Tomorrow morning at this time dickson and I will be at Sharp Hospital and they will have already begun prepping him for surgery!!! We have a 5:30 call time and Dave and Jan have a 7 am call time. Dave the Donor, which is his new nickname, has a 9 am surgry time and Dickson's surgery is at 10:15. dave's should be 2 1/2 hours start to finish, we have been told that dickson's actual surgery time will be about 2 1/2 hours and his total surgery time could be more like 4-5 hours. We are not quite sure what all that means BUT we do know that by tomorrow evening they will both be sitting in chairs and the next day they will be going for a walk. And most of the time that lovely little Kidney will wake up and start working right on the operating table immediately after transplant......THAT is what our prayer request would be. Also, that lovely little kidney can work its life giving magic for 30 years after being tranplanted. Dickson is almost 59 so that little beauty can keep dickson's body off of dialysis until he is 89 years old , how amazing is that friends????? Truly , I ask how amazing is that??
For your info here is a recap of yesterday's pre op visit.
I started the day chatting on the phone with a college friend, Christie Catron, about her husband's successful kidney transplant. It took place 4 years ago yesterday. She said it was the wonderful turning point of renewed health and independence. After years of living their lives around dialysis and doctor visits, the new freedom was such a blessing. I am so excited thinking about that!!! How wonderful to have a willing a friend who has walked this path before me.. She says to call any time. What a blessing.
Dickson, Dave, Jan, Caitlyn and I spent Monday morning with the doctors and transplant coordinator. We are all set. We have heard so many wonderful stories of successful and een miraculous transplants. We are getting pretty excited.
Here are a few new and interesting transplant facts.
1) There is a scale that rates the anitbody (rejection factors) in the blood, the scale is from 0 to 100. 0 is the best and needs the least post transplant medication.......0 is what a set of identical twins would have......Dickson/Dave antibody rate is 1. isnt that crazy, The doctor was so pleased.
2) Asians for some reason statisticly have the lowest possiblity of organ rejection.
3) Dave will be in for 2 nights and Dickson may only be in for 6 nights, might be released on Monday or Tuesday.!!!
4) Because of the lowered chance of rejection, Dickson will be taking less medication than most organ recipients.
5) We have renamed Dave, he is now "Dave the Donor" you know like "Bob the Builder"
6) A breif synopsis of the surgery was given to us by Dickson's surgeon. Fisrt they take Dickson in and get him ready by making his insicsion etc, then they get Dave's robotic laproscopic surgery set up. He will have just 3 little holes made and Dickson will have about a 4/5 inch inscision. Daves surgeon pulls out the left kidney through one of those little holes and it is brought out already inside of a bag, daves surgeon gently holds the kidney in his hands and places it into the waiting hands of Dickson's surgeon,.Then he sews it into place in dickson's body. The hope is that as soonas that little miracle is sown into place, it "wakes up" and starts working even as they are closing up the surgery site. After both guys are sown back up they go to recovery.........Amazing,
We stand in absoulute amazement at the complexity and resiliency of the human body, We stand in awe in the presence of our amazing God, the creator of our human bodies. We humble ourselves in gratitude both to God who is the heavenly orchestrator of a miriad of details, and the medical team who has handled a miriad of earthly details. And how awesome are nephrologists?? those beloved kidney doctors!!!
Oh and before I forget again.........THANK YOU......we have been overwhlemed by your generosity. We wish we had a way to personally thank you for your financial gifts.......but many of you hae chosen to by anonymous........so thank you for you sacrificial gifts, we KNOW there are plenty of things that you would have been able to use those donations for to help you and our own families at this time. We are praying that God returns to you in mulitpied ways what you have given to us.
And off we go.........praying that tonight is Dickson's very last night of dialysis EVER!!!