At The Transplant Clinic

Last Tuesday we went to the transplant clinic to meet the transplant team. The news was good as far as they were concerned. Sandra does not require any more tests to find out if she will be able to handle transplant surgery. The only thing left to do, is to test her blood for antibodies which determines how well her body will tolerate a new organ, without rejecting it. Antibodies are created by prior blood transfusions, or in women, prior pregnancies. The antibodies can cause the body to reject an organ, even if the organ comes from someone who is a blood match with the recipient. We also had some very good news, we were told that there are a few potential living donors for Sandra. However, we can not be told who they are, due to confidentiality policy. Sandra, being who she is, is now very concerned about the potential donor. She asked the doctors' how long she would be able to stay on dialysis, because what if the donor gets sick, and needs his/her kidney in the future, or if a family member of the donor would need a kidney further down the road? She was told that now is the best time for her to have the transplant, before she gets any sicker, or suffers all the complications that comes with dialysis. She was told that she will have at the most, a honeymoon period, on dialysis for two years. Dialysis is never a cure, neither is a transplant, but in Sandra's case, a transplant is the best/only option. Hopefully, the potential donors' follow my updates here, so I can thank you from the bottom of my heart.