Somebody to love

Are you familiar with the Queen song, Somebody to Love? Lately, I feel like my kidney has been singing that song a lot. "Can anybody...find me...somebody to love..." It's been 70 days since I was approved as a donor. 70 days of waiting as patiently as I can. 70 days of not finding a recipient for my kidney to love. My donor coordinator told me that if I'm not matched with someone in the Mayo 3 Site Paired Exchange Program within 90 days, I would be moving to a national paired exchange list. That 90 day mark is coming soon, and I'm getting a little anxious. What happened to being matched with someone really quickly, like she originally told me? The last few weeks, I've been trying to get a hold of my coordinator, to touch base and see what happens if I get moved to another list. Even if she didn't have much of an update for me, I still wanted to talk with her. It's been almost 2 months since we last spoke. I had left her several messages, and never recieved a return call. To be honest, I was really getting pissed off. In my opinion, she should be reaching out to me on a regular basis to make sure everything is ok, that I still want to donate, etc. I understand I'm not her only patient, and it's holiday season and people are busy, but to not return any of my calls is absolutely ridiculous. I left her another message earlier today, and then spent the rest of that day sitting at work, fuming, coming up with this rant I was going post about how horrible Mayo's communication is and how I was going to call first thing Monday and ask to speak to someone else who could help me because my coordinator obviously didn't care about me, blah, blah, blah. Then, a miracle happened. At first, I thought I might be hallucinating when I saw her number on my screen, but she was actually calling me!! It took me a second to realize what was happening and actually answer my phone, but I'm so glad I did, and you're about to find out why.

Drumroll please...

I have a potential recipient!! I HAVE A POTENTIAL RECIPIENT!!! Now, I hope I'm not jinxing myself by even mentioning this, because I really don't have much information yet, but I'm too excited to not share! She said nothing is confirmed yet, but they have been "playing around" with chain possibilities, and there is a potential match for me. The Mayo Clinics all have a weekly call on Thursdays, but because Christmas and New Years Day fall on Thursday, their next one won't be until the week after New Years. By that time, she said they should know if they are going to move forward with the additional testing for this recipient, which would start with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN sending me a blood test kit to have completed and sent back to them to test against the recipient. I'm assuming this means the potential recipient is on the list through the MN clinic. I've gotten lots of questions from family and friends as to who this person is, what's their story, etc. At this point, I don't know anything. I would guess that if we move forward with testing and we are a match, I'll find out a few things, but probably not a lot because medical information is pretty confidential and regulated. I guess I'll find out how that all works as we go along. In the mean time, I'm excited, anxious, curious...a whole bunch of emotions! Mostly relieved that there is someone out there who is a potential match. I've been asked if I'm nervous, and honestly I'm not. I think everyone else is more nervous than I'll ever be. A friend of mine has openly told me thinks it's great what I'm doing, but he wishes something would change my mind because he's nervous about something happening to me. When I shared the news with him today, the look on his face and hearing him say how nervous he is made my stomach tie up in knots a little bit. That's probably as close to nervous as I've gotten. I'm just excited that there is progress!

I promise that I will keep everyone updated as I find out more information. I have a few updates I'd like to share on some other people I've been following, but it's going to have to wait. It's been a long day, and I'm exhausted!!

Until next time, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas (or whatever you celebrate) and a Happy New Year. 2014 has brought so many blessings to my life as well as to others, and I know 2015 is going to be just as great!