An Update on Mom

We thought a blog would be a great place to post the latest updates regarding mom Paula and her kidneys as well as other things going on in our lives. There have been several friends and family who are interested and want to know more about mom so hopefully this will be a great resource.

As most of you already know, mom is in renal failure (kidney failure). She goes to dialysis 4 times per week for 3 hours each time. This makes her schedule very limiting as well as exhausting. Recently, we all met with the transplant team and found that mom is a good candidate for a kidney transplant. That was good news!

Ryan and I both tested and our blood types match mom's. Even though she is O+ and we are both A+, there is a sub-group in the A's called A2 that matches O blood. The next thing they look at is tissue type (specifically antigens). They look for the best match which would be a 6-antigen match between donor and recipient. Ryan tested as a 0 antigen match, whereas I tested as a 3 antigen match. Clearly, the more matches the better, however with the improvement of immunosuppresant drugs, less perfectly matched organs now appear to respond and survive as well as perfectly matched ones, particularly when the kidney is from a living donor. The third test is cross-matching. The basic crossmatch test involves a mixing of cells and serum to determine whether or not the recipient of a kidney will respond to the transplanted organ by attempting to reject it. This allows for a possible detection of a recipient who would reject an organ and therefore essentially prevent the transplant by indicating that rejection would occur.

This brings us to where we stand now. We have decided that I (Steph) will start the process of "work-up" which involves several other tests to determine whether or not the transplant should be carried out.

The decision to donate was instant and I knew it was (is) the right decision for me because of how comfortable I felt and continue to feel. If I can give my mom a chance to enjoy a longer and healthier life, free from the restrictions of dialysis then that is what I will do. One donor I read about said "It was like saving my own life because (my mom's) life is my life too". I thought that is exactly how I look at it.