I *hate* needles

24hr urine collection, not my favorite. I felt awkward and uncomfortable and chained to my home. I was scared to be out and about lest I had to pee. So I hung out at home most of yesterday. Which wasn't too bad, but it was a beautiful day out and the first Saturday hubby and I haven't either had something to do for work or been out of town in about 6 weeks. But, minor inconvenience.

So this morning I go to drop of the collection container, get a blood test, and give 1 more urine sample. I went as close to the end of the 24hr period as I could, as I was advised. But today's blood test... man do I hate needles! My left arm is typically the arm they draw from as I have skinny veins, but today after the needle was shoved in and wiggled around and I almost passed out, she decided the right arm might be the better alternative. So onto the right arm... I'm not sure if this was actually true or not, but it felt like the needle she was using was huge! It wasn't a tiny prick, it hurt! And since it was only 1 vial of blood today she didn't use a butterfly needle, the ones with the cord, she used a regular needed and so when she went to impale the vial to collect the blood she ended up digging the massive needle further into my arm and sending sparks shooting up and down. It was not a pleasant experience.

So now I have two track marks from today's test, and the urine collection is done! At least the last sample I had to give was a regular lab sample and not a 24hr one... that really sucked. I guess if I'm being honest it made me feel like I was sick, like there was something wrong with me. None of the other tests have made me feel that way, all the other tests have been to confirm that I am healthy (as I know this one was as well) and were just something I did. But this urine collection... not a fan.

I can see the bruises starting from the blood test too... long sleeves for me today so people don't think I'm turning into some sort of junkie with all the track marks I have lately. Ugh.. could never be a junkie, cannot stand needles.

So here's a question for you: what is your least favorite medical test/procedure and how do you cope?

24hr what?

*Disclaimer - I know the contents of this post are not of the nicest subject matter, but one of my objectives is to chronicle my entire experience throughout this entire process, and urine tests are a part of that, so they are a part of this.*

24hr Urine Test. Right. Just got a call from my transplant coordinator and although in this center they do renal scans, the center where I will be donating does Urine. Therefor she just faxed me a lab requisition and I will need to do a 24hr collection (which will likely happen on the weekend). They are testing for Creatinine (among other things) apparently.

So my understanding is that I will do a void first thing in the morning, then collect all urine for a 24hr period, stopping at the same time the next day. Hence they advised me to do it on the weekend (so I can keep the collection container in one bathroom). When I go to drop the sample off (or when I pick it up, which ever works) I need to do another urine collection and get a blood test as well (although I think the blood test needs to be at the end of the 24hr period).

The good news is apparently the receiving center has everything else that they need (including some fresh blood from Monday's blood test) and that if all the test results come back clear we are good to go.

So *fingers crossed* that I void well this coming weekend, and the next news item will be that I have flights booked and am headed out of province. Of course, I will continue to keep you all updated on the nitty gritties of the process, but in the meantime, here is a question for you: What is the best/worst experience you have had during a medical test?

What is that? Is that a Match? I think it is!

So we have a match! An out of province match, but a match nonetheless.
Whee!

So I found this out last week, and this morning went for my cross-match blood test. Apparently they need as fresh as possible blood, so they wanted to get me in right before the courier was there.

Simple blood test, 6 yellow vials, a red and a lavender. A little woozy after, but thats more because of my distinct hatred of needles. They just bother me soo much!

But, the test has been done, away the blood goes and hopefully we will get a verbal confirmation within a week. I did run into my transplant coordinator in the lab, and she said that its normally 2 weeks to get results but because of my time crunch they have it flagged and will be able to give verbal confirmation hopefully within a week. Yay!

So from here, once we get the confirmation that I have passed the cross-match test, then I need to be accepted into the donor program of the recipient's province, and go through final cross-match tests which will likely be done in the few days prior to surgery. 

My transplant coordinator is getting a social worker involved so hopefully Hope Air will be able to fly myself and my hubby out, and I have a buddy in the place I'm going that I have already cleared being able to stay with. Yay! Hopefully if this all comes together we won't have to pay flights or accommodations out of pocket.

So now it really comes to crunch time at the office and at home to make sure that I have everything set up for the temp, and my guest room set up for continued and long-term use for when the family comes to stay to help take care of me.

Which brings me to a question for you guys: What are your support systems like? Did many people know about your donation? Who was there with you post-op? Do tell!

Trixcie Dates

So here is the trixcie part. My husband started a new job at the end of August and is not off probation until the end of November. If he takes any time off during that period, it is unpaid time. When I go off on medical leave my income (after the two week waiting period) drops to 55% of what I currently make. So we can't really afford to have him take any time off in November.

This wouldn't be a big thing except for the fact that my mother also recently started a new job, this time in September, and can't take any time off during the week either. So on weekends I will have lots of help, but during the week I am going to be on my own.

Again, this is trixcie because I need to be back at work by February, and planning for 8 weeks recovery, that means surgery has to happen in November. Which is going to be tough because my husband can't be there with me, and short of telling more people about this (which I'm still hesitant to do) I am going to be recovering alone.

So how to figure this out? If surgery is on a Friday, then I will have my hubby around (and my mother) for the first few days, which are likely the most crucial. But this all depends on when an OR is available, which might not be a Friday. And given the short notice of all of this and how much logistical work is going on that I don't even know about, Friday might not happen.

With only a small group of people knowing about this surgery, and even fewer of them in this city, this is not easy, and both my hubby and I have been slightly stressing about it. I guess it will be easier to figure things out when we have a specific date and arrangements can be made, but not having anything concrete to go off is hard (I'm not a fan of being in limbo).

As soon as I know more, I'll let you guys know. Until then, question for you: How did you deal with surgery and recovery? Who was there for you?

My own hesitancy

All the way through this process I have been blogging about tests, doctor's appointments, and random thoughts within about 24hrs of the event, or the event that triggered the thought process. Yet at the biggest moment in the process thus far I hesitated to blog about it. Yes, I've been busy with work (its our busiest time of year) but the same way I always seem to find time to email my best friend, I know that it would be easy for me to find time to update here.

So why the wait? Why has it been over a week since I got the call before saying anythings? To clarify that just a touch, I got the call, my boss knew right away as she was in the car beside me, and I promptly called my hubby to share the news (left a voicemail), and texted my best friend. I called my mom within a few hours as I knew it would be a bit more of a conversation with her instead of "Hi, got approved for surgery, very excited! chat more later, love you, bye!" and I wanted to make sure I had that time.

But why didn't I blog about it? What was stopping me? In all honesty I don't know. I've thought about it, it being both 'I should post' and 'why haven't I posted about this yet', and I've got nothing. Although I do think I am making up for the lack of posts in as this is my third of the night. As for the time delay, the best I can come up with is I wasn't sure how I was going to share the news with the 'world' and needed to let my back-brain sort things out (back-brain is my subconscious, I often put problems there that I can't consciously figure out a solution to, and when my subconscious has figured it out, I become aware of the solution). After all that time and subconscious activity I would have thought my announcement would have been accompanied by a bit more fanfare, however I am just not that good at coding and didn't know how to make fireworks go off when you got to my blog. That and they would be almost like a pop-up ad which I despise more than anything. So no fanfare, just a simple announcement that has now been buried under 2 additional posts. Meh.

Thankfully, blogging is the only thing I have had some hesitancy about in this whole process. Yes, I do think twice about what I am doing, but do I ever doubt my decision? No. Not for a moment. I was on the phone with my mother last night and we were chatting about this, and again babies came up. Her thoughts are I shouldn't do anything that could potentially harm my *eventual* babies, that they deserved every opportunity I could give them. I countered with 'the recipient is some one's baby. They have a mother and a father and a family too. Don't they deserve the opportunity to live?' Her only comment to this was that I was her baby.

This goes back to my thought process: Just because I don't know someone doesn't mean their life is worth any less than mine. My kidney is not going to a dump, to someplace where it will be wasted and any potential health risks will have been in vain. My kidney is going to give someone another chance at life. Therefor, any and all risks are worth it.

So here's a question to you: what are your views on the value of life? on human nature? Do you believe that all people are inherently good? Or all are inherently bad and have to be taught to be good? Nature vs nurture?

Switching Sides

I was in the car with my boss running errands when the call came through. I was over the moon, doing a happy dance in my seat (she was driving) and she... took a deep breath. She told me that through all of this she had played devil's advocate trying to make sure I knew what I was doing (and I'm sure trying to convince me not to go through with it) but now that its been confirmed, she is switching sides.

Switching sides means that she has said her piece, and now will be there to support me wholeheartedly. She will be there for me, not just as my boss, but as a friend. I feel so blessed. I truly do. Donation is very important to me, and knowing that I have support and am not going to have to continually defend my decision makes it easier for me. It was going to happen one way or another, but its nice to know that the people I know and love are behind me instead of fighting me.

So to you, my wonderful boss, I thank you for your support.

And to any readers out there, what are your thoughts? What type of support have you encountered? How does it influence your decision? Would love to hear what its like for you...

We are Go For Donation!

Thats right, I got the call, the team had Rounds, and I have been cleared for donation!
They are putting me in the local tissue bank to see what they can find, as well as in the National Registry for possibly getting involved in a paired exchange. How awesome is that?

To be honest I am relieved. I was worried that they would say 'no'. I was worried that they would look at me and say 'you are a young woman, you haven't had kids, so thank you for the thought, but come back after you've had babies.' Don't get me wrong, my mother wold be over the moon if they said that, she thinks I should wait. And I think I should wait for babies. I'm young, I have lots of time, hubby and I are still getting things sorted, and now is the right time for donation, not for babies.

Getting back to the 'its a go for donation' part, YAY! I am super excited about this and now just need to wait for a match... Gosh... thats one thing I never really thought of, what if they can't find a match? I mean, I don't think that my blood type is that rare or anything like that... and I don't think that I would be so unique that there wouldn't be a match in the entire country. But I never really thought of that.

So where do we go from here? Well, I wait for a match to be found, then I will have a blood test (apparently they need fresh blood) to confirm the match, and although I am sure there will be a few more tests thrown in there, it pretty much goes to booking the surgery, final tests to confirm the match, then the surgery. Pretty simple and straight forward.

For me personally, as soon as a match is confirmed and surgery is booked I am going to start my time off work. Hopefully I will be donating in my current city, but if not I would need to be in the city of donation at least 4 days before (and at least 10 days after). That being said, I am sure there are going to be so many tests and things to do that I won't be able to give my job the attention it deserves, so I will take a few days before medical leave kicks in.