It's been a week since my dramatic swooning in the hospital awaiting my CT scan. Feels much longer.
Had a terrific Easter, although I never got of my chickies in the same place at the same time. But, you learn to be grateful for small things. Patrick & Adrianne came early, straight from church. Peter and Jen came late after work for her and yard work for him. So...over the course of the day, all were accounted for and I'm happy with that.
Now begins the waiting for this, waiting for that. There is a lot that goes into being a donor. Things I wouldn't have thought about, but when explained made absolute sense.
A donor has to be in really good health. Duh. A donor has to be younger than 60 (at least at the U of P) ok, makes sense too. The older we are the slower the recovery, also the more "worn" the parts. Donors are checked for everything you could think of. I'm having to provide results for or have done, Pap test, Mammogram (must be within one year), colonoscopy (Monday!) Glucose testing (fasting, my favorite thing) What they're trying to make absolutely certain of is that in addition to my own ability to handle the surgery, we don't want to pass on any cancer cells. The recipient will be taking anti rejection drugs for the rest of their life. All designed to suppress their body's natural reaction to a foreign substance, my kidney. Now add cancer and you can see where this would leave them. Totally vulnerable.
Then there are the ever popular 24 hour urine specimens! For men...easy peasy! For women..a bit rougher. Usually this gets done twice in the vetting process. I get to do it three times, due to female issues contaminating the first go round w/protein (ie, blood). Not to be to gross, but essentially you have a "hat" as the pros call it, that you place in the toilet and then pour into a half gallon brown plastic jug. Lots of fun! Especially when you have to figure out how to do this in a stall at work. Discreetly. No one at work knows I'm doing this. And then the urine must be kept "fresh". As in refrigerated. Try doing that discreetly at work. I've found using those frozen things for plastic "Ice" things that you put in picnic baskets work pretty well, esp when combined with an insulated tote bag.
Now if this all weren't enough, the samples need to be delivered to the hospital....which is an hour away. Not really a big deal, just hard to do when you work full time. So since I'm lucky enough to have a very good kid, who works 10 minutes from the hospital, I've made arrangements for him to stop by the house on his way back from grad school, pick up my carefully packaged sample, and deliver it on his way to the office the next morning. Think about that...is this a good son or what!
On the upside of it all, I will have as complete and clear a bill of health as any 53 yr old anywhere!
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