Recovery (cont'd)

 So recovery was actually kind of easy for me. I was only in the ICU for one day. In total I was actually only in the hospital for about a week. My dad was only in for about 4 days in total. I was told numerous times that I should have been in there longer. Apparently I was supposed to be in the ICU for a week and in the hospital in total 3 weeks. I feel that the main reason I wasn't in there for so long was because of my support group. I had family members, family friends, and even people from my church come to see me in recovery. That was another reason I was probably only in there for a short period of time. I had a lot of people praying for me. I was up and moving around by day 3 after the surgery. I felt very week after the surgery but I was able to get on my feet and walk around the hospital floor. I had no complications with my surgery scars and I was taking everything with the kidney well.  Needless to say, my recovery was rather remarkable.
   The months following would be a little bit difficult. I would have somethings to get used to. First, I was going to the hospital every other day just to be sure that everything was working properly. Blood work, urine test, and physical checkups were part of the norm on those days. Second, I was taking a crap-load of medicine (lol). I was taking anti-rejection medicine along with blood pressure and cholesterol medicine. You see, high blood pressure and high cholesterol go hand and hand with kidney disease. So I had to stay on the medicine from before along with the new ones. The new schedule of medicine was very important. Missing one day of anti-rejection medicine could cause me to have my kidney be rejected by my body. I NEVER missed a day without taking my anti-rejection medicine for 10 years after that. That's kind of amazing for a kid that 10 years old.
  I had alot of things going on at the time. I was getting prepared for a new year at school with a new kidney. I had to be very careful with being around sick kids. My immune system was low because of the medication. I would have to stay away from sick kids all year long. My family was being helped for a few months after I had my transplant. My church was always bringing over dinner for my family. It was relief for my mom because she was also worrying about my health and work among other things. Once everyone got into the swing of things our lives got a little bit easier. Until I started having some complications.
  Next week... complications ensue.