Hurrah!

Night time. A nice view out the window of the southern edge of Amsterdam. Lots of amber lights stretched out like Christmas tree decorations. There’s a train pulling into the nearby Metro station.

For the first time, I’ve been out bed part of the day, actually standing up for a time, if not very straight. I was given a wash by one of the nurses who decided to spruce me up before I had my first post-operation visit with Nancy this morning. She’s in a room in the short-term surgery section about a minute away by wheel chair. Then in the mid-afternoon we were together for a second visit while Anne was here. (She brought framed drawings she had made of each of us. I’ll try to place a photo of at least one of the drawings with this posting. The one of me was inspired by a photo Nancy took 24 years ago when Anne was a day old.) There is likely to be a third visit in the evening with more of the kids dropping in.

One of the doctors did an echo scan of the new kidney this morning -- her birthday gift was a print out of the picture that I’ll post it once I’m home and can scan it. It looks like a dark donut with a bite taken out, or a disoriented C. The doctor was pleased to see it wasn’t swollen.

Blood tests today showed my creatinine level -- over 900 when I arrived at the AMC on Tuesday -- is now down to 166. (Yesterday at was 326.) Nancy’s kidney is a powerhouse. Meanwhile Nancy has been reassured that her one kidney has immediately taken over the work of two. No problem. Divine redundancy.

This morning Nancy found she wasn’t yet up to holding the Harry Potter book she brought along -- The Order of the Phoenix, a massive hardcover book -- but by this afternoon she had it in hand. In those intervening hours she had been freed from the IV and was no longer tied down by tubes.

Ah, I hear visitors approaching...

An hour later. Visit over. Nancy, Wendy, Cait, Bjorn, Dan, and Silouan. They brought with them a huge box of fruit, tickets to attend a performance of the Saint Matthew Passion at the Concertgebouw next March, and a box (soon depleted) of Leonidas chocolates. Tom was planning to come but had to work late at Nike. Kylie is in Alkmaar taking care of Lorraine. There will soon be some photos on Dan’s FaceBook page. The room is now bedecked with a banner that says “Hurrah!”