Donate Life T-Shirt/Logo (44 / 365), originally uploaded by Krississippi.

First and foremost - Me, wearing my official "Donate Life" T-shirt and holding my rarely photographed Yorkie, Trixie. I thought it'd be nice to show off one of my other three dogs instead of always holding Hunny Bear, the Chihuahua. :P

OK HERE'S THE IMPORTANT PART - PLEASE READ!: Last night I was working on my new domain for my existing website about my 'normal' (non-medically related) life. I was Googling for some new Wordpress plugins and randomly came across www.village-idiot.org. THE VERY FIRST THING I SAW was the blatant defiling of the copyrighted and registered "Donate Life" logo! Here's the largest example (http://www.village-idiot.org/donate) of the site's logo and I think we can all clearly see the problem.

My initial reaction was anger: Villiage-Idiot.org, having used the copyrighted image for a completely different purpose, ESPECIALLY in the so very necessary effort to create more organ donation awareness, is just downright, well, idiocy. I mean, really? This guy obviously has either never been to the 'Donate Life' website (nor read the very specific legal particulars about copyrighted/registered/trademarked images and content) or had anyone in his family/friends who needed a life-saving transplant.

After I regained my composure and stopped screaming at my monitor (while Ken looked on, completely confused) I wrote some emails - to the website's owner, to the abuse team on the site's web server and to the 'Donate Life' legal team. I was as respectful as possible - here's the email I sent to the Villiage-Idiot.org site owner:

"To whom it may concern:

As I'm certain you are aware, you have violated the copyright of the very well-known 'Donate Life' logo.

As a long time chronic kidney disease and kidney failure hemodialysis patient, who very recently (not quite 3 weeks ago) received a kidney transplant, I am overwhelmingly upset by your blatant use of the recreated "donate code" images.

As a fellow blogger and WordPress enthusiast I would like to respectfully ask you to remove the images from your website. I found the images by pure accident after searching for a WordPress plug-in authored by you. Of course at this juncture I won't be using your plugin, which I realize is probably no matter or consequence to you.

The abuse of the "Donate Life" logo is appalling and certainly does more damage to the organ donation awareness cause than you realize. It is also very apparent that neither you nor anyone in your circle of family and friends has ever had to deal with a chronic and life-threating condition that requires the generosity of others and their families to give the gift of life. This insensitivity (especially with a copyrighted logo!) to organ donors and their families is wrong. I do not condone you for your use of the catch-phase "donate code," but for the use of the logo you have stolen.

Further, I have reported this abuse to both your ISP, host service and Donate Life America. I sincerely hope you consider changing your logo - not because some random person on the net complained about it, but because it should be the "right thing to do"

Regards,
Krissi Bates
www.mykidney.com
www.krississippi.com"

Fellow bloggers, Flicker Friends and internet surfers: If you feel as I do, I encourage you to write a contact email (http://www.village-idiot.org/reachout) to the site's owner (please be respectful and nice, otherwise it just makes you look like a bully!) and let him/her know how you feel.

On a side note: At least his website domain truly does describe the actions this person has chosen. LOL

(41 / 365) Its all about My NEW KIDNEY, originally uploaded by Krississippi.

(41 / 365) Its all about My NEW KIDNEY

Today's picture: My back end (of my truck, of course)

I've been brave enough to go out in public a few times, but today my mom and I spent the entire afternoon out.

I'm finally back to being able to take a picture every day and post it here and on my blogs. The last two weeks have been wonderful, trying, tiring, painful, happy and HEALTHY all at once. My kidney transplant was 100% successful, I had an even better outcome than the doctors expected. For those of you in the know - my creatinine went from 12 to .7 in FOUR DAYS!!! I've had a lot of ups and downs that were a result of having surgery and being in the hospital, but NOT ONE THING WRONG with my new kidney itself. Its been functioning since before they even closed my abdomen in surgery.

Today's picture is for my brother Andrew, who donated his left kidney. As I'm sure you can understand, there really aren't words enough to express how I feel... but a simple 'thank you' will have to do. By the way, he's doing GREAT and flew home to Colorado this morning. My mother will be here through at least the 4th of July to help me out (I'm not allowed to drive and I'm still in some pain so getting around is possible, but slow)

Thanks for everyone's thoughts, prayers, emails, calls and notes - the all deserve a 'thank you', too!

I've uploaded all the pictures from my hospital stay, and will get them edited, titled and described in the next few days. Once that's complete I'll make them public so you can look at things like my funky scar and my PEE heheheheh
Everyone have a great weekend!

Hey, gang, so I'm back home again.  Another 24 hours in the hospital and it seems I'm good to go.  It turned out all the pain I've been having (which was the main reason they admitted me - the pain could have been an indicator of problems with the new kidney) turns out it has nothing to do with last week's surgery, the new kidney or its function.  It seems that another (completely random and different) problem has been discovered.  Apparently, I have some fairly good-sized uterine fibroids stuck on (in? around?) muh baby-box.  Ha, God must think he's a real joker - if its not one thing with me, its another.  Soooo now I have a new problem to deal with.  My nephrologist and transplant RN wants me to see my OB/GYN by the end of next week.  *sigh*  I haven't yet had any time to research this new "thing" yet but supposidly if its causing pain they do surgery to take them out (off? away?)  The pressure from my new kidney (being in my abdomen) and the fact that I'm little (and my brother, who donated, is a big guy) is putting pressure on my baby-box and thus causing the pain.  So pretty much I probably wouldn't have known about the fibroids (which IMHO would've been just as well) if I hadn't had the transplant.

Anyhooo, They gave me some good painkillers and sent me home late this afternoon.  I guess I'll take it from here...

Krissi was admitted to Tampa General again this afternoon. She has been in quite a bit of pain the last few days, more than normally associated with the surgery. Some of her lab work at LifeLink this week has been slightly out of normal as well. There's really nothing to be concerned about at this point. For several weeks after a transplant, wide drug level adjustments and minor complications are expected to occur. Going back to the hospital is a precaution, not a response to a serious problem. Late this evening, a CT scan of her abdomen ruled out any fluid build-up, a likely cause of her pain and other symptoms - good news since that would have probably resulted in minor surgery. More lab work and additional tests tomorrow should narrow in on the problem.

As much as I miss Krissi being away from home, I'll side with the "just in case" approach every time.

Back to the hospital to resolve some remaining issues

Ok, so, I haven't done jack you-know-what today, because all the exhaustion of not getting any sleep in the last week has finally caught up with me.  Today I feel pretty weak and shaky whenever I try to do anything other than watch TV.  I figure I might need a few more days to recover from my recovery before I'm in a better position to plan my days.  Tomorrow morning, bright and early at 8 AM I have my first clinic appointment at LifeLink (i.e. back to Tampa) and I'll need to be well rested up for that... I promise, I promise, more updates soon - as for now, graham crackers and cranberry juice!!!

I've been home since about 2:30 pm this afternoon. In that time, I've consumed 4 bottles of Dasani water and a giant bowl of soup for dinner. I have peed gallons (get used to this TMI, I'm going to talk about it a lot LOL) I had so so much energy earlier today as the last dose of steroids had me on a good power kick. Now I'm exhausted and ready to sleep for maybe the next two days, straight. Why is it one never gets any sleep in a hospital and then requires a 'recovery period' after recovery?! Ha, I don't care 'cause I feel fantastic. I think I kinda look different, too - need to start posting daily pictures again and update Flickr with all that were taken in the last week - on the to-do list for tomorrow.

I also promise to get caught up on comments, emails, thank-yous and phone calls tomorrow!

BEN : now its your turn... I'm not gonna let you get away without this anymore... plan to have me bug you every five minutes. *HUG*

P.S. So many of you have so thoughtfully asked about my brother and how he is doing (thank you for your unwavering thoughtfulness!): He is doing really good, too. He is a somewhat private person so I haven't talked much about his experiences out of respect for his privacy, but I'll ask him tomorrow if it would be OK to share a little more with you about his hospital stay and health. In the meantime, know that he is fine and recovering on schedule. And, as I've said to him already, I can't thank him enough for this gift, this NEW LIFE, he has given me. No matter what the future holds, my little brother is my biggest hero...

This will be quick but I promise to catch everyone up on all the details of my transplant and hospital stay over the next few weeks. Trust me, I have a LOT to write about.

Yesterday and today I'VE BEEN FEELING GREAT. I honestly feel better than I think I have EVER IN MY ENTIRE LIFE (no kidding!) I can't describe it, there aren't words in my vocabulary to tell you how amazing my entire body feels. My only hope is that everything will continue on this path.

I am still in the hospital but am being discharged by mid-afternoon. We're just waiting on a couple of final labs and one more infusion of steroids. I am so so sooo lucky that I won't be going home with a steroid prescription, too. Trust me, I know the HELL of taking daily steroids and the havoc it renders on one's system.

The ONE AND ONLY COMPLAINT I have right now is the fact that the high-dose steroids (SoluoMedrol) I've gotten through my IV every day since my admission has left me physically exhausted (steroids make you wide awake and unable to sleep for more than about 4 hours in a 24 hour period) I'm looking forward to getting through this last dose and getting home to MY OWN BED for a hopefully good night of sleep.

I am drinking bottles of water and Starbucks Venti Iced Teas by the gallons and peeing like a racehorse. Unless you've had kidney failure you might not appreciate fully the amazingness of these two simple parts of life, but they are the highlights of my days. Seeing actual pee coming out of my body is exciting! My kidney function couldn't be any better - I went from a creatinine (pre-transplant) of 12 to an EXCEPTIONALLY PHENOMINAL level of .7 this morning. To put that into perspective, a normal range is .5 - 1.5 and even most transplant recipients don't reach a completely "normal" range for sometimes a few weeks or even a few months post-transplant. I'm also outputting approximately 750 ml of urine every 2 hours (thats about how much a healthy person might put out about three times a day) My transplant nurse coordinator has told me that not only have I done excellent, I've had an exceptionally excellent transplant and recovery. That made me feel really positive about the future for the First. Time. EVER.

Again, and I can't say this enough, thank you all, my friends, family, and extended internet/blogger family for all of your support through this experience. I couldn't have done it without every one of you.

(x-posted - deal!)