Today marks the TWELFTH! anniversary of my cousin's kidney transplant, the best April Fool's Day present my family has ever gotten. For those of you who don't know the story, my mom was set to donate one of her kidneys the morning of April 1st, 2003 to my then-19 year old cousin. My mom was a better match to my cousin than most people are with their own children, a miracle in and of itself.
After my mom went through the extensive testing, including a psychological evaluation, the surgery was initially scheduled for March 17th. In our Irish family, we considered a surgery on St. Patrick's Day to be good luck. However, my cousin broke her foot a few weeks prior, and after the surgery they wanted her up and about within two days. With a walking boot on, they felt this would complicate things, so they pushed it back a week. Then my mom developed a rash, and they weren't sure what was causing it. They wanted to rule out shingles so they pushed it back to April 1st.
During her last dialysis treatment on the afternoon of Monday, March 31st, the transplant team came to my cousin, her mom and my mom - who was just about to leave to go to be admitted - to tell her they had a cadaver kidney from a young man who perished in a motorcycle accident. By the time the surgery was complete, it was Tuesday, April 1st.
It has been 12 years and she has not had a single complication - knock on wood. We are truly grateful every day for the miracle of life the young man gave to our family. My cousin has seen age 20, now age 30 and beyond. She is my daughter's godmother and they are absolutely smitten with each other.
I don't want to be preachy, and I understand there are religious and moral reasons to not become an organ donor, but if you don't know anything about it and are not an organ donor I would hope you would at least find out more about it to make an informed decision. If you are an organ donor, thank you and please let your family know your wishes, or include it in your health directives.
Glad your cousin is doing well, and kudos to your mom for offering her help (as well as to the family that donated the kidney for your cousin).
Thank you for posting. I'm signed up as an organ donor on my driver's license, and MH and my mom know I would like to do this should the situation arise.
MH recently got called for further testing as a bone marrow donor! He's waiting on the results and he's hoping that he'll be a match.
Post by heliocentric on Apr 1, 2015 15:56:22 GMT -5
Thanks for posting your story and reminder. I think today is my mom's 5th transplantiversary. The fact that I can't remember exactly is because it just seems so normal--which is actually quite extradordinary!
Mr P and I both have the little donor hearts on our driver's licenses and this is a good reminder to add to our advance directives we are having done this year.
Thanks for posting your story and reminder. I think today is my mom's 5th transplantiversary. The fact that I can't remember exactly is because it just seems so normal--which is actually quite extradordinary!