The Short Walk

Papers and vials for the lab

Walking across the street to the clinic

 












It's testing day!  Today I had an appointment set to get my physical, EKG and chest x-ray.  My papers and blood vials had arrived in the mail earlier this week, so I packed everything up and headed across the street to my doctor's office.

Waiting room

Temp Taking

 











Once I got there my doctor's office informed me that there might be an issue with my getting the tests taken at their clinic.  The issue seemed to be with the billing and the fact that my doctor's office would not participate in third party billing.  Hmmmm.... their solution was to instead bill me and have me try to get reimbursed by the Colorado Hospital.  Clearly this was not going to work, especially since the billing instructions ask the testing clinic to cover 30% as a goodwill discount since this is a donation process.  I was asked to go sit in the waiting room while they tried to sort everything out.

Finally the nurse came to get me and told me they would go ahead with the physical since that was being billed to my own insurance, and they would keep me posted about the rest of the testing.


Blood Pressure



Reagan keeping me company



 

My physical consisted of getting my medical history and the following: allergies, height, weight, temp, blood pressure, heart and lungs check, ears, nose, throat check, and a check on my abdomen to make sure there were not any lumps or bumps.  I had already had my pap done two months prior, so it was not necessary to get that done again.

Once we were through with that we got a call from the billing department letting us know that I would need to go to the hospital for the rest of the testing, as my doctor's office would not do the necessary third party billing.  Frustrating?  A little.  But the good news was that once I sat down with the appointments gal, she was able to get me in tomorrow morning for the remainder of my tests. 

Getting my physical

Papers for the lab

 

So the line up for tomorrow:

- EKG

- Chest X-ray

- Abdominal Angiogram

- Dozens of blood tests

Bright and early.... 6:45 am appointment to get it all taken care of.  Then I will also be collecting another pee jug for my second 24 hour collection.  Good times!

More tomorrow....

A Wee Bit of Info

More than 88,000 people in America are waiting for a kidney transplant; sadly, about 12 of these patients die every day because there aren’t enough donors. Many kidney patients have someone who is willing to donate, but because of immune system or blood type incompatibilities, they are not able to give a kidney to their loved one.

The Alliance for Paired Donation can help. Kidney paired donation matches one incompatible donor/recipient pair to another pair in the same situation, so that the donor of the first pair gives to the recipient of the second, and vice versa. In other words, the two pairs swap kidneys . APD has also pioneered a new way of using altruistic, or good Samaritan, donors, so that the transplants no longer have to be performed simultaneously. Non-simultaneous Extended Altruistic Donor Chains (NEAD Chains ) allow donors to “pay it forward” after their loved one receives a transplant.

Big decision, right?  Absolutely.  But if there is even a tiny part of you that is considering being a kidney donor, then at least look into the process.  I have a mixed bag of emotions about all of this... I am nervous, excited, a little apprehensive but most of all optimistic.  One thing I can promise everyone is that I will blog the absolute truth about my experience.  If something is scary... I will tell you.  If something hurts... I will tell you that too.  But I have a feeling that whatever might end up being scary or painful is going to be quickly forgotten about after I experience the absolute joy of this process. 

Love and hope,

~LL

My Social Media Discovery

For anyone who doubts the power of social networking, let me be the first to tell you that you can accomplish ANYTHING if you network about it enough. 

What Started It All

On May 11th I was browsing through my news feed and saw a post by someone in La Crosse that I am friends with on FB.  Now, I do not actually know a lot of the people I am friends with on FB.  I use the site for marketing purposes for my agency and music clients, and more than likely added this person in La Crosse back when I had a show there for Ty Brown (star of The Bachelorette and Nashville country singer). 

The post said: "White chocolate mocha topped with whipped cream.  Thanks Starbucks."  Not super attention getting, right?  But the post underneath it was.  A woman named Roxanne Hamilton Guberud had posted a response, "Ann, you have over 800 friends... I am going to post this personal request... for all of you who spent money on expensive coffee this morning (and those who did not)... please consider donating to a good friend awaiting a kidney donor .  He needs a living donor and also funds."

My interest was piqued.  Who was this person who needed help?  And how bad was the problem?  I went to Roxanne's FB page and scrolled through her posts until I found a link to a news article.  Article  The article talked about a man named Michael Pastur who was originally from La Crosse, Wisconsin but now lived in Colorado.  The article described the rocky road that Michael has been on.  In the past 2 1/2 years he has been treated for two blood cancers, received a stem cell transplant, survived a heart attack and lost his kidney function.  He has kidney dialysis three days a week and was being placed on an active kidney transplant list.

Could I help? 

Quite possibly.  I wrote back to Roxanne asking for more information and to find out what blood type Michael needed.  It turned out that Michael could be matched with either type O or type B blood.  My blood type is B+ so I knew that I could be put into the running to be considered as a donor. To me it was a no brainer.  This man needs help.  I might be able to help him, so why not try?  I have always believed in being a donor and have donated platelets for over a decade now.  I also helped two families have babies by being an egg donor five years ago.  I knew a bit about kidney donation because my sister had looked into it a few months ago, and I knew that with  my ultra healthy lifestyle I would be an ideal donor. 

So what next?

I asked Roxanne to give me the information for the next steps.  She provided me with the donor team's information at the University of Denver Hospital and told me to get in touch with them, and also provided steps in the process that I could expect to go through.  So I placed the call to the team in Colorado and had them send me all of the paperwork to begin the screening process.  The forms were what you would expect: basic info, health questionnaire, family history, etc.  No surprises, nothing difficult.  I completed the forms, scanned them into my computer and sent them back to the donor team.  I received a call back letting me know that they were going over my information and would be in touch with me soon.  My blood type and health history all were perfect, but they needed to look at some other factors. 

The Verdict

I received a phone call from Colorado.  I was told that unfortunately I was too small to be a match for Michael.  What?  I have a healthy kidney here... what's the problem?  Apparently for kidney transplants to be successful the size of the organ needs to be a close match.  I am a small woman, short and thin, while Michael is a tall muscular man.  The size difference in our kidneys would have been a bad match and his body probably would have rejected it. Great.  So now what?

The Alternative

Well, now that my size has failed me, what were my other options to help Michael?  I hated for this to be the end of the road.  So I was presented with option number two, which is a Paired donation.  A paired donation is a sort of "pay it forward" kidney trade where one willing donor that does not match their own recipient gives to an unknown recipient who in turn has a willing donor who will match up with the first donor's recipient.  Everyone wins!  Okay, this sounds like a great option too.  Maybe even better... save two lives instead of one, right?  Yes.  I'm in.

So I gave Colorado the go ahead and they sent me my lab orders.  Next week I begin the actual physical process of all of this and do the labs to determine if I am approved as a donor.  I am experiencing a number of emotions right now, but mostly I feel hopeful anticipation that I will be able to complete this successfully and help save Michael's life.  How cool would that be?  So follow me in the next few weeks and I will do my best to chronicle this entire event, what I experience, how I feel, pictures, comments, the whole nine yards.  I want this to be a very interactive experience for everyone following me so that maybe someday YOU will consider being a donor too!

Love and hope....

~LL