Kidney Donations, Recovery Lessons, and Life Updates
And a story from my surgery that I didn't share on social media...
Welcome to the October edition of “I Lack Nothing”. (7-8 minute read)
I GAVE AWAY A WHOLLLEEE KIDNEY AND GAINED A WHOLLLEEE LOT OF PERSPECTIVE.
(And had a little bit of a dramatic scare in the process...)
First off, I’m sorry I didn’t send out my September edition. When I got the news of being a match with Ryan, everything in my life kind of went on hold and I put all of my energy into getting ready for being out of work and life for a month recovering.
I will say, after three months of testing, it was such a relief to find out I was the donor, however, I was not expecting the recovery to be as hard as it was.
Here’s a story I didn’t share on social media…
The morning after my surgery, I sat up for the first time and went on my first walk around the hospital floor. Before I began my walk, my blood pressure was 130/83 (good). At the end of my walk, I got the news that Ryan was ready to see me on the ICU floor, so I asked if we could go see him so I didn’t have to lay down in bed and get up again twice in one day.
Long story short, we made the trip and right after the top photo you saw was taken, everyone let Ryan and I have some time alone. For accidental reasons I’ll leave out so it doesn’t sound like I’m shaming any of the hospital staff, my face and lips began to turn very white and I began sweating all over. Next thing I know, I was coming in and out of consciousness. Ryan called for a nurse and they quickly took Ryan’s blood pressure cuff off of him and put it on me to find that my blood pressure had dropped to 60/30. (Not good…Normal is 120/80) I remember waking up and they were carrying me from the wheelchair to a bed they had wheeled over and about 7 or so nurses and the ICU floor doctor were all standing around me asking a bunch of questions to one another.
I wasn’t able to speak, but I could hear and barely see. Because I wasn’t a patient on their floor, they didn’t know what was going on or who I was. Once Ryan’s wife told them I was the donor, it felt like everything got very serious. I had a red bracelet on indicating that I had medical allergies, so they weren’t able to do anything until they knew what I was allergic to. (Penicillin) Luckily, Jennah knew that and told them so they were able to start doing the right things to get me stabilized. Next, my surgeon and nurse practitioner showed up and after hooking me up to the right stuff and a couple of other things, my blood pressure started to elevate and they were able to get me back to my room. However, this little scare did add an extra 48 hours in the hospital for precautionary measures. Luckily, I had my beautiful mother and fiance there with me. :)
After going home, the recovery was really hard for about the first 13 days. Sleepless nights, awful pain, and much more I’ll spare you from having to read haha. Ryan and I both had our own process to figure out and had a lot of ups and downs. We got to see each other here and there, but for the most part, the recovery process was very lonely and isolating.
In those lonely hours and throughout this entire process, here are the two main things I was forced to learn.
God wants to see me well before seeing me work.
Being a driven ambitious go-go-go type of person, it was very hard for me to believe that God was okay with how long my recovery was taking. Something in me kept feeling like I had to get back to work and praying and reading and doing ministry for the Lord. After a week, I remember just feeling guilty and worthless. It was around then, that I had a real convo with God and felt the Holy Spirit remind me that God was proud of me, and wanted to see me well. That he was a father obsessed with seeing me thrive simply because He’s happy when I’m well, and that was His top priority…not me being well for the sake of going back to doing things for him and others.
The second thing I learned was…
God is either ALL He says He is, or NONE of it.
Believe me when I say, you don’t have to question anymore, God IS who He says He is. I have seen this over and over again, but especially in this process. God called me to step out in faith and say “yes” to this process, and I was the match. God told me He would be with me in the process, and He was. God reminded me that he was near me in my darkest moments, and He is. I could go on and on, but whenever your flesh is screaming at you and trying to get you to believe that God is anything less than He says He is, you need to scream back. Because it just simply is not true. Psalm 23:1, “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack NOTHING.” It’s true people. He is all you need and more.
So…life since the surgery…
Since day 13 post-surgery, I’ve been dealing with pain where my scars are that feels like intense bruising and tenderness that keeps me from functioning normal and slow moving, but that’s about it. I’m slowly getting back into work and can start lifting over ten pounds after November 9th. After the first 2 weeks, Ryan’s body started showing signs of rejecting the kidney that put him back in the hospital for 6 days.
Thankfully, the treatment they did seems to be working, but we’ve learned that this is not a sprint, but a marathon and it will take both of our bodies months to truly readjust to a new normal. His body receiving a new kidney and mine learning how to function with just one.
We are blessed and so thankful for the people who have surrounded us during these days.
Now on to what’s ahead!
LIFE UPDATES & WHAT’S TO COME
I will be getting back to releasing newsletters once a month starting this month.
I’M GETTING MARRIED IN TWO MONTHS ON NEW YEARS EVE. Wedding planning is……. Going :)
Jennah and I were Cosmo and Wanda for Halloween. What were you?
Stay tuned for our YouTube page and some exciting things launching in the months to come. ;)
The Porch is about to launch an exciting new series to end the year, The Porch Christmas concert is right around the corner (tickets sell out fast), and we are in the process of bringing some fun new things to the ministry in 2022! Can’t wait to share with you guys.
MOST RECENTS:
Podcast: Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?
https://www.theporch.live/messages/8678-should-christians-celebrate-halloween?show_audio=true
Podcast: Obeying Authority That Disobeys God
https://www.theporch.live/messages/8643-obeying-authority-that-disobeys-god?show_audio=true
See y’all for the November drop soon.