A friend is someone who late at night picks you up at the airport having asked you want you want to eat, picking up on the way so it is in the car waiting for your with a nice cold brew in a coffee travel mug (so we don't get picked up for an open container). Thanks Lakeview!
Now back to the tale
Part 3
Getting Serious
By now it was getting towards the summer of 2006. We initiated contact with the hospital where my sister was being taken care of, Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut and began the series of screening tests. This consists of blood and urine tests that identify how well you match or don’t match and how healthy one’s kidney functions are since they’re not going to take a kidney from you if you are having your own problems.
There were a couple of humorous moments here. When you stop in for the first set of blood tests they come out with almost a dozen vials. I think my jaw must have dropped because the technician made a comment about how this was indeed a lot of blood to be taken. Another test is known as the 24-hour urine sample. This requires you to literally collect all one’s waste for an entire day. I will just tell you that it’s a helluva lot! Emotionally once you’ve made a decision like this, you now start to become worried about failing to be able to follow through on the commitment. So it was relief to me when the results of these tests were positive
The next hurdle was a trip to Hartford Hospital. By now they had gotten a complete medical history, ekg, and other general health tests. The trip to Hartford included meeting the doctors, being told what was going to happen, meeting a psychologist (they try to screen out the self-sacrificial) and getting an MRI to find out what the kidneys look like and where they were exactly located.
The results of everything were positive. I was fully approved. We began talking about dates. Our desire was to do it around Christmas time when activity in my business tended to slow down. We began discussing specifics and mechanics of how we were going to arrange for my care and stay in Connecticut and what we were doing business wise. I began to tell various business contacts about what might be happening so that the appropriate planning could take place. We researched mechanisms for financial aid (there aren’t many) and I talked to lots of people who had been through donating. We were gearing up and dealing with our concerns and issues as best we could.
Then we got a call from my sister. Everything was going to be on hold. Evidently the deterioration of her kidney function had stopped and was hovering at a level higher than the threshold beyond which they will do a transplant. We learned that this is not an uncommon situation where a recipient will plateau, hold steady, and then suddenly start having the kidney function deteriorate again. After all of our efforts, we were on indefinite hold.
6 comments:
You're certainly welcome my man. After a day of traveling, I often have wished someone was there for me with some food and a cold beer.
I guess it makes sense that they do all of that testing and psych stuff. Still, that's a lot of urine!
So how much pee are we talking here? A gallon?
Yes pretty close to that. And you have to keep it in your refrigerator so it stays fresh. Then you get to carry it around with you to the Doctors office.
I commend you D.I. for what you are doing! It sounds like ther is initially more mental stress and strain, than an individual should have to face...and then the stopping & starting...geez
I hope you didn't collect all your pee in a lemon-lime gatorade container. :)
Tim
Tim - hahahahah!
dad, the way you tell the story so matter of factly hides much of the uncertainty as you wait between milestones for approvals, etc. So harrowing!
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