Transplant Date – July 27th

The match was confirmed and the transplant will take place July 27th at St Pauls Hospital, Vancouver ,for both Leon and Allan.

 They are giving a gift to an unknown person, who was having trouble finding a suitable donor. These boys are heros!!!

They could have just gone ahead with the transplant seeing as Leon IS a suitable donor for Allan, but they wanted to help others by going into the Paired Exchange Registry, where other people suffering from Kidney failure, have a donor, but they are not suitable. They were able to match Leon to one of these people, and use thier donor for Al. (amazing that they both matched)It is not likely that we will ever know who these people are, but now there is more than 1 person out there thanking God for Leon’s generousity!!! Also thanking Allan for not just thinking of himself and using his own donor. He was willing to pass this gift along to benefit another sick person. It really is a Win, Win situation.

This is rarely seen. Ussually the Paired Exchange has people in it who can NOT find a suitable donor. They do not get people like Al and Leon who are a match, but enter the program  to benefit others.

Allan needs to be at the hospital on July 23rd for a pre-transplant work-up. (We are going to Vancouver July 2 – 5 to look for an apartment near the hospital.) We have an appointment at the hospital to sign all neccesary forms and get some instructions.

Just having a date is a relief to many people (Al’s boss included)

We have our amazing support system in place. Randeen and Leon will arrive in Kelowna before Al has to go to Vancouver and stay with Dane until Leon is needed (the day before surgery).

They will come back to Kelowna where Leon can recover floating on our boat, and Randeen will look after Dane, the dog and the house for us. They will head back to Saskatoon around Aug 22, and my BFF Michele will arrive from Winnipeg to spend the last week of August and 1st week of Sept in Kelowna.

We are extremeley thankful for this gift. I am over-joyed that we have a transplant before Allan needed to start dialysis (as it was fast approaching) Thanks to our Pro-active support people in our lives (Durette’s you know who you are) we were able to make this happen.

Al’s mood has been uplifted since we got the news. We are so thankful!!!

We pray that the transplant goes well, and that Al’s body will accept the new kidney with happy anticipation, and he will be back to healthy Al soon.

Thank-you to our friends and family who have been so caring and understanding through this journey. We are truely blessed to have such an awesome support system.

 

AL Here.  From Now on we will be posting Updates on the New Blog.

” My New ( Transplanted ) Kidney Journey ”  a more positive Blog.

   http://mynewkidney.wordpress.com/

  See ya there.    AL

Paired Exchange Article from Thurs. 25th Globe and Mail

 

 

 

‘Kidney swap’ a first for Canadian doctors

Three Canadian hospitals

Successful procedure saw four people in three time zones receive new organs from live donors.

Marina Jimenez

From Thursday’s Globe and Mail Last updated on Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009 10:47AM EDT

In a Canadian medical first, four people with severe kidney failure received new organs from living donors in simultaneous “kidney swap” operations in Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto.

This innovative and logistically complex “domino” transplant began at exactly 10:30 a.m. (ET) in three time zones. That’s when the donors, who all travelled from out of province, were anesthetized in two operating rooms in Toronto General Hospital, one in Edmonton’s University of Alberta Hospital, and another at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.

Despite the novel nature of the multicity, multiorgan procedure, the core complexity is actually one of ethics. Kidney swaps are based on the idea of paying it forward, whereby a donor whose kidney isn’t compatible with their loved one, who needs a new kidney, agrees to donate to a stranger. In exchange, their partner receives a kidney from someone else.

The ethical fear is that when the patient receives a kidney, their loved one will rescind their offer to donate. That’s why the procedural ballet must be so precisely synchronized, leaving no room for any donor to change his or her mind.

Fortunately, that didn’t happen Wednesday night, and once the kidneys were removed from the donors, the four transplant operations went ahead in sequence, following months of planning by the Canadian Blood Services.

“This is a major step forward,” said Ed Cole, head of the University Health Network’s kidney transplant program in Toronto. “The people who got kidneys today would have waited on transplant lists for years, and everyone else on the list would have had to wait longer. It shows what can be done when we work together.”

By Wednesday evening, the donors and recipients were recovering on different wards – to safeguard their anonymity. And four teams in three cities breathed a huge sigh of relief after the surgical marathon.

 

 

 

The pilot project is the model for the future, made possible thanks to the CBS’s new national registry. It allows donors who can’t give a kidney to their loved one because of incompatible blood group or tissue type to sign up in pairs to swap kidneys with another incompatible donor-recipient pair.

Kidney swaps have recently made headlines in the United States, with one group swap portrayed on a recent episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

The idea, first pioneered in the Netherlands, makes sense because of the chronic shortage of kidneys. In Canada, 35,000 people have kidney disease and 3,000 are on the waiting list for a kidney from a deceased person, which can take eight years in Toronto and Vancouver. About 60 people die every year before a kidney becomes available.

Wednesday’s domino chain of eight surgeries began with an altruistic donor from B.C. who offered to give a kidney to a stranger. The organ went to a person who had signed onto the CBS registry. That person’s incompatible donor partner then gave to another patient in the registry, and the latter’s incompatible partner gave to a third person in the registry. That third person’s incompatible partner then gave to a patient on the waiting list.

“The first person is really a hero because they facilitated not just one, but four kidney transplants, with absolutely no personal gain,” said Dr. Cole, who helped organize the surgeries. “This is a win-win for everyone.”

The hospitals protect everyone’s anonymity for ethical reasons; however, if a donor and recipient wish to meet after they have recovered from surgery, the doctors can facilitate this, noted John Gill, a transplant nephrologist at St. Paul’s who also co-ordinated yesterday’s success.

Launched earlier this year, the federal registry has about three dozen incompatible donor-recipient pairs looking to “swap” kidneys.

Surgeons at the Toronto General Hospital and the Ottawa Hospital both did a round of “kidney swap” surgeries this year in their own hospitals.

But Wednesday marked the first national domino exchange. It took months of teleconference calls, lab and immunology tests across three times zones, said Peter Nickerson, executive medical director of CBS’s organs and tissues division. “It’s an innovative program that shows the incredible co-operation among hospitals, provinces, surgeons and patients.”

The CBS uses a sophisticated computer program to find matches, inputting the blood and tissue type of every donor and recipient in the national registry. The program then searches for compatibility, aiming for the highest number of matches and minimizing travel time for donors.

 

 

The CBS is expanding the registry to include incompatible donor-recipient pairs from all provinces, and is already planning a second domino transplant this summer. In cases where donors cannot travel, the CBS hopes to be able to “fly the kidney to the recipient,” Dr. Gill said.

Kidneys from living donors can last up to 12 hours outside the body, and can be transported via Air Canada’s “medi-desk,” located in the cockpit of a plane, he added.

Last year, 40 per cent of the 1,200 transplants in Canada used kidneys from living donors. The success rate is higher than transplants from deceased donors, and the kidneys last longer. Studies show donors don’t suffer long-term health consequences.

Replacing a faulty kidney also saves the health-care system $300,000 over a patient’s lifetime, and frees the patient from dialysis, an expensive and time-consuming procedure that removes excess water and waste from the blood. “Kidney disease continues to grow,” Dr. Nickerson said. “It affects people in all strata of life. It can be genetic, autoimmune or caused by diabetes.”

Patricia Campbell, a U of A transplant nephrologist, said the more people who join the national registry, the greater the chance of finding a compatible kidney. “We are thrilled this happened,” she said. “Everyone invested a lot of time and work in the background to ensure it was a success.”

Compatability Bloodwork this Morning

Monday, 22nd, 730 am , I’m sitting in the lab awaiting my turn for the most important bloodwork of my life ( to date ).
As mentioned b4, there is a paired donor that looks good on paper. Now they need to do the final compatability test this morning. My blood is drawn and rushed to Vancouver for testing against the paired donors blood, who is sittong in a Lab somewere else this morning. This is the Go / No Go Bloodwork as I understand it. No Pressure Eh !

Results a week from now. A prayer or two would be in order right about now. (I’m gettng on it ) .

At least I have an Ace in the hole as Leon can still donate directly to me, but this paired exchange that were shooting for would be infinately better as someone else would get a kidney at the same time I do, vs just me.

update to follow when there’s news. AL

Fingers Crossed !

We ( both Leon aka Donor and I ) Got a call from the Transplant Unit Friday 19th.   They have a promising Paired Exchange Match that looks good on paper.   Today Leon gets blood done and I on Monday for Final Tissue typing for the Paired Exchange transplant.

If the bloodwork checks its looking like end of July for the KNIFE . Perfect Timing.

I’m remaining cautiously optimiustic that its a go,  not planning anything yet.

We should have results June 29 / 30th.    Hence the Fingers Crossed title for this post.

A wife’s update

Another blood test was done June 11th. (Keeping closer tabs on it now that Al’s function is so low)

 Kidney function at 16% , and creatnine levels went even higher.

Doc wants to see him again in 2 weeks, and if he is still at this same level or lower, the Kelowna Dr says he will push for a quicker transplant.

Allan is in Sask. this weekend visiting family ,as he may not be free to travel for sometime. He wanted to get lots of visiting in with his mom before the transplant.

 

Incorperating a Finacial Principle Incorpeated into My Health.

Pay Yourself FIRST !

In My case I am Gassed by 3pm.  I had Good intentions of “working out”  but it was really tough to actually do it.

SO,  I decided ti work out before work, use my energy for my health not just for work.

It;s working out Well,  there’s a Gym at Work, free I think, so far anyway as I use my Master Key .   I do about 30 min. of free weights and body resistance excercises, 4 – 5 days / week, then  off to work.  I quite like the routine.  feeling more ready for the transplant and envision a Good  Recovery IF I get a Transplant.   Been a lot more positive the last couple days. Thats Good.   AL

It’s Tomorrow

Slept hard when I got home from work yesterday, about 1 hr deep sleep.   Watched a funny Movie, lots of laughing.  Had a decent sleep last night, only up 3x,  woke @ 7 and fell back to sleep till 9,  Highly unusual, got woke up by a phone call and got asked to many questions esp. after waking up 10 seconds earlier then Got Heck for 2 minutes , then got up to take on the day.

Light Breakfast and coffee, Laundry, Vacuuming, dishes, some tidying for Sask Visitors arriving tonight and now out to the yard.

Feeling Decent, no energy, but thats just the way it is lately, a bit of Kidney Ache and My Eyes look like crap today,  - dirty whites and weirdness under the eyes, but I wear it well . I’m not so frustrated, but havent had to many problems,  was suprisingly calm after the wake up phone call.  Now  for outside jobs,  get some groc.  and a snooze later in the afternoon .   Hoping today will be a Good one,  I’m trying to focus on the GOOD.

I  have to get a bit of a workout in today and some cardio soon as well before the gass tank is empty.  Physical work is great for burning off stress , frustration and I need the fitness if I Ever Get a Transplant.    Audios.