Today I met with the transplant doctor. I was quite geared up for this meeting, so I was glad it finally happened. A transplant doctor is a nephrologist. He is the person who figures out who should be donating and who should be receiving a certain kidney. He is not the person who does the surgery. That doctor is a urologist. So I have learned something new!
And I also learned that I am healthy! The transplant doctor went over all my tests and told me that I don’t have HIV, I don’t have diabetes, I don’t have lupus, and I’ve never been exposed to Hepatitis B or C or a type of flu to which 80% of Canadians have been exposed. I don’t have high cholesterol. My kidneys are operating just fine! I’ve never gotten so much good news in two minutes! I thought I was healthy, but now it is confirmed!
I had a very pleasant and long meeting with the doctor…an almost 90 minute appointment. He was very congenial, although it was obviously the end of a long day for him. He explained that all the tests were great and that I look like a good candidate for being a kidney donor, so we can move on to further tests. Terrific!
Again there were questions about my family history, my medical history (do people not read what other people have already written down, I wonder?), but I guess there’s no harm in double checking things. One of the things I told him was that my mother died of a pulmonary embolism after an appendix operation (I was 4 years old at the time). He asked me whether anyone else in my family has blood clotting problems, and I said I didn’t know, or at least I hadn’t heard of anyone. He said he will do some tests on my blood to check for that, just in case. He also did a brief physical exam, listening to my heart and my breathing, and looking in my eyes.