Having just donated a kidney, and being fairly aware of how hard the entire process is to get to the actual surgery date. when i read this in the paper today i really felt for the guy.

Hes given up years of his life with family whom he hasn’t seen in years because Tonga doesnt have the facilities to deal with it. The family pays over $2000 a week for just medication and dialysis and now has none left over for the kidney transplant which is booked for June!

Heres the herald article from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10577753

A Tongan overstayer counting the days until a life-changing operation in New Zealand is looking unlikely to meet the $110,000 fee needed to make it happen.

Sosefo Lakalaka has been here for the past three years paying for dialysis treatment – both his kidneys are failing and Tonga does not have any facilities to treat his condition.

After years of paying for his medical needs, his family have nothing left over for a transplant operation scheduled for June 20 in Auckland.

But since late last month Mr Lakalaka’s supporters have been fundraising to make sure the operation goes ahead.

A radiothon in Tonga has raised 30,000 pa’anga ($20,256) and an earlier Herald appeal raised $9774.14.

Family advocate Ulualo Pouhila said that although the family were still hoping New Zealanders would continue to donate, they were also trying to apply for a bank loan to make up the difference.

“The money that has come through has been amazing. But their only hope is the loan, it’s a big struggle for them.”

Mr Lakalaka has not seen his wife or five children since he has been in the country, but a brother has moved here to help financially support his sick sibling.

Mr Pouhila said the extended family were exhausted by continual fundraising efforts over the three years which had gone towards paying for dialysis, which had cost up to $2559 a week.

If the operation costs were not met in time, Mr Lakalaka would continue to visit the dialysis clinic twice weekly, but it was an option which served nobody’s interests, Mr Pouhila said.

“It’s a hell of a job.

“This is an opportunity to send him home.”

HOW TO HELP
Donations to assist can be made through the ANZ bank account:
Sosefo Lakalaka and Family
01 0186 0379433 00

Please Forward this link to all your friends

Well the tummy swelling is down heaps and im back to normal in that respect, though im still bothered by pain under the left ribs, and im unable to lie on my back or left side for any kind of period. Its just uncomfortable.

I went to see my Dr about this, and being the paranoid guy that he was suggested blood clots, and sent me for a slew of blood tests. I got a bit paranoid about this after he called me back and i did more blood tests and had more appointments.

It was only painful if i had been leaning forward, beathing deeply, laughing etc or doing things that compressed the internals on left hand side. So yesterdays Dr appt he sent me off to the hospital.

I spent the better part of the day in the A&E at the hospital trying to avoid people with masks over their face, coughing, sneezing, looking like they were dieing. I could see them looking at me in that ‘What are you doing here? you dont look sick!’ type of way. Dispite apparently having blood clots I actually felt fine and didn’t honestly think I had them.

I have noticed that I seem to get some sort of priority treatment since donating the kidney, and I’m unsure if this is related to it or not. Whilst in the room of 4 people recovering, if others pressed the buzzer they often got ignored or it took forever to get service. If i pressed mine i had somebody friendly there really quickly! I noticed this yesterday at the Hospital also, i had to wait for 4 hours still, but once I was seen it was pretty quick, and they were most helpful.

The Dr at the hospital says that my internals are just still swollen and trying to heal. The pain is from them chafing against each other whilst healing (much like the Ulcer in your mouth you keep biting which stops it healing). So Im now taking a bunch of Anti-inflamatories which appear to be helping that out. Will see how it goes.

My brother is doing ok with the new kidney, hes happy to be able to eat cheese, raisens, and peanut butter amoung other things. His fav thing appears to be being able to go to bed without spending an hour setting up machinery and disinfecting things. He has to get up at 6am every morning to take medication (on the dot!), then be at the hospital 8am for blood tests, then hangs about for the Drs appointments till 10-11am. He does this every single day of the week so they can monitor for rejection etc. This means he cant really work or travel anywhere, So we are heading up to Auckland this weekend to catch up with them and see how hes doing.

Hopefully we wont catch anything before doing so, he cant be around anyone with any kind of illness whilst having no immunity (anti-rejection drugs).

Oh and I entered and was short listed for a competition for a PVR thing at http://www.ben.geek.nz/win-and-the-nominees-are/ – so if you are feeling nice towards me please go vote for number 3 so i have some Freeview to watch whilst getting better

Those that know me, know that for the last couple of years ive been trying to donate a kidney to my older brother.

Hes been on dialysis for around 5 years now. I lost 80kg to be able to do this, and have gone through rigourous testing. I’ve had to battle a retarded genetics Dr amoung lots of other things.

So finally now 3 years later, its happening. I head up to Auckland on monday, where we will try and sort out WHO is paying for the hotel. Talk about battling govt departments. They have booked somewhere for partner and kids to stay but cant agree whos going to pay for it. So unsure if we even have a place to stay monday night.

Tuesday 19th I go into hospital. Weds 20th at 7am they take me away to surgery, 3 hours later i come back with 1 less kidney, and hopefully alive. Then they take my brother into surgery, and 3 hours later he comes back with 3 kidneys (they dont remove his other 2, just give him an extra).

Friday I should be able to checkout of hospital, and then i get to hang around for another week in Auckland being somewhat bored and healing.

Im planning on doing the Harbour Bridge walk over if Im up to it. Debating if ill take the bike, or walk it (depends on if the kids go). Walking is good for recovery from surgery so encouraged. Thats probably the option ill go for.

Anyway, I may not update my website much in the next bit of time for that reason, but im taking my ipod and cell and i’ll be on twitter at http://twitter.com/velofille

Okay im pretty much done with the weight loss thing. Mostly into maintaining and no doubt dropping the last unimportant couple of kg. Im seriously into cycling which is awesome, My daughters are both now into cycling as well. This blog as a weight loss blog is pretty much dead but left here for anyone wanting to read it (for whatever reason)

My personal website is at http://wishes.debian.co.nz and of course being a geek i also have http://velofille.com which doesnt have a lot yet. The weight loss info is at http://weight-loss.co.nz which is a MUCH better website.

My new goals are to improve my cycling speed and endurance. I managed to make 18th on my last ride. I was in the first bunch for most of the way but hadnt ridden in 3 weeks so ended up cramping and dropping back in the last 10km.