*The following was written by my brother, Richard. This is by far the best summation of events that transpired over the period of time leading up to, and including, my stay in the hospital. Considering I couldn't be in the waiting room during my own operation, it was interesting to obtain the perspective of everyone there. My family and I greatly appreciate the thoughts and the prayers you have provided over the years.

Warmest regards,

Andrew.


*E-mail from my brother, Rich, on July 21, 2008:

Since there are quite a few people that have been asking about how my brother's transplant went, I thought I would do a write up of Andrew's transplant and all that transpired over the past few days.

He and the donor, Mrs. Kilgore, checked into the hospital on Thursday afternoon. The surgery was scheduled for Friday at 7:30AM, but they needed to do some final pre-op work. 

I didn't get to visit him on Thursday. Andrew said that he actually didn't mind that no one was there. He used the quiet time for himself. He said he also spent some time with Mrs. Kilgore.

Thursday night, I got home from the gym pretty late. Once I got home, the anxiety and the reality of the entire situation finally sunk in and I was very nervous. I finally feel asleep around 1:30AM Friday morning.

I woke up around 4AM and went to pick up my sister Liz around 5AM and went to the hospital. The film crew was already there filming (more on this later). My parents showed up with my other sister, Jessica, a few minutes after us. 

We talked and joked around for a little while.
As 6:30AM approached, we said a short prayer and then the orderlies showed up to take Andrew to the Operating Room. As they were wheeling him down, our church Pastor and his wife showed up. That really helped Andrew. He mentioned to me a little later that he wasn't expecting them and to see them there was a nice distraction from that scary transport. Once again, a short prayer was said (I thought it was refreshing that the orderly chimed in with a big "AMEN!") and they rolled Andrew onto the elevator. 

One thing to note, is that the actual incision and operation started at 7:30. They took him at 6:30AM to get him under anesthesia and have everything ready to go.

My Mom was actually able to go with him up until the OR, while the rest of us went to the waiting room. 

The donor's family and their Pastor was already there. All of us introduced ourselves to one another. The camera crew was there filming all of this too.

The next few hours were worrisome, but we tried to stay distracted as much as possible.

The charge nurse, Carrie, is actually a family friend. So she, like clockwork, came out every 20-30 minutes giving everyone updates. She was amazing. Even the person assigned to giving us updates could not match the detail and frequency of the updates that Carrie gave us. She made things so much better in so many ways it is indescribable. She even held Andrew's hand as he went under and came to, helping to quell any of his fears. It was like having a family member in the OR with my brother.

The surgeries occurred almost simultaneously. They had separate rooms, but they were side by side. Mrs. Kilgore, was put under first and while the surgeons were working on her, they did the dissection on Andrew. When the kidney was removed from Mrs. Kilgore, it was immediately transferred over to Andrew's room and implanted into him. 

A camera person was in the OR filming the entire procedure. 

Roughly around 10:30AM, the surgeon who was working on Mrs. Kilgore came out and said she was on her way to recovery and doing quite fine. That was quite an emotional time for everyone, especially her husband, Larry. It was the first tangible sign of success. Hugs were quite abundant at that time. The camera crew did a short interview with Mr. Kilgore and filmed him as he gave an update to their son and daughter via the phone.

Shortly afterward, around 11:30AM, Andrew's surgeon came out to tell us that everything was an overwhelming success. It was only the second time in my adulthood that I saw my Dad cry. Once again, tears of joy and hugs of relief and success were abundant. 

After a short on camera interview with the family, a few of us went for lunch while my brother was moved back into his room.

Yes, that's right, he and Mrs. Kilgore did so well, that no ICU stay was needed. After a short hour or so stay in recovery, they moved them straight back to their rooms.

Andrew was quite groggy and he was obviously sore. Amazingly, he was quite coherent, cracking jokes and trying not to laugh as it hurt too much when he laughed.

He told us that he could feel the effects almost immediately. He actually started feeling better the minute he woke up.

I was quite worried about Mrs. Kilgore after the surgery. She was not feeling quite as good as Andrew was. Luckily, it was only temporary. Despite the fact she had a major organ taken out, and her body was adjusting, the drugs and anesthesia made her feel "out of it" for quite a while. On Sunday, she was back to her normal self, so that made me feel so much more relieved.

We stayed late on Friday and finally made it home close to midnight. I slept like a rock that night.

Saturday, we went back to the hospital and basically hung out all day. He kept improving, only drifting out for a few minutes when the pain medication hit.

Sunday was the big visiting day. Andrew's friends and some of our family showed up to the hospital for a few hours. Andrew had graduated to eating Gummi Bears now (those are his favorite candy). Also, he no longer had any machines hooked up to him. The IV, catheter, heart pressure monitor and blood pressure monitor were all gone.

He was doing much, much better on Sunday, as was Mrs. Kilgore. Both were up and walking around and both looked great. It was amazing to see Andrew look "normal" again. His complexion had cleared up and he had been able to eat soft foods. In fact, the doctor said he was actually able to go home if he wanted to. We found this to be amazing (in a positive sense). However, the nurses and the family agreed that he should wait at least another day.

Today, Monday, he and Mrs. Kilgore are coming home. To me, this is a testament to how amazing medical technology and the power of prayer combined can work wonders. To think, it was just a couple of short days ago, he underwent an organ transplant surgery and she donated a kidney.

So, several times I mentioned a film crew that I am sure you are wondering about.

A few weeks ago a producer contacted my brother about doing a documentary on Transplant Families. We all agreed and the weekend of July 4th they came over and filmed. At first, I thought it was going to be a low budget production (you know, a couple of guys with cell phone cams :) ). Surprisingly, it was not like that at all. It was a very professional set up. They had the director, producer, sound guys, lighting guys, and tech guys all there. They even re-arranged the entire family room of our house for the best shots.

The documentary, as mentioned, is about transplant families. It is tentatively titled "The Gift of Life." They are following 3-4 families; 1 kidney transplant (us) and 2-3 other liver transplant families. While I am not completely clear on the details of, I believe it is going to be shown on HBO / Showtime and even some promo clips on national shows such as Good Morning, America. I believe PBS may pick it up as well. 

They first did an interview with Andrew by himself. Then they interviewed the entire family as a unit. The questions were very generic. I stumbled a lot over the questions, mainly because they were so open ended and I was a bit nervous, but the rest of the family did amazingly well. Every one was very articulate and well composed. I hope they edit it down so I don't look like the babbling fool I felt like.

About a week later, they went over to the Kilgore's house and interviewed them. We have not seen any of that.

It will be a while before the documentary is aired; along the lines of 2 years or so. This is for a couple of reasons. First, they will be following the patients as they recover. While my brother is ahead of the curve in this area, there are the others that we must consider. I believe one of the person is still waiting on her call for her liver. Secondly, the post production takes some time to do.

Overall, I am quite excited about the documentary. It is purely an educational and informative documentary, but secretly, I am hoping I can get my own spin off reality show out of it :) HA HA.

As for the donor and her family, well, I don't know how to put into words what they have done for Andrew and our family. Mrs. Kilgore is the mother of one of Liz's good friends. Mrs. Kilgore and her husband are part-time missionaries. They travel the world helping others. 

Her husband told us that every year they pick a place to go to for a few weeks. Usually, he said she gets very excited and has that "fire" in her when she decides where she needs to go. However, this year, he said she did not have that, even though she picked her place. He said it finally hit her and she told him, this year, it was wasn't about going somewhere to give help - this year, it was about giving of herself literally. That's when she went to get tested and was found out she was a match. He said he then saw that fire in her eyes again. After he told that story, we all knew it was going to work. 

They are an amazing family. It would take me days to illustrate how kind, generous and genuine these people are.

Since Andrew has some time off, he will be slowly working on updating his website, www.andrewneedsakidney.com with his own commentary and pictures. He will, hopefully, post regular updates concerning the recovery process. So, please keep it bookmarked and check it regularly.

We would like to thank everyone for all of your support, wishes, thoughts and prayers. It has been a very trying time, but it is all going to work out.

Thanks again.

Rich