#64. Contagious! October 2012


I think what I have is contagious!  I have been getting phone calls and emails all day and a couple people have dropped by, wishing me well for my surgery.  I can sense that people are very excited that I am doing this, I think that the excitement I am feeling about this is catching.  It’s like it’s not just me doing the donation, but a whole bunch of people who are behind me, rooting for me too. 

A story where people get better…this is the kind of story that people love to hear.  Of course they won’t exactly hear the story of my kidney and how it is making a specific person better, but enough people have heard about how receiving a kidney can change your life if you have kidney disease.  People can use their imagination and they know it’s a good news story.

I am giving a kidney, but I've been thinking about the other people in this chain who are donating.  While they know one of the people who will be benefiting from the surgery, their donations in some ways  are more difficult.  First, it's more difficult for them because some of them probably have to travel to the place where the recipient is.  So maybe the loved one of the person who is getting my kidney in Toronto has to fly to Calgary or Vancouver to donate.  That would be so hard, to fly across the country and be far away from your support system while you have surgery.  And second, it's more difficult because they have to leave town while their loved one is having surgery.  Of course it's good surgery that will make them healthier, but I am sure they want nothing more than to be there and watch the person get better.  But they can't, because they are out of town recovering; and facing an airline trip home when they are still recovering.

It's easier for me because I am an undesignated donor, I didn't even have to go to Toronto if I didn't want to. I get the hospital and the doctor I choose for my donation, and they transport my kidney.  

I got a phone call from the hospital today.  I was so worried when I heard the transplant co-ordinators voice…was she telling me that the surgery has been postponed…that someone is sick?!  But no, it was that when I was at the hospital the other day for my pre-operative appointment, I forgot to go and get a chest x-ray.  I talked to so many different people and visited so many offices, I thought I must be finished.  So tomorrow morning I will go for the x-ray first thing.  A dress rehearsal for my trip there the day after that for surgery.