After 17 months of being on the transplant list, a little over a year in the National Kidney Registry and six months of dialysis, we finally have gotten the phone call we've been waiting for! They have managed to form a chain of living kidney donations that includes Jeanne and myself. If all goes according to plan, Jeanne will be receiving a kidney from someone in California on Thursday, Feb 25th (yes, just two weeks from today!) and the next day I'll be going in for surgery to have my kidney removed and donated to someone else.
Everything seems to be happening very quickly. Just last Friday, Jeanne got a phone call that there was a potential match for her. On Monday, she went down to the hospital to have some blood drawn, and then just this morning, we got the good news that the California kidney is a match for Jeanne. 3 out of 6 antigens match, which is quite good for a non-related donor.
Tomorrow, I'll be headed down to the hospital in New York City to have my own blood drawn so that they can perform the necessary tests to figure out who gets my kidney. I expect I'll learn a little more about what to expect as I go through this as well.
Apparantly, I'll only be in the hospital for a couple of days, and maybe about four days for Jeanne. For her first transplant, Jeanne was in the hospital for 10 days and Susie about a week, if I recall correctly. Things have changed a lot in the world of transplants over the last 13 years!
Thanks to everyone for their support and prayers! And keep them coming over the next few weeks!
Such awesome news! Best of luck over the next 2 weeks. I'll be following your blog for updates! And keeping you in prayers. - Heidi
ReplyDeleteThanks, Heidi! If all goes well, I look forward to getting back involved in the chapter activities more than I have been able to recently.
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