Recent visit to transant

On 09/27/2010 I spent the day at Florida Hospital Transplant Center.

It was a long day but overall it was an awesome visit.

The day started with my first appointment with the dietician. That was pretty good and she was able to provide some information I have not heard before and she had visual aids to use during our meeting. Yes she used plastic steak, turkey slices, eggs, corn and of course fresh plastic fruit and all along with little plastic plates. I almost felt like I was back in kindergarden but she done a good job and got her point across.

Then I went for my abdominal ultra sound. Not much to say except this girl made an aweful mess with the gel. It was nice and warm but there was big globs of gel all over my shorts and I never knew it was there until I left and people were staring at my shorts. I finally looked down and there was 3 or 4 big globs of gel all over the front of my shorts.

Then came lunch, which was really good. I was starving by this time since I had been NPO :(nothing by mouth) since the day before.

After lunch I got to meet with the nurses and the PA. All of them were pretty cool. The PA thought I was crazy and then told the nurses to watch out for me since I was trouble. Usually takes more than a 10 minute interview for people to know that about me.

Then I got to meet the social worker, the transplant doctors and then the transplant surgeon.

Everyone I got to meet said when they have patient review I will be reccommended to be one of the next patients they start working up for a transplant. I have never been so happy.

With my luck as it has been I was prepared for bad news but that did not happen.

One of the major things I was worried about was having antibodies in my blood.
These antibodies can be caused by a blood transfusion or prior transplant. If the antibodies are present it makes it a lot harder to find a kidney that would match because the donor kideny would have to have antibodies as well.
By the grace of God I had 0 antibodies in my blood.

There was also a chance of the team making me wait longer since I have had a transplant in the past but again that was not the case. They all were pretty impressed with the amount of time I had the first transplant.

Then I was also provided donor applications and as some know I have been mailing them out. Even if you just want the information with the application, let me know and I will get that mailed to you.

As of this date I have 4 people that have (or going too) complete the application.

The more the merrier right now, even though they will only test 1 donor at a time it's best to have several people willing to donate in case something in the donor test disqualifies the donor. Then they will proceed to the next donor on my list until they find the best possible match.

They did tell me if I had living donors I could be transplanted as soon as 2 months. They will do a type and cross on the first 4 donors to see who they think will work best and then get the donor testing scheduled.

I thank God I have so many awesome friends that are willing to make such a donation for me. I truly feel blessed.

With the good news always with me there is bad as well. The cost of the post transplant medications (with my current insurance) is about 1800 a month. Then I can expect to be out of work for 3-6 months post transplant.

I have been out of work since Feb. 2010. I was hospitalized the entire month of Feb because of having pneuomina in addition to starting hemo dialysis. I then switched to PD dialysis and currently do that at home every night for 8 hours.

I thank God I was able to do PD again. Hemo dialysis, I cannot say anything good about hemo dialysis at all. I really don't know how some people can do hemo for years and years. Even though my time on hemo was only about 2 months it was once again one of the worst times of my life. I was in and out of the hospital and everyday I thought I would die. I went days in a row and coud not even get out of bed without feeling like I was going to pass out. Even though I live 1/2 a mile away from the dialysis center, I had to have people drive me back and forth to dialysis. If I sat up that long I felt as if I was going to pass out. It was hard to try to eat and often times I would eat in bed because I never felt like sitting at the table to eata meal.

Then not to mention while on hemo machine alarmed a lot with every treatment. Many days the machine would clot and I could not even finish my treatment. Well I did not want to finish it, I would sign a release and leave because I could not stand to be there a single minute longer than I had too. Not to mention that is one of the most depressing places you could ever visit.

Anyway, back to the visit at the transplant center. As a lot of people know I sent out a lot of emails today asking for donations or volunteers for different fund raiders I want to start soon. I do have a special account for my transplant set up and all funds donated will be used for medications and medical care post transplant to ensure I can get the medications I need so I can keep this kidney for a long long time.