June 13th

Hey all, it’s been a while! I’ll start by saying thanks for the thoughts and well wishes. I’ve had, by most counts, a perfectly lovely spring. I took just one course at the U, which I enjoyed thoroughly, and for the first time I didn’t feel like an imposter! It only took 4 years! That wrapped up in early May. My teaching term finished last week unremarkably. The politics at school were tumultuous this last year and the school will look very different next year, but I’ve been keeping my head low and this isn’t the place to discuss that. Dialysis has been similarly unremarkable, which is a nice change from the fall. I’ve been going like clockwork Monday Wednesday Friday since January. I’ve long given up on doing much work. Since the incident in February, I’ve seen dialysis as something to pass through. I’ve watched enough Netflix to do me for some time, though not to the point where I’ve overcome my childhood inability to function when a show is on. While I have committed considerable anxiety to my transplant prospects, I’ve been pretty happy these past few months. I’ve felt good. But it is still with a great deal of relief and excitement that I report that a transplant date is on the (very near) horizon!

First, a quick update on the past few weeks. As of early May, I knew of a few potential donors by way of “mid-run cross matches.” Before February, an initial cross-match was done virtually, by comparing tissue typing on paper. The final cross match, when surgery was scheduled and all the tests complete, was the first time the cross match was done by mixing the bloods. After the positive cross match against Jackie’s kidney, they began doing mid-run cross matches, meaning that four or five times, I got a call from my coordinator asking if I could do a blood draw for this or that potential donor. I know that there have been many more donors who did not make it to this stage – I am forever grateful to you! Thank you! And I know of at least one person who, though not a match for me, is going to donate to a stranger! That’s huge! There are so many awesome people, like myself, waiting for a kidney. Please consider it.

As of mid-May, my brother-in-love Paul Wichser was a match! He had kept me posted on his progress so it wasn’t a complete surprise, but still! He needed to get insurance before we could move forward, and that took some time and bureaucratic wrangling. Finally, he was able to get short term insurance knowing that he would have full coverage in the fall when he starts an a high school engineering teacher! Exciting on so many levels! As of last week, we were talking dates in late June and July.

Then, on Thursday, Paul was told there was another donor who was a better match. At almost the same time, Thursday afternoon, I got a request from my coordinator for a potential donor to contact me. Absolutely. Friday I got a call from a college friend of PJ’s, telling me that he was a match and asked if we could talk dates. We were also talking late June and July, though he asked if June 13^th would be too soon. Tomorrow isn’t too soon for me, and the 13^th was a wild pipe dream, but I said of course, the 13^th would be great. On Monday, he called again to say that, pending the final cross-match, we are scheduled for surgery on June 13^th. 

!!!!!

Now, as you might guess, I’m approaching this with an abundance of caution. I’m not going to fully believe it until they give me that sweet barbiturate push on my way into the OR. Well, actually I pretty much believe it now, and I’ll believe it a lot more on Thursday when we hear about the final cross-match. I’ll post here about those results.

I’m writing this from Pepin. It’s been an absolutely lovely visit for Oscar and I. I’m posting a few photos here, reminiscent of the old days when this was a travel blog. Plus a bonus picture of Miri offering me some pizza at Pizza Luce. Thanks for reading!