The final countdown....8 days...

Can't believe it's so close.... Pretty important upcoming week. Monday Dec 3rd my oldest daughter will turn 21..:-) then the following Monday the 10th is the life changing day for the young man that gets my kidney.:-) A few things have happened since the last post... I met with Dr. Hola on Wednesday, be is a very nice man.. He gave me the low down on everything that happens during surgery and such... Most I already knew, due to the internet research that I have been doing... He told me that they pick the cream of the crop of the cream of the crop! Feels good to be able to be so healthy as to be able to make someone else healthy. I did tell him about the finding on Ashlynn's ANA antibody (being high-possibly Lupus) he decided to test me for lupus as well, just to make sure! Dr. Hola also mentioned that my initial ultrasound finding of the "fatty liver" could have been a misread( he mentioned this can happen for a few different reasons...typically it is just the way the wand is held or the shadows of other organs and so on) The liver ultrasound came back completely normal. :-) While checking in with Susan(blood pressure, weight(lost 4 pounds, YES!!!), temp, the usual questions... Of course I had a lot of questions to ask her...she let me know there were two possible matches for me at this time.. Either a person in their late 20's or a person in their middle 50's.. I also found out there are 330-ish people on the waiting JUST at Integris...Susan also let me know that they had their busiest month yet, performing 22 kidney transplants in the month of November and still had 3 days to go.. Wow!!! I also asked of how many living donors they see in a year, sadly she said usually around 25...:-( I looked up on Lifeshare of Oklahoma's website and found out there are 110,000 people on the waiting list in the US...with maybe 53 or so living donors a year. I can't remember specifics, but if you are interested you can look on their website for more information. Or let me know and I'll get specifics for you! Did you know, those of us that are born with healthy kidneys and properly functioning kidneys are born with 4 to 5 times more kidney then our body needs to be able to function? So after donating a kidney you still have 2 to 3 times more kidney function then our body needs... Just amazing! You can also donate a kidney and have a normal pregnancy after the donation, only have a little more visits to monitor for gestational diabetes and pregnancy high blood pressure... Pretty cool! See there I'm rambling... Important rambling, but rambling none the less!
Next up heading over the radiology, catscan time... Mike was the gentleman that ran this test.. Man, he was really cool(let me take pictures and took a picture of me too) and very knowledgeable of what he was doing! Said he has been doing catscans for 30yrs...and I was in and out of there quick... With the catscan they take films of the specific area before and after running dye through your veins.. Pretty weird sensation feeling the dye run through your veins.. Doesn't hurt.. Just feels warm... Then make 3D pictures of the said specific area... I'm hoping I get to see this once I meet with the surgeon, Dr. Samara, next week! Dr. Samara will be performing my surgery as well as his son.. They work together as a team..pretty amazing! After my catscan I went back to work and on with my busy day... I was told Susan would contact me to let me know about labwork times and when I would get to meet Dr. Samara. Susan called That afternoon(weds) asked if I could go down to the lab in the morning(Thurs-10 days till surgery) and get my pre-op labwork, lupus screening, and crossmatching (for the two I mentioned). Hoping to get the results from all the testing by Friday. Dr. Ha and susan also met with the transplant board and they were all very excited to here that a healthy living donor is ready for surgery. Dr. Hula was also very pleased with my catscan films as well! I went to the lab around 6:15 and they drew 17 vials of blood.. I didn't feel a thing! So far everything has been virtually painless. A few sticks here and there, that doesn't bother me though and nothing compared to what the people on dialysis go thru on a daily basis. Susan called me Friday afternoon letting me know they had the results from the labwork. Everything looked great. And she let me know that my kidney will go to a young man in his late 20's.. HIPPA prevents her from saying too much and of course we all understand this.. He will have the last say as to if we meet or not... Both parties involved have to agree on meeting...:-) I'm hoping he will want to meet me:-) I can't believe that time is almost here... Super excited.. Actually today was a little emotional. I decided to speak with the campus pastor, Brian, at church today. When I first started the process I had filled out a prayer request asking for the prayer team to send out prayers for the process and today as the time is approaching fast, I just wanted him to pray with me and send some extra prayers out to my recipient and also to the young lady that I started crossmatching with in the beginning... As he prayed, tears flowed from my eyes.. I can't explain the feelings that rushed through my soul as we stood in the middle of the foyer of our LifeChurch campus. It was a beautiful and comforting moment. He asked me to fill out another prayer request so the prayer team could send out more prayers. Man, I am so happy that I stumbled into LifeChurch that day... I want to say ThankYou to Amy for that! The moment I stepped foot into LifeChurch I have felt like this is home... I just love it...
I found out my sister Michelle and my mother are both going to be able to make it for the surgery... So awesome!!!! I am putting together a few things for my recipient, a care package-ish... I made him a leather keychain. I put our surgery date as well as my favorite bible verse... Psalms 91:11... And He gave thee angels to watch over thee and keep thee in all thy ways... (I'll post pictures of it), I hope he likes it... I also found a great Christmas Ornament and had an awareness ribbon and the date inscribed on it... From the beginning I wanted our surgery to be for Thanksgiving or Christmas.. Wanted the recipient to have an amazing Christmas present... The Gift of Life! I have been thinking of names for my kidneys, I have come up with names for my kidneys: my left one(the one that will be removed) name is... John Matthew" The beloved gift from God"....the meaning of the names come from the bible, John means "beloved" and Matthew means "gift from God"...and I think Gabriel for the right kidney(the one that will remain with me) meaning "God is my strength"... I will also write the recipient a short letter :-)...

Last night I received a msg from a friend asking about living donors... She is wanting to see if she can donate to one of her clients... This makes me feel like this post is helping people understand it is not a scary horrible thing... The client of hers had no idea a person could even be a lining donor, she just thought she had to wait for a cadavers kidney... I am so happy that she now knows there are options for her too:-) it warms my heart! Thank you Amber for reaching out,being brave and asking questions! ((((HUGS))))

Ok time to attach pictures and get some sleep... Tomorrow is a big big day.. ASHLYNN'S 21st BIRTHDAY!!! Whoop Whoop!!!

God bless and thanks for reading...


P.S. several people have told me they are not able to post comments on this blog I'm not sure why it won't let you... So feel free to email me if you have comments or questions! Mylittlekidney@gmail.com