Finally!

May 12, 2016.  My transplant date.

Yes, a suitable kidney match has been found!!!

woo hoo!!! yippee!!! yahoo!!!

Surgery is scheduled for two and half weeks from now.  I go in next week for my pre-op meeting with my surgeon.  I’m cautiously hopeful, excited and nervous.  It’s somewhat surreal that we are finally here.  Finally.

Thanks to all for your months and years of prayers.  Keep it coming.  We want the kidney to be happy in her new home, and my body to tolerate the anti-rejection medication well.

My surgery will be part of a ten-way chain: five donors and five recipients.  I know many of you are still confused about how this all works.  You’re wondering If you already had a donor in December, why are you now announcing (again) that you have a donor?…. Well, there are TWO donors that matter here:

Donor #1 is someone who knows me and is donating ON MY BEHALF. He would love to physically give his kidney to me but he is not a match because he is not blood compatible so he is donating to someone who is a match. His gift allows me to receive from someone who is a match for me in a program that works like a big swap. Think of it as a Christmas gift exchange.  You can’t participate and get a gift unless you bring a gift.  It’s just the gift can’t be just any gift; it has to be one that “fits” you.

The big obstacle all along was waiting for someone to come forward to be Donor #1 and then be medically cleared.  That evaluation process takes several months.  In the past two years we have gone through about 8 potential donors.  They have dropped out for various reasons.  I call this final donor “Superman” because of his super health and his super duper heart for giving me this gift of life.

Then there’s Donor #2.  That’s the person in the National Kidney Registry database that they find for me who is a compatible match for me.  She isn’t anyone I know, but her actual kidney is being transplanted into me.  I’ve been told she is “female, early 30’s, and local.”  That’s all I know and probably will ever know.  She is donating her kidney on behalf of her friend/family member who needs a kidney.  That friend will get a kidney from someone else in the chain.  And so forth.

Here’s an awesome video that shows a donor chain from a few years ago.  You’ll see how it all goes down… Please watch this video!

By the way, Superman’s kidney is flying to the East Coast.