The first part was meeting with a nurse to talk about medications and various parts of my life and health. I was very grateful to have Dr. Jane Gair there with me, not only for support, but to also ask the right questions. She could think of things that I may not have been able to think about.
Next, we went to go see Dr. Gill. He explained all aspects of the transplant process, checked in about my health, explaining the donor process, that the A blood type only has to wait 1-2 years while the O blood type has to wait 10-12 years. This certainly makes it a bit darker when you hear things like this. I could feel myself starting to well up - you start thinking about your future rather than hanging on to your faith.
We learned a few great things. We found out that donors actually live longer than the average person. This is likely due to the fact that they are screened so well and are therefore very healthy people already, but also that they are closely watched medically after the donation. Pretty cool eh?
Also, less then 1 % of the population end up in renal failure and on dialysis. So donors don't have a lot to fear about their own kidneys ever failing in the future.
Also - donors get moved up the transplant list once they have donated a kidney. So if a problem ever did happen - nothing to worry about!
I am a poster child for eligibility for a transplant, due to my fitness and health so this is good news too. One thing that was explained to me was that kidney disease is a vascular disease so my heart has some issues. There is a bit of hypertrophy, so this means that my heart doesn't pump quite as efficiently as it could or should. This means that I will have to see a Cardiologist and think about this when I am training for the Tough Mudder. I will have to be a bit more cautious about my training because of this.
My blood pressure was 140/80 today, so that was good.
After going through all of these assessments today, I felt like I played a couple of football games in a row.
The last part was with a social worker and I was almost falling asleep, but it was good to hear. A donor is up and walking around the day after the surgery and leaves the hospital 3-4 days after. I would be in hospital for 1 week and would have to relocate to Vancouver for 6-8 weeks while they follow me post-transplant.
So hopefully sooner than later, we can start spreading this joyous news about the living kidney donor and hopefully I can find someone willing to donate. One thing to think about is that blood types don't need to match. Anyone can enter into a partner program or a chain where someone can donate a kidney to someone else and then I can get a kidney from someone I may not know and so on. Also, there are drugs that I can take that will help me accept a kidney from someone that is not my blood type.
It would be so nice to not have to be on dialysis 3 times a week anymore. It would be nice to have my normal life back.
We are in Vancouver until Friday so I can complete the pre-assessment process and meet with the surgeon.
Me on the ferry from Victoria to Vancouver
At the Kidney Pre-Transplant Clinic at St. Paul's Hospital
Relaxing after an exhausting day at St. Paul's Hospital
Looking good Kev!
ReplyDelete