Two Good Kidneys

4/24/2011

On Thursday Shane and I went back over to UW for our last appointment before the surgery. I had a 12:15 appointment for a CTA (I think the A part designates the contrast dye, opposed to a normal CT where there isn’t any. The contrast dye allows you to see veins and arteries in the scan) and an appointment with a surgeon at 3:00. I was instructed to fast (clear liquids only) for 4 hours before the CTA.

We arrived right on time to the CTA scan, and this time we knew where we were headed. Second floor, radiology department, near the Pacific Elevators. We checked in and waited for a few moments while I filled out a questionnaire about being allergic to iodine or other contrast dyes, a short health history about heart and kidney disease and why I was having the scan done.

I was taken back to the CT waiting area and a nurse came out and started an IV and instructed me to drink a full glass of water. After the cup was empty I was lead back to the CT room, laid on the table and just had to pull my jeans down so the zipper was no longer covering my bladder. With a blanket covering me I began the scan. I was told to listen to the machine and hold my breath when asked, and they would warn me before the contrast was injected through the IV. I was told that I would experience a “warm sensation” immediately following the injection. The table began sliding back and forth through a giant white donut. After a few slides I was told that the dye was about to be injected and again I would feel “warm.” What she forgot to say was that the warmness would only be felt in my trunk, and I might feel like I was peeing my pants! After making sure that I didn’t have an accident, round 2 of the dye was injected and more sliding through the Krispy Kreme look alike. After fasting for four hours I felt like Homer Simpson lusting over the doughnut (MMMM doughnuts!) The whole process took about 15 minutes.

We had a quick lunch in the cafeteria of the hospital, called to check on our sweet little Ainslee who had pneumonia and was at home with grandma and her sister, then we headed up to find the 8^th floor transplant clinic.

When we got there the nurse/receptionist told us that we would have at least a half hour wait – our first wait in seven appointments at UWMC. The wait ended up being 1 hour and 45 minutes, but was well worth it. Dr. Bakthavatsalam (don’t even ask how to say it – I had to check the spelling three times while typing it!) was the surgeon that we met with, and he did a short physical, checked breathing and pulses and things, then sat us down to talk about the specifics of the surgery. It would take about 3 to 4 hours and would be done mostly lapriscopicly. I would have 4 incisions, 3 for the scopes and one where the whole kidney would be removed at the end. The surgeon said if my kidney was cancerous then they could chop it up inside me and suck it out a tube in one of the holes, but we need my kidney intact and in good condition so they will have to make an opening big enough for it to be removed. They will go in and shove (or gently nudge) the neighboring organs aside and inflate my belly with carbon dioxide, clamp off the veins and arteries running to and from the kidney, then detach the uriter from the bladder and clamp off that opening, then make a big slice and take the kidney out. They would move everything back into its original place, sew me up and I’d be done. Sounds pretty routine.

He went over risks and complications and said that chances of anything going wrong were like two in every 10,000. Sounds like pretty good odds to me, but to Dr. can’tsayyourname, he said that is too much for a healthy living donor. According to him, there should never be anything that goes wrong because this donor is putting their healthy life on the line for no physical gain of their own and even one mishap ever is too many in his mind. He said that each donor surgery he does takes 2 days off his life because of the stress it causes him. In his strong Indian accent he said that he does surgeries all the time in cancer patients where he stops the heart, but that is not stressful, just a challenge. He knows that it beats the alternative. But for a donor, the alternative is to live a healthy life with 2 kidneys if they do not do the surgery. I don’t think he was trying to scare me out of it, but simply saying the true facts. With his religious views silently displayed in the white and red markings on his forehead, he must understand the compulsion to fulfill God’s will, even if we do have different Gods.

After talking about the surgery, he showed us pictures from the CTA scan. Hopefully I can get copies of them so you know just how cool they were. He was able to scroll through a series of pictures, starting at the top of my diaphragm and ending at my bladder. We saw my two beautiful kidneys nestled in close to my other important organs. Then we moved on to a screen shot of my bright pink kidneys isolated from everything but the aorta and some veins and arteries. He could spin my kidney’s 360 degrees so we could see all sides and angles of them. They looked like a textbook pair to me. Lastly he showed us a picture of my white bones of the ribcage and vertebrae, white aorta and other veins and arteries, and the rest of my organs- minus the intestines because they cover everything up (those were digitally removed) in various shades of pink and red. We couldn’t believe we were looking at my insides. It really looked like a picture from my high school anatomy book. At the end he told me that the radiologist has to officially read the scan, but he thought I had two beautiful and donate-able kidneys. Perhaps he didn’t call them beautiful, but I am sure he thought they were. He said that they usually leave the better of the two kidney’s for the donor, but in my case, one wasn’t necessarily better than the other. Not sure which one, but there was one slightly bigger than the other, but the smaller had two sets of veins and arteries so that one had a better blood supply. He said it was normal to have different numbers of veins leading to either kidneys, so it was nothing to even think twice about.

Shane and I left the hospital on a huge high, and a very empty stomach. We ate dinner at the RAM in U-village and excitedly talked about the days events. We both still feel really good about giving a kidney to Cherina and can’t wait to move forward.

I talked to Cherina the for most of the drive home and recounted the days events. She was excited to hear the news, and I was excited to be able to share it with her. Her creatine levels are out of control and she needs to start dialysis soon. She hasn’t been feeling well and it is starting to take a toll on her. The poor thing needs a kidney as soon as possible, and she was on the phone worrying about me, how long my day was, the time I spent away from my kids and the time I will be spending away from them. Once again she wanted me to know that she would still appreciate everything I have done for her if I decide to change my mind, and to make sure that I didn’t feel any pressure to follow through with the donation. Seriously? She is amazing and I can’t wait to be able to change her life!