Time for another installment of this Wednesday/Sunday night series!
Picking up from last time –
This kidney stuff, it’s a roller coaster of emotions for many reasons, but one is that the people you are growing to care about may have problems (and may be taken off/put on the list during your testing).
…But, you may not have to grow to care about anyone if you give to a complete stranger. More on that later.
(By the way, if you’re wondering about the health of the mystery man, whom I don’t want to say too much about since this is the internet and I don’t want to be spreading anyone else’s personal information (though maybe in this case I should, since he wants a donor!) – this was back in early/mid December 2012. As far as I know, he still does not have a donor. But he has been put back on the list.)
So, his mom gave me the phone number I needed, and I called a transplant coordinator from OSU Wexner Medical Center.
I really did not imagine that I’d be going through a hospital in Ohio, but this seemed right since this was definitely the guy (spoiler alert – nope, not the guy, says our antigens). But when I thought he was, Ohio seemed doable. my dad lives in Ohio, so I thought it might make things fairly easy for me.
Grace* (*let’s call her Grace, ’cause I bet these people don’t want me using their real names, so I’m making up fake ones), one of the kidney donor program assistants was so pleasant and kind. She told me about the process. When I mentioned the name of the man for whom I wanted to be tested, you could hear her smile through the phone.
She repeated his name as though everyone knew who he was, and he was so popular and loved – and I’m sure he is. If he is, in real life, anything like he is online, he seems like a great guy. I’m almost certain he must be the life of the nephrology party.
Grace said that I need to be mentally prepared to not be a match for him since I guess he has sort of complicated antigens and such – but, she reassured me that even if I’m not a match for him, I would match someone in their hospital.
I told her from the beginning that I had a medical history. I didn’t want to make her waste time, postage, or anything on me – if I wasn’t going to potentially be a viable donor. But nothing knocked me out of contention during our phone conversation.
She sent me an impressive packet. There was a handy dandy DVD along with a folder full of information. So, no matter how you preferred to learn (watching or reading), (or if you just wanted to reiterate things to yourself in a second way), you were all set.
And this is where I’ll pick up next time.