Transplant Surgery Date Set

5/6/11           

For the third time I will try to sit down and write this entry. Friday, April 29^th, I received a call from Kami and she said that the transplant team reviewed my file and approved me for transplant. She told me I was a very healthy person and was an excellent candidate for kidney donation. The next step was for them to contact Cherina’s transplant team and set a surgery date. If all is going well with her then we could have surgery as early as June 1^st. She asked if I wanted to call Cherina, or if I would rather have them call and notify her. Of course I opted for telling her myself.

I called cherina and left a message, and waited impatiently for an hour or so for her to call back. She called from her car in the parking lot of a restaurant where she was having dinner with friends and we talked for 30 minutes or so, and even cried a little. We thanked God for his miracle that he is letting us live, and decided that we would forever be friends.

On Tuesday, May 3, I was at school talking with a co-worker about a surgery date, and not two minutes after our conversation I received an email from Kami with a letter attached on official UW letterhead thanking me for my generous gift of life. The letter was to inform me that the surgery date was set, and the operating room was booked for June 1^st. Irene from scheduling would be notifying me soon with more specifics. For now I should stop taking birth control pills (as it can increase the possibility of blood clots in some women) and two weeks prior to the surgery I am not to take any Ibuprofen, aspirin or the like.

Immediately after reading the email, tears welled in my eyes and I had to blink them away as I wrote Cherina the following texts:

I got you a present for your birthday

A Surgery Date!!! June first!

Immediately Cherina replied:

Omg! Omg! Can I call u?

I was at school, but stepped out on the front porch of the portable to take her call. We both cried and again rejoiced in God's plan. As we talked, Cherina told me about her dialysis class she is in right now, learning how to administer at-home peritoneal dialysis. She said that she would certainly be able to do it, because that is what was going to keep her alive, but my kidney was going to be able to save her from doing it for long. She said “if you only knew what you were saving me from doing every day…”. What a joy this is to give her. I have always felt that our purpose in life, our one job as humans, was to make each other’s lives easier. To work together and figure out how to keep life from being too much to handle. To share ourselves with those in need…

My work held a Bon Voyage kidney party for Sydney my kidney. The kidney that I will be giving to Cherina. They made placemats with clever sayings and a picture of a kidney, a kidney-shaped red velvet cake, Rice Krispy treats with two red jelly beans that looked like kidneys, cards adorned in Kidney’s and two of the staff members even preformed a song about my kidney. There are some pictures below. It was a beautiful celebration of the extra organ that God gave each of us so we might be lucky enough to one day be able to share

~Kara