NATIONAL DONATE LIFE MONTH-ORANGEVILLE-KIDNEY RECIPIENT, DONOR RECOVERING NICELY

Source: Orangeville

Kidney recipient, donor recovering nicely

Successful surgery:. Kidney recipient Cameron Stevens and donor Sara Wilson have been released from hospital following their surgeries two weeks ago. Banner File Photo

Two weeks after undergoing kidney transplant surgery, Orangeville’s Cameron Stevens appears to be doing well — so is his donor Sara Wilson.

“After I had the surgery, I was walking the next day and feeling good,” Stevens said in an email. “I feel way different. ... My head feels clearer.”

Stevens, who has two children with his spouse, Stephanie Banks, was scheduled to go for a follow-up appointment in the big city on Wednesday (April 28) to have his staples removed.

“We still have to travel down to Toronto every Monday, Wednesday (and) Friday for a 20-minute blood work appointment, and I see the doctor to look at my incision and see how I am feeling and check to see if they need to lower my medications on Mondays,” the 23-year-old said. “I have to go down to Toronto for another four to five weeks. … If everything is good, then I will have to travel to Brampton to get the blood work.”

Wilson, who offered up a kidney to Stevens after reading about his four-year quest for an organ in The Banner last fall, said she’s doing fine.

“Everything went really well, ” Wilson, an OSPCA animal cruelty investigator, said of the surgery. “Basically, I did what amounts to a C-section (caesarian section); it was like giving birth to a kidney.”

The pair went under the knife April 14 at Toronto General Hospital. Wilson remained in the hospital until the following Saturday, while Stevens was released April 19.

“The surgery was actually five and a half hours,” she said. “I was really sick for a couple of days, but by the third day I was out.”

Wilson didn’t get to see Stevens until a couple of days after the surgery because he was at high risk for infection.

“It was really nice to see he was feeling good because he has a kidney that works,” said the 30-year-old. “I hope it gives him his life back. … There’s always a chance he could reject the kidney, of course.”

She expects to be off work for another four weeks and said she’s being well looked after by family and friends. Given a chance to do it again, Wilson said she’d donate an organ in a heartbeat.

“If I had three kidneys, I’d give another one,” she said. “It’s been easy.”