NASHVILLE, Tenn. — They met while working at Waffle House about 10 years ago and have been best friends ever since.
Now they share an even deeper bond because Michael Agostino gave a kidney to Dave Steele.
The friends scheduled the transplant surgery over winter break because Michael is a student at LMU DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine in Harrogate.
The surgery was a success!
Dave said "We've always thought of each other as brothers but you know this is a bond that nobody can ever break, so I feel really close to Michael."
A donated kidney didn't create that bond, it just made it stronger.
"I already have so much appreciation and love for Dave as it is. So this was just like another day in the life of me and Dave," Michael said.
The whole team did a great job but they said the nurses at Vanderbilt University Medical Center took especially good care of them.
In fact, the experience in the hospital gave Michael, who is a medical student, a fresh perspective on symptoms patients may experience.
"They took the kidney out but I don't really feel symptoms from losing the kidney. I felt symptoms from, okay, I just had abdominal surgery and now I don't want to move my abdomen at all. And so now it's making it difficult to breathe, because I don't want to move my diaphragm at all," he said.
Dave said, "It hurt to cough and sneeze and try to laugh and staples and I had two different IVs in my arm with just fluids going through and just, and oh man, it was an ordeal."
But worth every moment of pain.
"On the other side it's, it's like night and day, night and day," Dave said.
Full recovery for Michael, the donor, is about six weeks. Dave, the recipient, can expect months of checkups and a strict medicine regime but he already feels the benefits of his new kidney.
"Quality of life has gotten way better just in the few weeks since the surgery so it stands to get better three months, four months, six months ahead of time so it's getting better," Dave said.
Michael said, "Being able to see him back to more like more like the old Dave that I remember with so much energy. That means a lot to me."
They will have permanent reminders of the surgery: their scars.
"Michael's scar is not as big as mine scar," Dave said. "He has like two holes and he has like a little scar but my scars is huge.
Not as huge as their friendship.
The friends are figuring out how to celebrate the successful transplant surgery. Dave plans to take Michael to a live wrestling show and they may even go skydiving together.