Moving Day

It's official! Surgery (or my kidney's moving day as I like to call it) is scheduled for March 25th!! Yay!!!! I can finally plan!

I'm sure these next 5 weeks are going to be crazy, but I'm ready! I've got meals in the freezer, my time off of work is approved, and I probably still have a million things to do...like renew my real estate license, do my taxes, finish up my advanced directives, ugh. But I'm ready! Everyone keeps asking me if I'm nervous yet, and honestly I'm not. I think I'm more anxious and stressed about preparing for my family to come and stay with me.

I have a couple of things to get through before surgery day. Mayo is mailing me another blood kit (oh how I love those) which I need to have done on March 9th. Hopefully that same day, I'll also have some additional blood tests to make sure I haven't contracted anything since my last tests in September, such as HIV, hepatitis, etc. If they can't be do e this day, I'll have to go in a week before my surgery to have them done. 

On the 24th, I have to show up bright and early for a fasting blood test at 6am (we also know how much I love those) and then a whole list of other appointments. Urine collection, ECG, chest x-ray, and then meetings with my coordinator and surgeon. Speaking of my coordinator, last week I got so frustrated with her that I finally emailed a donor advocate at Mayo and expressed my disappointment and frustration with her. Not even give minutes after I sent the email I got a call from the advocate. Apparently this was not the first time she has heard these complaints. She did explain some things that have been going on at Mayo and the transplant process in general, which explains why some things have happened the way they did, but also said she would forward my email to my coordinator's supervisor so that the customer service issues could be addressed. I don't know if they were already addressed with her, or if it's just a coincidence, but she has been sweet as pie to me for the last week, and I haven't had any issues with her! Thank goodness!

After I'm all done with my pre-op appointments on the 24th, I'll have a couple of hours and then I'll have to report back to Mayo at 3pm to be admitted for the night. Because my surgery is going to be so early in the morning, they will have me stay the night before. On surgery day, they'll take me down to get prepped for surgery around 3:30am, and surgery will start around 4:30 to 5am. At 9am, the courier is scheduled to pick up my kidney from the OR desk, and from there he'll head to the airport. It's not a direct flight to Rochester, so the courier will be traveling along with my kidney on the plane. The layover will be in Atlanta, which I think is pretty cool because that's sort of where this whole journey started for me. If for some reason they aren't able to make that first flight, they have 2-3 back up flight options.

Since I'm kicking off a chain, there will be multiple surgeries going on the same day or within days of each other. As of right now, I don't know anything about the other donors and recipients in the chain or where they are located, but I'm hoping to get a least a little bit of info so I can share it with everyone. With my donation, there are four recipients lined up and ready to go. At the end of the chain, there will be a leftover donor. I was told that their kidney will most likely be sent to Mayo here in Jax the week after my surgery, and from there they are hoping to match a few more people and add on to the chain. At a minimum, there will be five recipients in my chain, but hopefully that number will grow! Some people have a hard time understanding how the chain works, so I drew a little chart to show how mine is going to happen. Hopefully this helps! 

I think that covers just about everything! Oh, I almost forgot! I "met" a girl named Jessica through Facebook. We both belong to a kidney donors and recipients group, and we connected because we both have the same coordinator (and unfortunately issues) at Mayo. She lives in WI and she's coming down to Jax to donate to her cousin. Her surgery was scheduled for a couple weeks ago, but unfortunately had to be rescheduled the day of. I still can't imagine! How heartbreaking. Anyways, the change in date must have been a blessing in disguise, and our paths were meant to cross, because now we are having surgery just 2 days apart! I'm looking forward to meeting her! 

I also wanted to thank everyone for their generosity and for sharing my Go Fund Me page. I've raised almost $700, which definitely surpasses my original goal! Thank you, thank you, thank you! If you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, you can see it here. http://www.gofundme.com/jwrz4w

I can't believe the day is almost here! 35 days!!

Four little words

Over the last few weeks, I think I've experienced just about every emotion possible. Excited, anxious, nervous, angry, frustrated, annoyed, heartbroken, sad, overwhelmed, exhausted and everything in between. I've been sitting here staring at the screen for the last fifteen minutes, trying to figure out how to put into words how I'm feeling at this very minute. It's impossible. At 2:45pm today, I finally heard the four words I've been waiting to hear for what seems like forever.

You are a match!

I'm so happy to announce that my left kidney will be traveling (on a jet plane) to MN to be placed inside it's new home!

So much has happened over the last few weeks. It took forever to get my blood kits, my appointment at Mayo was mid scheduled and I fainted during my blood draw. Yep, out cold. After all of that, I recieved the sad news that I was not a match for my recipient. They had a reaction to my blood. Fortunately, they had another potential recipient lined up, so I did another blood draw and this time I didn't pass out. :) After a week and a half of waiting, I finally got the good news today! 

I don't know anything about my recipient, other than it's a male and he's at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. That could be all I'm ever going to know about him. I'm definitely open to the possibility of meeting someday, but he would have to want that as well. It is kind of weird to think about someone walking around with a piece of you inside them, and not knowing who they are. Not only am I saving this man's life, but four others are getting new kidneys all because of my donation. I am the start of a ten person chain, so a total of five people will be getting a new lease on life. That's incredible! 

As of now, I don't have a surgery date scheduled, but it will most likely be March 23rd or 30th. They try to schedule all of the surgeries in the chain together, and the caregiver for one of the recipients is out of the country so they need to find out when they will be back before we can finalize a date. I'll have my pre-op procedures done the Friday before my surgery, and then I'll be admitted to the hospital on Sunday evening because my surgery will be bright and early Monday morning, probably around 3:30am! It's done so early because my kidney will have a flight to catch to MN. There is a courier service who will look at flights once the date is set, and find the earliest flight from Jacksonville to Rochestor, and then they back schedule everything based on the time of the flight. The courier will pick up my packaged kidney from the OR desk and take it to the airport. They put it directly on the plane. If it's a direct flight, my kidney will ride in the cockpit with the pilot. I wonder if I can somehow get a photo of that? That's pretty cool! Once the plane arrives in MN, a courier there will come on the plane as soon as it lands and take the kidney to my waiting recipient at the hospital. If it's a non direct flight, the courier will travel with my kidney to make sure it doesn't get lost while switching planes. Now that would be an awesome job to have!

Now as soon as I have a date, I can start planning a kidney going away party! Don't laugh, I'm serious. :)