Day 3 - Discharged and Pregnancy Pictures

Morning came and the doctors did their general drive by. All looked good so I was being discharged. Sweet!

I'll be honest these meetings often made me feel a little swept under the rug. I know they are busy but they still felt cold and left me feeling ignored. I only met my donor advocate and psychologist for 30 minutes that one day a few months ago. I think this is horrible. There are so many emotions after having this surgery and the hospital does nothing to address these or even prepare the donor for them. It's almost like once the surgeons get the kidney the hospital could care less about you... I know it isn't like this exactly but I think the hospital (at least ours) was severely lacking in this area.

Either way the nurse came in and told me I could put on my real clothes and wait around until my discharge papers came through. Great! I had bought some comfy pants a size up just for this day. When I tried them on, however they were too small! And not by a little. Awesome.... I looked in the mirror the first time being able to see all of me and not just a baggy hospital gown. I looked pregnant. I should have bought some maternity pants. Luckily I also had some stretchy yoga pants and those seemed to fit okay.

My digestion still wasn't up to par so my stomach was a bit distended. As in it was rock hard if you touched it. It has to go back to normal eventually. Right?

How many weeks would you guess? From this side you can't see any incisions so I really do look pregnant! These are the pants I bought up a size that won't even go over my hips and were also giving me  serious wedgie :) 

Yoga pants are SO much better!

Since the surgery was in Florida and I lived in Kansas being discharged didn't mean going home, or even my parent's house for that matter. The transplant center is a ways from my home town so my parents rented a 2 bedroom apartment where we were all staying. It was a nice place though, and the only real struggle I had here was trying to sleep. Sleeping flat is not an option. I made a sort of sloping contraption out of three pillows and snuggled on those. It seemed to be mildly effective. I think it is still too soon after surgery to expect much more.