Picking up from Wednesday –
Finally, in her last paragraph (the impressions paragraph), she said I was unaccompanied to the appointment (again this is being mentioned!).
In all seriousness – as a legitimate question – I’m wondering how people knew to bring other people. Since when do I bring people to doctor’s appointments? I’d had a million tests leading up to this. No one had to come to those. How was I to know I was supposed to bring someone? I can’t believe how many freaking dings I got just because of this. Eeeeeesh!
She just reiterated all the things we’ve already been over and ended with “It is not recommended that she proceed with non-directed donation at this time.”
*sigh* Even reading that sentence after all this time hurts a little. I remember how upset I was when it happened.
And I hope this story has really upset you too!
Now, because I get so wildly riled up about it, I’ve had some friends – honestly even a friend of mine who actually needs a kidney! – say that “oh, maybe she’s not so bad… I mean, you are kind of intense, etc. etc.”
And that is true! I am intense. It’s a word used to describe me all the time, and I believe it’s true. Sometimes that’s a wonderful quality when it comes to goal-setting, and focusing, and getting things done. And sometimes it’s not as great when you overwhelm people…
And I get it. And I think I’ve played devil’s advocate here before. So I don’t want to retread stuff too much.
But my main thing is, if the only thing she’s supposed to do is make sure I’m mentally and financially capable of doing this, then make me provide bank statements, or tax returns, or something.
Make me take a test to make sure I can be considered a mentally competent person who knows enough about kidney donation and possible complications and things. But please don’t twist everything I say and make me feel like I’m in this awful game.
This was an unbelievably horrendous experience for me. And I think many people would quit. After all, why in the world go through all this again?
But all this has done has made me more sure than ever that I desperately want to be a living kidney donor! (I will be.) (And there actually are bright sides to getting denied by OSU Medical Center.)
So, let’s try again. And let’s talk about it on Wednesday.