I can attest that there’s nothing more exciting than finding your organ donor. But imagine coming home after a hard dialysis treatment and wishing you didn’t have to do them anymore and there was no light at the end of the tunnel; only to have your best friend, soulmate and wife tell you that she got a call and that she was an excellent match for a kidney transplant.
I had been battling cancer and dealing with dialysis treatments 3 days a week for 2 years. I had been given the news that my cancer was in stringent remission however, I still needed to do dialysis treatments until I could get accepted into a transplant program. I finally did get accepted into the transplant program at Vanderbilt University, the only problem was with my blood type. I was looking at a six to eight year wait. I was happy just to be in the program.
My journey continued, day after day, dialysis treatment after dialysis treatment. I felt like the walls were closing in on me and there was no end in sight. The dialysis treatments were exhausting and really depleted my spirits. There is the diet, the lack of fluids, the venerability to heat and the physical tole the treatments put on your body. I would have an easy treatment and think, “I got this” one day, only to be followed up with a hard treatment that would leave me drained, tired and cramping. This would go on for weeks and months.
After returning home from a hard treatment, my wife excitedly greeted me at the door. I felt happy to have made it home and to be greeted with this excitement was very welcoming. The first thing I noticed was my phone had several missed calls on it from her, as well as some text messages. I started to get concerned and asked her what was wrong. I felt bad having missed these attempts to contact me. I started to get worried. She told me to sit down she needed to tell me something. I refused, I had been through so much up to this point I knew there was nothing she could tell me that would make me loose my balance. I was tuff and knew my limits. I told her to just tell me. That’s when she dropped the bomb on me. She told me that she had sent in her blood samples for the kidney donor swap program and she received a call last night.
It was at this point I expected her to tell me that she had been accepted in to this program. She then explained that we had the same blood type which was a shock to me as we thought that she was a different blood type all together. Not only that, she had matching endogens which makes her a perfect kidney match. They were working on getting her qualified to be a living donor for my kidney. The emotions ran over me and I fell to my knees, with tears in my eyes I looked up at her and asked her if this is what she really wanted to do. She knelt down beside me with her arms around me and said of course she did. I really don’t think I had felt an unconditional love from anyone more than her at that moment. I almost come to tears as I look back at that moment in my journey. Having being dealt with bad report after bad report, I had never expected to get this news.
My whole attitude changed. I felt as though I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was not alone in this journey of getting a kidney transplant. It has been 2 months since I got that news and we are currently waiting for the date to be set so I can receive her kidney. There is not a day that goes by where I see her and think to myself how lucky I truly am to have found my soulmate angle, and having the ability to spend my life with such a selfless person. Just knowing that I will have a piece of her with me makes me feel honored.
Comments
Post a Comment