| Following the transplant I spent about 4 days in the hospital. Three of those days were in the Intensive Care Unit. After the surgery I was on a morphine pump which allowed me to self-medicate with morphine if I felt pain. I don't remember much of the first 2 days so I must have been with it enough to give myself morphine. On the second day my donor Rob came to visit me. It was great to see him and know he was doing well. He and his family were scheduled to return home the net day.
Despite all the controversy surrounding my transplant, the surgery went well. By the third day I could tell I was feeling much better than before the surgery. There had been one scary time for me the night of the surgery. However, because of the morphine and the lingering effects of the anesthesia I couldn't tell whether it was real or imagined. I thought I woke up in the middle of the night and found myself back on dialysis. It was a frightening thought but I quickly faded back into my morphine stupor. Sally came in the next morning and I related the story to her. She said, "You were on dialysis again early this morning. The hospital called me at about 1:00 am to tell me your potassium level had gone very high and they had decided to put you on dialysis to help your new kidney."
On the third day the transplant surgeon Kam came to see me. About the only thing I remember is him telling me I could leave the hospital that day. Even in my shroud of mental fog that didn't sound right to me. When Sally arrived I told her what Kam had said. "I don't think so," Sally responded. She left the room to go to the nursing station. She told one of the nurses what Kam had said. With that, Dr. Howard Senkfor, a nephrologist, swung around in his seat nearby and said, "I'm the one who says when he can go home and I haven't made that decision." I stayed in the hospital.
Dr. Senkfor was a familiar face. He was the nephrologist who took care of me following the removal of my left kidney on January 8, 1998. He is a nice man with a very dry sense of humor. He always had a group of medical students with him. I enjoyed speaking with them and would always try to establish a rapport with them. The students seemed appreciative of letting them ask questions.
Although I had lots of gripes about the way I was treated by Dr. Egal Kam, the transplant surgeon, and Dr. Alan Cooper, the nephrologist from Denver Nephrology who is also the medical director of the transplant clinic, the nursing staffs in the ICU and the renal floor were outstanding in their care and concern. The politics and controversy surrounding my transplant never got in the way of their quality care. The nurses were great.
I was discharged from the hospital on the fourth day. Because I had to visit the transplant clinic every second day for the next 10 days I stayed in a hotel in Denver. The people at the hotel were very good to me. They were a bit overwhelmed when the transplant had been canceled on 10/18/04. The press and media showed up in waves. For the next 2 days the lobby was full of reporters.
All went well after my discharge. I visited the clinic as required to have blood and other tests to make sure there were no indications of rejection. Medications were adjusted. I was given a quick physical exam during each visit. After the initial 10 days we returned home. For the next 6 weeks I visited the clinic once a week. Now I visit once every 2 weeks but have blood samples drawn every week. During the first week in February, 2005 I was required to visit the clinic monthly. Now it is the middle of May, 2005. I am required to visit the clinic every second month.
Things seemed to go smoothly until early in November. During a visit to the clinic I encountered Allan Cooper the medical director. He examined me that day. At the end of the exam I asked him if I could have a refill for an anti-anxiety medication, Zanex, which had been prescribed for me by one of his associates, Dr. Alberto Vilar. Cooper wheeled around and, "That's a controlled substance! I'm not about to give you that." I responded that's why you have a DEA registration, to prescribe controlled substances." He said, "Go see someone else. Go see your primary care physician." I had wanted the Zanex to counter the effects of the steroids and antibiotic drugs were having on me. They were making me feel tense, anxious, moody and I was having difficulty sleeping.
Cooper had been one of the physicians who had accosted Rob Smitty and I the day the surgery had been canceled. I'd had just about enough of him and his incompetent administration of the transplant clinic. I told him he had been a problem from the beginning and his attitude and demeanor were less than acceptable. I told him I would refuse to see him again or let him be part of my treatment team. He said, "If you don't see me you can find somewhere else to go." I told him he was making a serious mistake in trying to dump me. I wrote a letter of complaint that day and faxed it to his senior partner and I called the CEO of the hospital, Mimi Roberson.
The next week when I visited the clinic, Patty Boyd, the clinic administrator gave me a letter from Cooper saying I would continue to be seen at the clinic as long as I wanted and I could see Dr. Marder. Things have been fine since then.
Patty Boyd had been involved with Sally and I since the controversy began. She always seemed empathetic to our situation. She apologized for Cooper's behavior and lack of professionalism. I have spoken with her several times over the weeks. She has always been pleasant and accomodating.
Around 11/14/04 I received a call one day from a lady who is a patient at University of Colorado Hospital transplant clinic. Egal Kam is also the transplant surgeon there. This lady had found a donor on matchingdonors.com but Kam was refusing to test her prospective donor. She told me Kam had related to her I would never have gotten a transplant had I not lied about the source of my donor. Both Kam and Cooper, among others, knew the source of my donor since early March. The story of how Rob Smitty and I met was on the front pages of the Seattle Times and Baltimore Sun in March, 2004. Additionally, the story had also been on the front page of Canada's national newspaper, The National Journal, on April 10, 2004. News photographers had come to the Denver Nephrology clinic during one of my visits to take photos for the news pieces. The whole staff knew where the kidney was coming from. By making those statements Kam violated a federal law. I have since filed a complaint with the federal department of Health & Human Services against Kam, the hospital and one of Kam's nurses.
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