alextim wrote:
It has been a little over two years now and I have no ill effects whatsoever. It seems like we were all born with a spare kidney. I had the transplant surgery on May 1st, 2012. I wasn't able to do the tri in June because I had a little complication with a suture. I was recovering nicely for about three weeks and had even started riding my bike again when I started having some pain just below my belly button. It got worse and worse and I ended up back at the transplant clinic. The clinic didn't help but eventually, about three weeks later, I saw a local family doctor who recognized the problem right away and operated right then in his office and removed the suture. Three stitches later I was on my way to full recovery. I started training very soon after that. Biking first, then swimming and lastly running. By the end of August I was able to do my next tri.
I have done about 10 tris since then and a number of running races. I don't think having one kidney has made any difference at all in athletics or any other part of my life. I try to avoid ibuprofen and am maybe a little more careful to stay hydrated but that is probably good advice for any of us.
Even with my minor setback, I would do it again in a minute.
I hope your brother is doing well and your recovery goes smoothly. I wish you the best of luck.
Thanks Alex for the reply.
Firstly, my brother is doing amazingly well and is on the best possible recovery path. I had some complications post surgery (7Aug)- mainly pleural effusion - which prolonged my stay in hospital to 11 days instead of the normal 3/4 days. It also prolonged the initial recovery which took a month (or even more); but fortunately I'm all good now (except for a small leftover - sore left testicle - I hope this too will wade off in due course)
The doctors here (Kerala, India) are a bit conservative though; and had advised me not to start activities before 3 months (and I'm counting days to Nov7). Although I feel that I'm okay to start practicing, I had to abide by the advice since there are familial pressures too that not to go anything counter to doctors' advices.
Now, I've certain targets to meet; for instance 4k under 15 minutes (I hope the easiest among the targets) and beating my regular partners at badminton on 4 off 5 ratio (which I used to do initially). Once I achieve those, I would believe I had recovered in full, and hope so it would occur at the earliest.
Cheers!