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
WWWWOOOHHHHOOOO!
The journey continues…
We finally got a surgery date, one month from today.
What an incredible experience, thanks Al.
Leon
Leon you are awesome – hope all goes well. Here is something to think on, “God calls us to share from our abundance with those in need — and blesses us when we do. Once again, take good care of yourself.
Hi,
Thanks for running a great blog – my wife and I both enjoyed catching up and reading about your journey and your current situation.
I am 47 and hail from Seattle. IgA nephropathy began doing its dirty work in my kidneys sometime around 1982, and now I’m down to about 23% – Current serum creatinine 3.1
Again, letting others in on both the emotional and the medical journey is really helpful for someone like me, who is (reluctantly) following behind in your footsteps. Nice to know some parts of the trail up ahead.
My thoughts and prayers are with you and your wife and of course your donor for your upcoming big day.
Peace,
Bob