Just A Little Personal Notice

[dulux-oz]

Hi Everybody,

As some of you may be aware, I am going in for Bariatric Surgery (in particular a Sleeve Gastrectomy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeve_gastrectomy)) this Friday (February 22nd, 2019). I am doing this as a direct consequence of my underlying Polycystic Kidney Disease (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycystic_kidney_disease) - my kidneys are down to less then 10% of function and so, in an effort to make myself eligible for a transplant, I need to loose some 50kg / 100lbs, and my doctors all say this is the only practical way. If all goes well I sound be released from hospital the following Wednesday (February 27th) and be "fully" recovered some 5-6 weeks after that - assuming the kidneys don't "pack it in" in the meantime - and then we can start considering donors for a transplant.

The reason I'm telling you all this is not to garner sympathy, but to say to anyone who lives in Sydney (Australia) or who may be traveling there over the dates mentioned above: I'll be in the Royal North Shore Hospital (https://www.nslhd.health.nsw.gov.au/) at St. Leonards (I don't know which room - ask at the front desk :) ), so feel free to drop in and say "Hi" - my family doesn't live near-by so I'll probably be bored out of my skull and I doubt they'll let me near my laptop or let me use the wifi if they do.

I'll also say "Thanks" in advance to all the well-wishers and all my friends here on the FG Forums - I'll try to let someone know how things go so they can relay the info. I hope to be back on these boards in a week or so, but I'm going to let my healing take precedent. So that also means no updates / bug fixes / whatever to any of the DOEs, the DOR(s), the 13th Age Ruleset, or anything else people may be waiting on - sorry, you'll just have to be patient.

Wish me luck, and I'll see everyone as soon as I can.

Cheers

Matthew J Black
aka

[Zacchaeus]

Good luck Dulux. Sorry I'm a bit far away from Aussie land otherwise I'd drop in. :)

[Kelrugem]

Good luck and much success :)

[damned]

You're not having one of my kidneys!
Good luck Dulux!

[Trenloe]

Good luck Dulux. See you back here soon!

[esmdev]

As a fellow sufferer of PKD who has been on dialysis for the last 7 years, I wish you total success in your endeavor! Losing is hard, I hope the sleeve works for you.

[Valyar]

Good luck and full recovery!

[LordEntrails]

Good luck and take care.

[Bidmaron]

Get better quickly Dulux!

[alessandro]

Good luck and a quick, full recovery Dulux!

[YAKO SOMEDAKY]

Good Luck Dulux!

[Three of Swords]

Good luck, sir! I wish you a speedy and full recovery.

[Maasq]

Good luck, pal. Two big procedures to go through in the future then - I hope they both go very well and the quality of your life improves dramatically as a result!

Maasq

[Atua]

Good luck Dulux

[Ampersandrew]

Good luck, Matt. I hope it all goes well for you.

[KILLGORE]

Godspeed my man! Hope you recover quickly!

[ddavison]

Fingers crossed for a good surgery and a speedy recovery.

[Nulk]

Good Luck Dulux, wishing you all the best and a speedy recovery.

[Moon Wizard]

Good luck. Looking forward to seeing what else you have up your sleeve.

JPG

[mattekure]

Good luck Dulux, the place wont be the same until you return. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

[GavinRuneblade]

Best of luck and speedy recovery.

[damned]

I popped in on Dulux yesterday. He was doing fine - they hadnt done the big op just yet - usual complications - but hopefully soon.

[Ira]

Take care and good luck Dulux!

[GavinRuneblade]

I popped in on Dulux yesterday. He was doing fine - they hadnt done the big op just yet - usual complications - but hopefully soon.

Good to hear. Thanks for the update!

[Bidmaron]

Thanks, damned. I didn't know you were that close to the man!
Please tell him our prayers are with him.

[Varsuuk]

I just saw this, my best wishes to you both on the operation and subsequent transplant!

Keep up the spirits, if nothing else you can probably catch up on some good series during your convalescence (I’m so behind on nearly everything myself)

[dulux-oz]

Hi All,

So, I'm out of Hospital after my surgery (sort of - details later) - thanks to Damned for dropping in to say "Hi" - I hope I didn't bore you my telling you how bored I was :)

Unfortunately, the operation was not completed. What happened was I went under the knife Friday morning as planned - they cut me open in five places across my belly (picture the points of a flattened pentagram with the head right at the base of the sternum, the two base-points just above and to either side of my navel, and the two arm-points on each side of my torso just under my ribs) - each cut about 1 cm / 0.5 inches long. From there the procedure is to retract (that is, pull aside) the liver so as to get access to the stomach, with the intention of cutting and stapling off 80% of the stomach and then pulling the "excess" out through the cut under my right ribs.

It was here that things went south - as they retracted my liver they discover two lesions on the liver (and one on the oesophagus). While I wasn't the least bit worried (when I was told about these) because I know that liver-lesions, etc, are a possible side-effect of my PKD (Polycystic Kidney Disease) the Docs had never worked on a PKD-patient before, so fearing the worst (Cancer) they grabbed some biopsies and backed out of the operation.

The Australian Medical System is one of the very best in the world (relatively cheap, efficient, safe, thorough, and generally all-round just plain 'good'), but as it is Government run there have been very, very few PKD patients who have been able to convince the "powers-that-be" to approve a Gastric Sleeve on the public purse; I'm the first that my kidney specialist has heard of and he basically said to me "good luck" when I told him I planned to organise all this. Oh sure, if you're willing to pay for it yourself then they'll do it for you just fine, but it runs to about $20k and I just don't have that much. So I've spent the last 18 months seeking approvals and talking to various medical specialists and basically just getting everyone's "sign-off" so that I could end up flat on my back on Friday morning with my right arm full of needles and tubes and my gut on display to the whole world (OK, to all the doctors and nurses, etc, in the theatre - same thing :) ). I think now that I've shown it can actually be organised my kidney doc has a half dozen more people in a similar situation to me that he's going to run through the "obstacle course".

So that's were we were - an op about 80% done suddenly abandoned while the biopsies went to the lab. Being a Friday they weren't looked at straight away and so I sat around all Friday afternoon, Saturday and then Sunday while I waited for the weekend to be over (and healing up, or course). Monday late morning they came back to me to say that the biopsies had been negative / benign (as I knew they would) and so there was nothing for me to worry about - but they had to reschedule the Gastric Sleeve for a later date - and they couldn't tell me when. So all day Monday in the ward (with some very cute nurses, I must say) and finally yesterday mid-morning (Tuesday) that came back and said that - tentatively - they were rescheduling me for Friday March 8th and that I could go home.

I got home late yesterday afternoon (its about 450 km / 280 miles from the hospital to home at the moment) and now I'm waiting for a confirmation as to the new date of my surgery. In the meantime my five cuts are healing nicely, and while I can't lift more than about 10 kg / 20 pounds, I feel pretty good (if a little frustrated) - although I tire-out pretty quick - a combination of the failing kidneys and healing up from the op.

So thanks to all the well-wishes and friends here on the Boards. I'll let everyone know when I go in again.

Cheers

[ddavison]

We are glad to hear that they came back negative. Congrats on making it through the first 80%.

You can get anything you want done in the U.S., but not much for $20K. That's just a night or two in observation. :(

[LordEntrails]

Glad to hear you are ok. Sorry about the surgery not being completed. Rest up.

[Halfront]

You can still drink a Fosters with a straw right??

[dulux-oz]

You can still drink a Fosters with a straw right??

Stomach being taken, not my brain!

*Real* Aussies do *NOT* drink that horse p!ss sold to gullible foreigners as beer!

And yes, I can still drink a beer - even without a straw, :p

[LordEntrails]

Stomach being taken, not my brain!

*Real* Aussies do *NOT* drink that horse p!ss sold to gullible foreigners as beer!

And yes, I can still drink a beer - even without a straw, :p
I don't know...

I'm told this is a picture of Dulux from 2009...
https://weknowmemes.com/generator/uploads/generated/g1351708020116669977.jpg

[Andraax]

Hope you're doing better.

Last time I discussed this with my cardiologist, he said that nowadays (in the US anyway) they do gastric sleeves with endoscopic surgery performed through the umbilicus (only incision is through the belly button). Cost was under $10k US.

[dulux-oz]

So, they've finally let me know about the re-scheduled gastric surgery.

I'll be admitted to Royal North Shore Hospital (Sydney, Australia) on Tuesday, April 30th. My actuall surgery is scheduled for Friday, May 3rd, and my expected release date is Wednesday May 8th.

So, if anyone's in Sydney around that time then drop on in and say "Hi!".

In the meantime, it means that I can't participate in the FGU Kickstarter on "opening night" but instead have to wait until over a week later before I can sign up for any "goodies" - don't go and take them all but leave me at least one or two, OK?

Cheers

[madman]

Godspeed!

[Myzzrym]

Oh crap I didn't know that when I contacted you. Best of luck to you man, cheers!

[dulux-oz]

Oh crap I didn't know that when I contacted you. Best of luck to you man, cheers!

It's cool - don't worry about it :)

[Gwydion]

So, they've finally let me know about the re-scheduled gastric surgery.

I'll be admitted to Royal North Shore Hospital (Sydney, Australia) on Tuesday, April 30th. My actuall surgery is scheduled for Friday, May 3rd, and my expected release date is Wednesday May 8th.

So, if anyone's in Sydney around that time then drop on in and say "Hi!".

In the meantime, it means that I can't participate in the FGU Kickstarter on "opening night" but instead have to wait until over a week later before I can sign up for any "goodies" - don't go and take them all but leave me at least one or two, OK?

Cheers

Good luck! We will be thinking great thoughts!

[Halfront]

If Doug would allow someone to "gift" something from the kickstarter I'm sure we could "save" some goodies just for you :)

[dulux-oz]

If Doug would allow someone to "gift" something from the kickstarter I'm sure we could "save" some goodies just for you :)

Thanks! I appreciate the thought.

[Kelrugem]

Good luck :)

[Skellan]

Best wishes mate

[MarianDz]

Thinking on you today Dulux, wish you luck too.

[Bidmaron]

We are pulling for you, DuluX!

[dulux-oz]

So, here I am in hospital, waiting around for 3 days until the Surgery (Friday 3rd) and then another couple of days before they let me out (prob. Wednesday 8th).

FYI: Ward 8b, Bed 10 (the one with the straight jacket - cause I'm *already* bored :( )

Cheers

[Gwydion]

So, here I am in hospital, waiting around for 3 days until the Surgery (Friday 3rd) and then another couple of days before they let me out (prob. Wednesday 8th).

FYI: Ward 8b, Bed 10 (the one with the straight jacket - cause I'm *already* bored :( )

Cheers

We are there with you in spirit! That's a long time to wait but hopefully well worth it. Fingers crossed!

[ddavison]

Good luck Oz

[madman]

Godspeed! Oz

[Halfront]

Don't pinch too many nurses:)

[Ampersandrew]

Hope your surgery goes well.

[Trenloe]

Good luck mate.

[Zacchaeus]

Yes, have a jolly time and hope all goes jolly well.

[LordEntrails]

You are in my thoughts.

[Moon Wizard]

Good luck!
JPG

[Myrdin Potter]

Best of luck to you!

[Kelrugem]

Good luck :)

[CrawlingChaox]

As they say down in Rome, "daje!" Get well soon!

[notrealdan]

Good luck!

[Bidmaron]

May God bring you rapid healing and long-term wellness, Dulux.

[Steve Flammang]

I wish you all the best and a quick recovery!

[gaara6666]

Good luck

[Three of Swords]

Good luck!

[gqwebb]

May Jesus Bless you with advantage and a hospital gown of +5 constitution (-2 on charisma thou)

https://nationalpostcom.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/hospital-gown1.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=780

Love and prays

[LordEntrails]

Thanks for that... I'm never going to be able to look Dulux in the face again!

[dulux-oz]

Thanks for that... I'm never going to be able to look Dulux in the face again!

That's not my face :(

Thanks to all for the best wishes - surgery scheduled for 22:00 UTC Thursday - just got the AOK from all the specialists: Kidney, Gastro,, etc, etc.

Hope the Kickstarter is going well - save me a spot: I'll dig in when I get back to a "proper" Inet connection. :)

Cheers

[LordEntrails]

Hope the Kickstarter is going well - save me a spot: I'll dig in when I get back to a "proper" Inet connection. :)

Yea, going really well. Funded in ~39 minutes ($29k). Reached the initial stretch goals in less than 4 hours. Doug and crew are scrambling to put up more and more goals but they keep getting reached. At $142 USD now. Slowing for the night (in the US), at least some.

[WESeib]

Good luck and I hope everything goes well!

[Ampersandrew]

... Surgery scheduled for 22:00 UTC Thursday - just got the AOK from all the specialists: Kidney, Gastro,, etc, etc.

That's great news. Hope your surgery goes well, mate, speak to you soon.

andrew

[Gwydion]

Anyone heard from him? Hope he is finished and recovering well....

[dulux-oz]

So, its now late Sunday afternoon (local time) - call it 07:30 UTC. I didn't actually get into surgery until late Friday afternoon (approx 05:00 UTC Friday). The surgery itself went well and the docs were/are very pleased - so I've now only got 20% of my stomach (organ). :)

The complications with my underlying kidney problems means that I've been in ICU every since - they've been monitoring my Potassium levels (quite closely) trying to determine if I needed to go on dialysis to get rid of it - Potassium effects your heart (as in "heart attack") - and they've finally decided that, no, at least for now, I'm still dialysis free. - YAY -

I've really only recovered my energy levels in the last couple of hours, so I thought I'd better drop people a line :)

So they're now packing me up and moving back to the "general ward" - 8b, Bed 7. At this stage I still expect to be here in hospital until late Wednesday morning (local time).

The INet connection SUX so all I can do is write the odd email/post/whatever - thank God I've got a couple of movies on my laptop.

So apart from all that I should be back firing on all cylinders in 5-6 weeks.

Thanks to all the well-wishes and to all those who've been thinking of me - I really do appreciate it. And thanks especially to Gwydion for the flowers - they really brightened the room. :)

Cheers

[Gwydion]

Excellent news! So glad it went well. Here's hoping for late Tuesday instead of late Wednesday am for getting the heck out of there!

[Three of Swords]

Good to hear! Hopefully no further complications.

[ddavison]

Good to hear.

[LordEntrails]

Glad to hear you are doing well. Hang in there :)

[Bidmaron]

Dulux, God speed on the recovery my friend!

[madman]

"Fortis mane" Oz

[RoleforFun]

Awesome to hear Dulux! Get well, the community needs you!

[dulux-oz]

So, a follow-up:

The recovery is going well. I'm still a couple of days away from getting back to "real" food, but the custards, milkshakes, jellies (jello), soups, and other pureed-style foods haven't been too bad - although I am looking forward to a plain ol' burger or a meat pie or even a small kabab. :)

The wounds are all healed and the scars aren't too bad (gotta luv those "dueling scars"). I'm also down to around 115kg (250lb) from 140kg (310lb). So things (on this front) are going well.

The not-so-good news is that I start dialysis on Friday (June 1st). My kidneys took a hit from the surgery (ie the stress, etc) and are now down to 5% functionality. They usually start a patient on diaylsis once they hit 10%, but I was holding steady at 8%-7% for 5 -6 months while I was waiting for the stomach surgery, and as I was feeling OK and not really showing any symptoms, my renal (kidney) specialist was happy to hold off. Now, however, my general health has fallen off the cliff so he simply said "It's time."

So now I'm on the waiting list for a transplant. By the time I'm at the top of the list my weight should (will almost definitely) be under the 90kg (200lb) mark, which was the whole point of the gastric surgery in the first place. At the moment the average waiting time here in Oz is 4-5 years, so I'm hoping that some nice, kind individual takes pity on me and donates me a kidney, otherwise I've got to wait for some poor person to pass-away so I can have their's.

The upshot of all this is that I get incredibly fatigured doing anything - even this post I had to write in two parts with a 15 minute break in the middle - so I don't know how quickly I can churn out DOE/DOR-updates, etc - I'll try, but I'll have to see how things go.

Anyway, thanks to all who have wished me well over the last couple of months, and I'll try to stay as engaged as I can moving forward (and if you know of anyone with a spare kidney, let me know, OK :p ).

Cheers

[ddavison]

Ouch. 5% functioning certainly doesn't sound great. It's good to hear that the surgery went well and hopefully they can address the kidneys in short order as well. Wishing you well.

[Nylanfs]

Kidneys have a VAST reserve of functioning that they can lose, especially when you take into account us not having to drink dirty and contaminated water (for the most part) anymore.

[gqwebb]

Great news! Thanks for the update. And here is some more good news for you, I went from over 240 down to 190 ish by just walking 20 to 30 min a day. No diet change, no Jogging, just walking on treadmill or at the park. Hope you can take them small steps soon.

[LordEntrails]

Thanks for the update. Take care my friend.