Less than 12

Twas the night before surgery, my second transplant.
I have a few things to say, but I'll try not to rant.
After month of hoping and sitting around,
I'm changing out of these clothes and into a gown.
It's a 6am check in Wang building 3rd floor
Better eat while I can, come Monday i have to stop at 4.
Already had my preop and anesthesia phone screen fit my in,
This time i hope i dont call Lauren Vivian.
Dialysis is over, no more treatments morning noon or night,
Now after all the waiting the end is in sight.
With support coming from both near and far,
Putting this one on the left side, gonna add another scar.
Cannot thank you all enough from the bottom of my heart,
Getting back to life, work and showers I cannot wait to start.
Come visit call or write, I'd love it all,
As Miley once said, I'm coming through this like a wrecking ball.


Very humbled today with all the post, calls and texts. I really do have the best family and friends in my village. I have been dealing with this for as long as I can remember, and I have no doubt that my team in Boston will knock this one out of the park. However, it is pretty great to know so much positive energy and prayers will be floating around. Cannot wait to see what to see what Ryan 4.0 will look like.

Thank you to Lauren for a delicious send off lunch. Perfect "last meal" before the big day.

Long Overdue

I had all the best intentions of being really good about posting here and keeping all of you up to speed with what is happening with me, as well as maybe offering a little entertainment. That didn’t happen. A lot has happened since the last time I posted, some great, some not so awesome. But there is some great stuff to look forward to as fall rolls in.

I cannot proceed without addressing something that truly left me speechless. Back in May (yes, I know that was months ago), there was a fundraiser thrown on my behalf. I didn’t have much involvement with any of the planning, gathering items, or setting up. I just attended. I showed up 20 minutes after it started, and as soon as I turned into the parking lot, I was already speechless.Though I didn’t get a chance to speak to many of you, nor get to walk around to see some of the incredible items that were donated, it was an amazing night. It was great to see so many of you come out on a rainy night into the city and support me and my family. I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart, and I hope you know how much I love all of you.

As discussed in the last post, it was determined that the fistula in my arm, which was used for dialysis in 2011 as well as this time around, was putting too much strain on my heart and creating what they titled high-output congestive heart failure. The name is scarier sounding than it is, as it would take a while for it to cause any permanent damage to my heart. Just kinda makes you stop in your tracks when you hear the words. They discussed taking the fistula out when I was in the hospital just before Easter when I started dialysis, but decided to see if some of the extra fluid around my heart was because of the lack of kidney function and hoped that more dialysis would help.

Alas, after a follow up with the cardiovascular team, they determined that there was still too much fluid, despite being on dialysis, and they decided to take the fistula out. They put in a central line tunneled catheter to do the job the fistula had been doing. As excited as I was to have the fistula out, there were a number of funky side affects (numb hands, hearing my heartbeat when I turned my head, having to wear a special sleeve at work to keep it safe), I was not in the slightest bit pleased with the catheter being the only back-up option. I had only heard of two experiences with these types of catheters, and neither went very smooth. To say it scared the shit out of me would have been an understatement. But that was my only option. I was called up on a Wednesday and told when the procedures were taking place and when to show up. So I did.

There are a few restrictions that I didn’t know about until just before the procedures. The first and the one that stunk the most was the lifting restriction. After having the fistula removed, I couldn’t lift more than 5 pounds for a month. At the time, Madison weighed 2 times that. The other restriction that was a pain was I could not swim or take a shower until the catheter came out. Let me tell you, even if you enjoy a nice bubble bath from time to time, maybe with lavender scent, some candles burning, and some calming music in the background, it gets old when it’s the only thing you can do. Thankfully, we had recently introduced some bath time toys in the tub for Madison that I was able to take advantage of.

It was these two procedures, along with the limitations that came with them that landed me taking a layoff. Having something sticking out of my chest that connected right to my heart was not something to drag from jobsite to jobsite.

To say it has been a long summer is an understatement. Between dealing with the hottest August on record without being able to swim, as well as not having work to keep myself occupied, it made for a very long month. I am pretty pleased to see the fall season, and more importantly the cooler weather rolling in. It brings about so many amazing events, holidays, as well as foods.

I would rather have the weather we had this past weekend for the entire year, with a little sun mixed in, but the temps were perfect. I saw a commercial for a Guinness beef stew the other day and it literally made my mouth start to water. Not really a dish you make when its 96 out, with a real feel of 104.

One holiday that is near and dear to my heart that not too many people celebrate or even know about for that matter (which is really too bad) is coming up. It’s a day to celebrate something that as kids we would read and make our parents bring us to the store to get. They are more of a collector’s item to us as adults, but we all clamor to the theaters to see the newest spin on them. Let’s be serious, everyone has either read one, talked about one, or seen a movie based on one. They hold a bigger part in our lives than we realize, and yet many don’t even know there is a day celebrating them. I mean I don’t know how National Comic Book Day is forgotten; it is slammed right in the middle of Cherries Jubilee Day and Johnny Appleseed Day. If you don’t have those days circled on your calendar, I don’t know about you.

Oh, what day is it on? It is on September 25^th, and I can tell you that your local Jeffrey Albertson (comic book guy form the Simpsons) would be thrilled to see you on that day.

Alright, I never even knew that this day existed until I was looking things up to write this post. All that information is accurate though. However, this year it holds a much bigger meaning than just a day to read through your collection of X-men or Spiderman comics. This year, it is the day that we start to put this most recent saga with the kidneys behind us. I have my transplant scheduled for that day. It hasn’t sunk in yet, and I'm not sure if that’s a good thing or bad. I am not nervous at all, as I have the most amazing doctors and nursing group anyone could ever want when going through something like this. I have the amazing support from all of you here and those not on social media. It’s an awesome feeling.

With my pre-op appointment tomorrow, 9/11, I am thinking that it will start to set in a little more. I had grand plans to make an advent-like calendar to count down the days until my final dialysis treatment, but I have no idea where the time went. The magic number was 22 treatments when I found out the transplant date. I am down to 6 after today's session, and the treatments seem to be going faster and faster as the number I have left keeps going down.

I know all of you must be wondering why it took so long for me to share this great news, I know. Lauren has been on me for a few weeks to get something posted to share the excitement. It’s not that I didn’t want all of you to know, it was not that I really don’t know where the time went. I mean, I don’t know what happened, but I blinked and now I have a 9.5 month old who is changing more and more each day. Madi’s full of spunk, eating every meal that we eat, and zipping around the house like speedy Gonzales, if he was limited to army crawls and scooting.

Many people ask what kind of recovery a surgery like this carries with it. The surgery is on a Tuesday. I have to arrive at MGH at 6am that day and will likely start the trip down to the OR a little after 8 or 9 if I remember correctly from last time. After the surgery is over, I will be brought to Blake 6 at MGH where some of the most amazing people ever will care for me for 4-5 days. I will likely be discharged and heading home before Fortune Cookie day (http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/).

After I get home, I will have weekly trips into MGH for labs and to make sure things are working correctly and healing correctly. That will go on for about a month, with a few procedures sprinkled in there to settle everything out and to remove the catheter, thank God!

Last time I went through all of this, I opted to be a part of a study that aimed to wean the number of anti-rejection meds that I was going to need to be on, which required much more time in and out of MGH for blood tests and biopsies. I was only part of that trial for 2 weeks before it was deemed that I was having a rejection episode. I was removed from the study and converted to a traditional post-transplant treatment plan. This time around, I have opted to take a regular approach. Before the first one, I was taking a few pills a day, but nothing compared to what you take post surgery. Now that I have been doing it for 7 years, it won’t be such a lifestyle shift to get used to.

Although there are some studies going on, some that I considered getting involved in, I thought it best to not risk anything this time. Though my involvement in the study the last time is not the cause of why the kidney started to reject, I would like to give this next one its best chance. Last thing I want is to be here in another 7-10 years and going through all this again.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or would just like to catch up. I look forward to so many great times to come, healthy, with all of you.

Again, your support back in May, as well as before and since then has been amazing. I came up with the name for this blog on a whim back in 2010 and I don’t think I could have picked a better name. Granted, due to my height, I'm not sure I will be able to obtain my leprechaun card, but I am one lucky guy that is for sure.