Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 16, 2002
Three-year-old Lexa Armstrong got out of bed Monday morning with a job to do.
Lexa didn't eat breakfast until she had drawn a picture for her father.
That's because Lexa's father, prominent Clearwater lawyer Ed Armstrong, went into surgery Monday morning to have his diseased kidneys removed.
The surgery was a success, and Armstrong was doing well Monday afternoon, said his wife, Tara.
"He got those nasty things out of there, and he's looking good," she said.
Ed Armstrong has run campaigns for several north Pinellas politicians, and his clients include hotel developers, Florida Power and the Church of Scientology.
He is expected to be in intensive care until Thursday. Armstrong has polycystic kidney disease, in which cysts grew in his kidneys, enlarging them and causing them to fail.
Doctors told Armstrong nearly two years ago that his kidneys would fail and that he would need to get a kidney transplant.
When most people get kidney transplants, their kidneys stay inside their bodies. But a normal kidney weighs 10 to 12 ounces. Doctors estimated Armstrong's weighed a combined 30 pounds. They were pressing against his lungs and stomach. Both organs were removed at Tampa General Hospital.
Armstrong will get a kidney transplant in six weeks, after he has had time to recover. Until then, he will have dialysis every other day.
A friend of Armstrong's, who asked not to be identified to protect his privacy, has agreed to donate one of his kidneys.
"We're halfway there," Tara Armstrong said.