They gave me a sense of tranquility and brightened my sleepless nights.
8. Feeling Desirae's kidney literally purring as it got right to work in my body. Lefty, as we affectionately call my new little powerhouse of a kidney because she had been Desirae's left kidney, is definitely an overachiever. The day after Lefty was implanted in my body, my kidney function was back to normal ... utterly amazing!!!
9. The overwhelming feeling of gratitude ~ for life, for my daughter's generosity, for Kevin's love and support, and for the fine medical care.
10. The long climb that we made up our steep, snow covered drive once home from the hospital. I was experiencing audio hallucinations of a most pleasant kind- ethereal music so soothing and enchanting, and a little scary once I realized I was the only one hearing it, but it was really pretty! Desirae was helped up the drive first with Kevin and Steve on either side of her for support and balance. When she was safely indoors, it was my turn. In what seemed like an agonizingly slow shuffle, Kevin and Steven braced me on either side and we clumped up the hill. At the midway point, I was so exhausted and I just broke out into laughter. A week prior, I'd had kidney transplant surgery, was barely able to walk yet, and here I was now trudging up the driveway in a blinding snowstorm. My laughter was as much a celebration as it was a result of the absurdity of the situation we were all in at that moment. If I could make it up that hill and into the cabin without coming apart at the seams (literally!) I felt like I could make it through anything.

So now, at this one year anniversary mark, there is even more to celebrate. Desirae is doing phenomenally well. Despite minor set-backs from time to time and dealing with the typical side effects that almost all transplant patients face, I am fine - still here, still trudging up that driveway, although now without the angelic music accompaniment :), still loving life and always forever grateful to all who were a part of this process - my medical team, my family and friends, who were there, if not literally, in spirit, for what I can best understand as an unforgettable miracle.

Oh, the photograph at the top of the blog ~ one of my favorite things I just wanted to share.