Evaluation Day - Update 1

Just a quick update on our day for those that have been praying and now wait on news of how effective their prayers were.   Of course, they were very effective.   I was at peace all day and I don't think it could have gone any smoother. We met many very kind and compassionate people everywhere we went.   The day opened my eyes to the whole process of kidney transplants as well as gave me an encouraging feeling on my own health situation.   The main goal of the day was to educate us on transplantation and evaluate us on our health and make a decision on whether I am actually a candidate for receiving a new kidney.   There are far fewer donor kidneys than there are people who need them, so they are very protective of those donor kidneys and they will not take the decision to give someone a new kidney lightly.   The criteria and decision to put someone on the national transplant list is complicated and only the healthier patients who have a higher chance of acceptance of a new kidney will make it to the list.  

The day began a little bit after 8:00 this morning with us and 4 other potential recipients sitting with the social worker learning all there is to know about pre and post transplant life.  I knew some of it but some information answered some questions that I had.   I'll go back through some of that information and post it in a different blog later.    It was very interesting to me to see the different type of people who were wanting to be a kidney recipient.  A couple of patients were definitely in full kidney failure and desperately needed a kidney.   They would prefer to transplant a kidney to a patient that wasn't already on failure which drastically increases the chances of long term transplant success.   They will be on my heart as I hope they can figure out a way to get them a kidney.

After lunch we were in one-on-one meetings with each of the transplant team leaders asking and answering questions about my health current and past.    They were interviewing us as much as we were interviewing them.   The outcome of the day will be them deciding on declaring us as a viable kidney transplant candidate, or not.  The alternative to transplantation is dialysis and while it's fine for some, I don't think my lifestyle will lend itself to that solution.  

After the meetings, each patient received a 'to-do' list of procedures and tests that need to be done before the team makes their final decision.   My 'to-do' list consisted of an Echo Cardiogram,  EKG,  blood-work, chest x-ray, kidney/liver ultrasound and a secondary blood-work.   We knocked out everything except the ultrasound and the second blood-work, which I will be doing tomorrow.   So the 'to-do' list that they said normally would take 3 months we knocked out in two days.  That is a big praise!  That means that I am healthier than most and they need less information to make their decision.   The coordinating nurse mentioned that they might make up their mind and let us know their decision by the middle of next week.  

I have a mountain of material to digest and read so the next posts will probably be just sharing any information that I've learned from the material.

If anyone has specific questions, post them in the comments and I'll try to figure out the answer.

Again, thanks to everyone who prayed in the last two days I am convinced that our day could have gone a completely different direction without God's leading hand in the whole process.

... stay tuned