Two Months After My Kidney Transplant: Getting Stronger, Learning My Limits, and Moving Past Them to Full Recovery.

On August 4, 2026, I received a kidney transplant after roughly three years of peritoneal dialysis and a lifetime of living with polycystic kidney disease.

Yesterday, I was walking around the Combustion Festival at Carrie Blast Furnaces. It was the most I had walked in years.

There was a lot of recovery between those two days.

The Weakness After Surgery

The transplant went well, but those early days were rough. I felt like I had been run over. I was weak, dealing with nausea, and trying to get comfortable while my body recovered from surgery.

I was grateful for the transplant. I was also exhausted. Both things were true.

Having a new kidney didn’t mean I could immediately get up and resume everything I wanted to do. I still had to heal and rebuild my strength. It was a daily struggle and without my wife waiting on me hand and foot, I would have be stranded. The steps were just too much some times.

A Scare Along the Way

One of the rougher stretches was the C. diff scare—the days admitted, being tested, and waiting to understand what was going on.

I suspect a few sips from drinks containing commercial ice may have been the trigger. I don’t have confirmation that the ice caused it, but the experience made me more cautious about food and drink handling while taking medications that suppress my immune system. It being the key term here because all the tests came back as negative. But I am 100% sure I spent 36 hours in the bathroom, of afraid to be far from it.

It was a reminder of how vulnerable I still felt during recovery. I wanted to keep moving forward, and suddenly I was back to being admitted and tested. Few days, clean bill, back to the grind.

Relearning What I Can Eat

Another unexpected adjustment has been food.

For three years, I watched sodium, phosphorus, and potassium. Those restrictions became part of everyday life. Then, after the transplant, my doctors’ instructions sounded like:

“Everything you couldn’t eat, have that.”

That was quite a change after spending so long learning what to avoid.

My phosphorus is now low enough that I’m taking a supplement. Something I had spent years trying to limit now needs replacing. These are my team’s instructions for my current bloodwork, and I’m learning to adjust along with them.

One practical win: the phosphorus supplement was $100 but cheaper with GoodRx. Thank you for that!

Getting Stronger While Keeping an Eye on the Numbers

My strength is coming back, but there are still concerns. My creatinine has plateaued, and my transplant team is watching it closely.

Bloodwork every Monday and Thursday keeps a close eye on everything. Those appointments and results are still a regular part of my week. The great part is My Transplant Team and AHN have a Nurse and a Phlebotomist on alternating days right here at home!

I’m learning what I can reasonably do. I want to work, build, create, and get back into life. I also have to pay attention to how much energy I have and how I feel afterward.

That takes some patience. My plans can move faster than my body.

Yesterday at Carrie Blast Furnaces

Yesterday, October 4, I attended the Combustion Festival at Carrie Blast Furnaces.

It’s in my opinion one of the coolest experiences.

With the molten metal flowing, black smiths hammering, and craftsman everywhere it was a great time. It is the very essence of Pittsburgh the steel mills are and will always be what fueled the growth of Pittsburgh. Carnegie, Mellon, Frick, all had a hand in every mile of track, I beam for a building, or Bridge, Sheet, Plate, or Tool. It was made here, by hard working people, in hard working neighborhoods. This is where they came every day, 20, 30 years in a row…

Additionally all the activities were free. We painted masks, made mosaic art on rocks with industrial materials, face painting, oh… The copper workshop was really cool you got to beat a penny into a pendent, stamp it, and the made it into a key chain. All included parents paid admission, kids free. Food trucks are the lure. When I wound out the were going to be there I plotted and designed and eat myself in The Waking Bloated. I was great to have my 2 Primanti Bros. Sammich Appetite back.

For the first time in years, I walked that much—and it felt great.

Being out there, looking around, enjoying the day, and covering that much ground was a milestone I could feel. After the weakness following surgery and the setbacks along the way, I was getting to experience some of the strength I’ve been working to regain.

My legs—and just about everything else—were a little sore afterward. I still have reasonable limitations, but I was glad to have made it around and enjoyed myself.

The brisket sliders, ribs, and hot sausage certainly helped make it a good day. I left with a full stomach, tired legs, and a memory I’m happy to have: walking around Carrie Blast Furnaces, doing more than I had been able to do in years.

Dialysis Free for 30 Days+ The peritoneal dialysis port is coming out tomorrow!

Three long years of dialysis. I grew found of my machine. It allowed me to get treatment at home, at night, while I slept. It traveled in my truck, on my Harley, and in an Airplane it is a VIP although it looks like a super villain bomb in the Xray!

I was always grateful for this machine, my Mom and Grandfather both had polycystic kidney disease, and did in center dialysis 3 days a week. Doing it at home was a minimal disruption considering I’d die without it! Easy choices here, for me.

Tomorrow I have an appointment to get my PD Line Removed. I am a mix of excited and apprehensive. I want it gone, but it been right there for three years. Either keeping me alive. Or worrying me about peritonitis! Appreciate all you’ve done for me as far as hardware goes you did the job. Goodbye. I will miss my dialysis nurse and everybody in the Robinson Twp. DaVita hands down a fantastic group of people. They really got me across this finish line. For that I am thankful and grateful beyond words.

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