About Me / This Blog

Hi, My name is AL / Allan / . . . ,   I live in Kelowna BC Canada.

I’m 47 as of 2009,  Married to Colleen for 26 amazing years, and have a Cool Son,   Dane.     I have Polycystic Kidney Disease, Family Present, Genetic’s,  Lovem and Hatem and have known since my early 20′s that I had this time bomb ticking. I knew my function was declining as I have been tracked by Specialists the last 5 years, but it looked like I had 5 – 10 years before it would be at the Dialysis or Transplant Phase.  WRONG.

Oct 2008 I saw a new Nephrologist in Kelonwa,  he Informed me I had about a year or so before I had to decide what kind of direction I want to take with treatment, Peritoneal Dialysis or Hemo Dialisys.  I was SHOCKED !, honestly,  but then they gave me a book to read about kidney failure and reading the signs I could see I was at about 23 % function.   January  2009 I hit 16 % function with lots of the Symptoms, Function bounced around 20 % – 16 % for a few months.

My wife is Incredibly Proactive and right away Emailed her Sister Randeen in Saskatoon and her husband Leon.  I was basically in shock for about a week  but Leon right away decided he wanted to pursue being a Living Donor and Give me one of his Kidneys if it was possible. A couple days after they heard I was Sicker he was already in seeing  his Dr. about getting the process started. Crazy or What ?  My wife also immediately pursued the donor route as well.

In January 2009, 2 weeks before My wife and I were to go on a 3 week , 25th anniversary African Safari my blood work showed my function was 16 %,  the Doc’s said Go anyway, just watch your hydration and get to the Lab as soon as I got back.  Upon my return function jumped to 21 %, FREAKY.

February 2009 both Leon and my wife were finalist as donor / transplant candidates, with my Brother and Sister and Nephew also at various stages of Donor Compatibilty testing.  I had several other family and friends ready to join the mix as well.  What amazing support, I was overwhelmed.

I discussed it with my wife and I did not want her to be the 1st Donor, save her as a backup as I didn’t want to have us both out of commission for 6 – 8 weeks or longer . We have a busy household and  She’s  primary owner of 3 retail stores and is the backbone to the operation. We have 2 fantastic partners, but didn’t want to stress the business that much.  Plus she’s had a couple funky health situations in the past , why chance it.

Leon ( my Brother in Law now elevated to full Brother status for Life ) was Gung Ho through the whole process.  I gave him numerous opportunities to opt out, and I would NEVER fault him for it, but every time was met with the same response. ” I’m in it for the long haul, Lets Do This Thing !! “  who can argue a response like that. He also tried to describe the feeling he was getting , being able to change my life and I couldn’t deny him that.  We’d always been Close, about the same age, live a few min. apart in the same city for years and had kids the same age. It just seemed right from my side too.

Leon was a perfect match for me, Strong, Health, Sporty, Mentally totally in it,  the Dr’s said he is the Perfect Donor !! But,  he was Type O blood ( meaning his Organs could be transplanted into any Blood Type ).  I am Type A,  quite common. We had heard about PAIRED EXCHANGE transplants where 2 sets of donors ( or more) who don’t directly match their recipients blood type etc. swap donor kidneys so they both end up with a new Kidney. We both got thinking Leon’s type O GIFT was to special to be dropped into an easy to match guy like me,  (I felt VERY STRONGLY about that ) so despite being a PERFECT Match we threw out names into the paired exchange run May 22, 2009. We hoped that his Type O would go to a hard to match person, getting them healthy and I’d still get my new kidney as well. The Transplant Team said the Type O Organ we were offering could very possibly save a life that would die waiting otherwise. Incredible !! It all came together and July 27, 2009   two transplants took place in the paired exchange, mine being one of them.   The Paired Exchange gave me a taste of what Leon explained as the Ultimate Gift.  We were not told who the other Pair was but I did meet them at the follow up Post Transplant Clinic by just chatting with people in the waiting room, I figured that would happen anyway .  The person we helped had been on Dialysys a long time and was quite weak and frail.  I got misty eye’s when we met.

That’s the short version of this saga.   I blogged about my failing kidneys as well, that blogs at  http://mydamnkidneys.wordpress.com/, it started in Oct. 2008 – June 2009 when this blog kicked in.

Your comments or experiences are welcome at all times.

AL

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June 25, 2009 by alskidneys | Edit

A New direction in My Journey, Transplant Bound

This Kidney Blog will cover the Second Phase of my Kidney Life ;

1) Pre-Transplant Prep ( July 2009 ),

2) The Transplant Itself  and Hospital  Recovery

3) The Recovery Months, post Hospital,

4)The Meds

I did’nt want to be putting New Kidney / Post Transplant and Recovery updates on a Negative Sounding Blog. Bad Karma I’m thinking.   So that’s  why a new blog.   We’ll start posting when We have a BOOKED Transplant Date .

I am really striving to be more Positive, especially now.  The last few months I let the waiting / sickness get to Me and became my own worst enemy on several occasions.  I will still be honest and open about what I’m feeling, but I am going to take the high road in dealing with whatever comes down the pipe.

I CAN’T CHANGE THE WIND,  BUT I CAN CONTROL MY SAILS ! !  I love that saying .

My Original Blog about Me / Us  dealing with Failing Kidneys is still here :

http://mydamnkidneys.wordpress.com/

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