PSA: personal health, surgery and risks, availability
If all goes to plan, I will be receiving a kidney transplantation on November 12 (2024), followed by an unknown recovery period. What to expect:
After the transplantation, I will not be around online for a while; this could be anywhere from a few days to a few months depending on how well (or not) the surgery goes. Even after I return, I will likely be avoiding stress for a while, which also means I may drop out of things unannounced.
In the time leading up to the transplantation, I will become less and less consistently available, and you may see me around less, as I deal with the preparations for the surgery.
I'm receiving a kidney from a living donor, under pretty much best-case circumstances (no dialysis), so the chance of success is high, and the chance of complications is low, but it is not zero. Likewise, survival chance is high but not 100%.
If the transplantation succeeds, I will be able to live a mostly normal life, but I will be on immunosuppressive medicine for the rest of my life. Among other things, this means that you're probably only going to see me at (hacker) events that take sufficient precautions against COVID and the like.
So if you want me and other immunocompromised folks around at those events, ask organizers to take those precautions! Ventilation/filtering and CO2 measurement is a good baseline.
If you have any questions about all this, feel free to ask, but I may or may not have the spoons to answer them.
re: PSA: personal health, surgery and risks, availability
@joepie91 Wait, hold up... dialysis impacts the success chance?
re: PSA: personal health, surgery and risks, availability
@rallias Yep; dialysis slowly damages the arteries, and while this likely doesn't direct affect the surgery outcome, it means that you're more likely to experience cardiovascular disease at a later point in life (which affects life expectancy).
A small amount of dialysis may be needed before and during the surgery itself, but as I haven't been on dialysis prior to it, I shouldn't be affected (strongly) by this, though it's not a guarantee.
USPOL, health care, anger
@joepie91 There's a bit of irony that the only procedure covered under the US's universal healthcare is likely to cause you harm.
Can you have a kidney transplant on the government? Naw, but this procedure that causes you to be more likely to experience cardiovascular disease? Sure, on the house.