Day 1 of my testing is complete! Today was pretty easy breezy, considering I spent a majority of my time just sitting around waiting. I arrived at 6:45am for my 7:15am check in, and had everything completed by 7, so I had to sit around and wait for my first appointment at 8:30. They had me start by watching a video about becoming a donor, and it walked through a few of the different people I'll have appointments with over the next couple of weeks. Then, I met with Dr. Prendergast. She gave me a brief physical exam, and then went through a bunch of questions with me. We went through my medical history, some family history, and why I wanted to become a kidney donor. She had not heard the Callaway family's story, so I told her all about it, and how it inspired me to become a donor. She was truly amazed at how many people responded to their story, and how many people have said they would like to become donors because of it. We went through the questions I have so far, mostly about what type of donor I want to be. They would love for me to start a donor chain, but it's completely up to me if I want to do that. Honestly, I'm having a really hard time deciding what to do. I really like the idea of starting a chain, and being able to help many different people, and I'm a perfect candidate for that because of my blood type. But I also like the idea of being able to choose to donate to an individual too. I would be able to pick if I want to donate to someone higher up on the transplant list, or someone lower on the list. I know that no matter what I choose, I'm going to help save someone's life, it's just difficult to decide what path to take! It was also made very clear to me that I can back out of this at anytime. I don't foresee myself doing that, but it's nice to know they will support my decision if I do.
After I was done meeting with the doctor, I got to meet Rhonda, who is the person I initially spoke to when I first called Mayo. She seemed very excited to meet me, and she's also excited about the idea of me becoming the start of a donor chain. She said there was recently a meeting or conference call among the different Mayo transplant centers and she brought up my situation, and they were all hoping I would be O+ so I could potentially start a chain. She was also able to move up my last testing appointment (originally scheduled for mid October) so that I can now get everything done in the next couple of weeks. Once I'm completed with my testing and all of my results are back, she will send all of my information to their board for approval. Once I'm approved, they will either match me with an individual and the surgery could take place in 4-6 weeks, or if I decide to start a chain, they will start going through the process of matching and pairing people up for the chain, which will take a little longer. She also added a nutrition class to my itinerary. It's something they are now having potential donors go through. I can always use some nutrition education!
My other appointments today were an EKG, a chest x-ray, and an ultrasound of my kidneys. I was surprised at how quick the EKG was. I don't even think it was 2 minutes! Then, on my way back to x-ray waiting area, I had a slight wardrobe malfunction, and pretty much ended up flashing everyone who was sitting in the hallway, lol! I could not for the life of me figure out how to properly tie up the gown (really, can anyone??) so everyone got an eye full, for god knows how long until I finally noticed. Talk about being mortified! Then it was another 2 hour wait before my ultrasound. The ultrasound confirmed I do have 2 kidneys, so no surprises there! The ultrasound will help them determine if my anatomy will allow them to perform the surgery, and also so they can decide which kidney they are going to take. I was trying to look at the screen as he was doing the ultrasound, to see if I could guess which one they would take based in what they looked like. I'm going to guess they will take the right one. We'll see if I'm right!
Like I said, today was pretty easy. Tomorrow & Wednesday, probably not so much! I'm am dreading tomorrow. I can't eat or drink anything other than water after 8pm, because I'm having a fasting blood test done at 8am. Then, I can't eat or drink anything 2 hours before my CT angiogram at 9:50am, so that means I can't have anything after my blood test because it's within the 2 hour window. It's going to be a long 15 hours! I'm going to be "hangry!" :)
I'll let everyone know how tomorrow goes!
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