Time for another installment of this Wednesday/Sunday night series!
Picking up from last time –
While on informed consent, we talk about ways in which kidney donation might affect my life.
When we talk about intense contact sports (such as MMA fighting – which I’ve never done but is brought up because they recommend you don’t do that after kidney donation surgery), the psychiatrist happened to mention that he thought I had a sweet temperament.
That’s awesome. I was worried I might come across cranky (or disengaged)!
As you know, I’m so very tired at this point, being that I barely slept the night before (and had just come from an hour-long meeting with the social worker, where my brain was working overtime). So, the fact that I’m coming off as sweet and hopefully fun (since we’re laughing and having a good time) makes me so, oh so, happy.
We talk some more about how giving a kidney might affect my life in small ways. He reiterates I can’t have any NSAIDs. I don’t think that’ll be a big deal as I never take medicine for anything, unless it’s prescribed by a doctor.
He tells me that just means I’ll always have to tell any new doctors that I can’t have NSAIDs. Okay, simple enough.
He also says a key to doing well after kidney surgery is to “learn to love your local gym.” He says cardio has to be a part of my life forever. Cool. No problems there! (I love running, and do at least one marathon every year.)
He also says the patients who do best make sure to see a doctor once a year for the rest of their lives. Okay, that doesn’t sound too terribly hard.
We pass through the informed consent part with nary a hiccup. So, off we went to the second thing he wanted to talk about – good outcomes. He basically just wanted to know if I had any mental issues that might affect my ability to have a good outcome.
He asked if I’d ever been in a psychiatric hospital, had panic attacks, heard voices, been suicidal – that kind of stuff.
He asked if I ever had any problems with alcohol, tobacco, or drugs.
Side note: Both he and the social worker asked if I’d ever done drugs. I said no. They both followed up with, “not even pot?” And each time we shared this fun little embarrassing moment like, “I live in California… I think I’m the only person who hasn’t done pot. What a lame little goodie two shoes I am, huh?” But then we all had a grand, fun little laugh about it.
I can’t believe I’m really gonna say this, but I had such a great day being interviewed by both mental health professionals.
Anyway, so we’re talking about my habits and such. He asks if I take any medications. I say I take Flintones iron vitamins, if that counts. (And you can see my Star Wars multi-vitamins in the picture next to this.) Then we had yet another laugh, as he said I reminded him of his kids.
Oh what a grand time we’re having! And it’s only about to get better.
He says, “Let’s move on to the last part, as you’re way too healthy to be talking to me.”
And this is where I’ll pick up next time!