A Tycho's Health Update

[bobafrett]

My kidney works as hard as I do!

[mtriv73]

My kidney works as hard as I do!

And yet Tycho still lives, amazing!

[Mad Slanted Powers]

When they take the old ones out, are you going to keep them in a jar? Perhaps send one to bobafrett?

[TeeEye7]

I got the results of the biopsy performed on my new kidney during my meeting with my doctors yesterday: there is ZERO signs of rejection and my new kidney is operating 100%!!!

Great news! Another for the "A Team": Josh and Barry!

The only side effect is now no woman in San Diego County is safe any more....here comes Josh!

[DarkArtist]

I got the results of the biopsy performed on my new kidney during my meeting with my doctors yesterday: there is ZERO signs of rejection and my new kidney is operating 100%!!!

I am healthier than I have been in the longest time (far back before even 2003) and I was discharged from the regular care of my surgeons to the transplant team kidney medacine specialist, for continued monitoring until I go back to see the surgical team for my next operation (to remove my old, bad kidneys) in May.

I want to thank BobaFrett again: it worked!!!

I had always prepared for the worst news and now I am lucky to have this new problem: I have few ideas for how to have prepared for "the BEST case scenerio." LOL. Honestly, I might expect to live a long and healthy life now well into my 60's and maybe even my 70's. It's amazing!

That's great new Tycho. I'm glad everything is working out for you. it's awesome that you and BobaFrett are doing great.

[Tycho]

Thanks to all for your well-wishes and positive comments!

Glad to hear the great news.

Is there any chance that the condition you have/had will start affecting the donated kidney eventually or was the defect in your kidneys themselves and (assuming Frett doesn't have the condition in some latent state) should never rear it's ugly head again?

No - fortunately. My condition, polycistic kidney disease (means many-cysts because my food couldn't be broken down and what impurities in it that I didn't need couldn't be filtered out - so the food stuff collected in the kidneys and scar tissue formed over it making cysts) - well it was all related to a defect in my genetic code that has plauged my family and caused many deaths. It is not in Barry's family or they would never have let him be my donor. The new kidney will never get that disease!!! Yaaaay!

Also, Barry had to pass many tests to be able to donate so that the medical experts could be sure he would live a long healthy life with one kidney remaining. That being said, Barry is still very likely to outlive me.

When they take the old ones out, are you going to keep them in a jar? Perhaps send one to bobafrett?

Remember that scene from Alien Resurrection when Helen Ripley's Clone discovers all her mutated prototypes that are being kept alive for study? Then she takes a flame thrower to the entire laboratory. Well I've dreamt of recreating that scene with my old kidneys. However, this is the first time any of my surgeons have had a request for a flame-thrower in the operating room. They said they need to run it by my insurance company to get it approved. In the event that they say I cannot get the flame-thrower, or even a standard grenade launcher, I plan on donating my old kidneys to medical research so that the disease can be even better understood and in the future, newer ways to help people fight this illness might be uncovered.

Brilliant news!! When do you have to have your old ones removed? I take it there's no way their condition can spread to your new kidney?

I am most likely going to have the surgery to remove my old kidneys in May (3 months after the transplant. I am doing so well, they might perform the operation earlier. But I have tickets to see my favorite band (Queensryche) at several concerts and rock out to my own guitar heroes live at the very end of April. I am considering going to the Las Vegas show as well. I will do that to celebrate my successful transplant and have some last-minute fun before I have to go back into the hospital for another big operation. But after I heal up from that one - the last one - I'll be getting ready to go to the San Diego Comic Con (and see many of you there)!!!

And I'll repeat: there's no way the old kidney's condition can spread to my newly donated kidney. It wasn't even placed in my body near the old ones - which were genetically flawed to begin with (though the condition doesn't usually start to appear until puberty or one's 20's / 30's. Mine was rather severe to hit me so young. My father might have had trouble in his 30's, but he didn't really succumb to any serious complications until his 40's and then died in his 50's.

Without Barry's help, I would be "ahead of schedule" towards experiencing my father's same fate.

[Kidhuman]

Have ya been drinking some adult beverages Tycho? I know I would have had a cold one ASAP

[Tycho]

No. I pretty much had to quit drinking while I was on dialysis prior to the transplant. Alcohol basically raises your blood pressure and I was taking a lot of meds in combination to keep it regulated.

So it wasn't anything hard to give up - just an expense I'm happy I wasn't paying for.

Now my doctors have said I can have some beer (or something stronger) if I'd like - but I have little desire for it. That's still probably for the best.

Because my immune system was compromised to stop it from fighting Barry's kidney, I was restricted from going out to crowded places. The best reason to go to a bar in my view, was to flirt with all the ladies.

Well I found out that I could socialize and flirt just fine by going to bars, ordering healthy (steamed vegetables, baked potatoes, garlic toast, etc.) and just drinking lemonade or Sprite. No one paid attention to what I ordered and where I was a regular and they knew about my health condition, I often got free non-alcoholic drinks. It was better to be there then be home by myself.

But right now, I'm still not advised to be on airplanes, in crowded movie theaters, restaurants, etc. So for the time being, I see no reason to go out and by some beer to take home and drink by myself. (But a New Castle sometime soon would be nice.)

On Friday, I have to have another intraveinous transfusion of medacine as a day-patient for 12 hours! With that in mind, now is still not the time to go bar-hopping. My doc said 3 months post-transplant and I can be out and about. I'm even cutting that short by one week (he knows) to go to those Queensryche shows - and then I'll be going back in for another surgery.

[LTBasker]

Congrats on the great news, man! Extremely relieved it turned out so great.

[JediTricks]

Because then he would see me as I sit at the comoputer........ala nude.

Well, I suppose that shouldn't matter since part of him has seen the inside of you... wow does that sound wrong.

I got the results of the biopsy performed on my new kidney during my meeting with my doctors yesterday: there is ZERO signs of rejection and my new kidney is operating 100%!!!

That is killer, congratulations!