Hi everyone, I signed up to blog here long ago and never did because of my oldest son. I never thought my first post would be this story. Our lives have changed radically. It proves to me that God answers prayer, at the best time possible. Not all answers go smoothly when you get them, but some are worth the wait. Such is the case for my family.
On July 2nd, my oldest son and I were eating lunch at a local sushi restaurant, enjoying our machi rolls and clear soup tremendously. His phone rang at 1:16pm. He hit ignore without looking to see who it was and said, “I’m eating, they can wait.” Well, the phone rang again seconds later, so he answered. I watched the expression on his face change radically and heard a few indistinct words as he talked. When he hung up, his mouth hung open, his eyes were glazed over, and he didn’t say a word.
“Who was it?” I asked twice before stuffing a piece of California roll in my mouth.
“Uh, uh, it was OSU Medical Center (for those who don’t know-the Ohio State University Medical Center)…they have a kidney for me.”
My eyes welled up with joyful tears and I couldn’t say much either.
He made a statement that stopped me in my tracks, “If you’re going to get all hysterical and cry go to the restroom, but hurry up!”
How he expected me to NOT get hysterical and cry was beyond me and still is, but I didn’t do either because I knew we had a long drive ahead of us. We jammed in the rest of our meal, paid the bill, rushed home, he packed while I packed my laptop, phone and laptop cords, some clean clothes and toiletries, went on Mapquest, and called or e-mailed everyone I know! He was also e-mailing everyone he knew, which meant some overlap notifications.
After a nerve-wracking drive, during which he encouraged me to speed by saying something to the effect that the troopers “won’t give us a ticket because of where we’re going with the kidney only being viable for four hours and all,” we pulled up to the valet parking at OSU Medical Center at 3:00pm, hot, exhausted, and bewildered that it all was happening so fast.
Our family had waited for this day for almost five years,with one false start when a live donor backed out three years ago, but never really expected it would happen. With work and watching their diet, dialysis can keep a person alive for a long time, but it drains the will and the body to the point where some people become depressed recluses. I was seeing this in my son. Needless to say, we were overjoyed at the thought of that all ending. At 7:30am on July 3rd, they took him to surgery and he came to the recovery room at 9:00am. Shorter than many transplant surgeries and I’m glad, I was alone and don’t think I could have taken a longer operative time! His new kidney began working before they even had it fully hooked. The surgeon called it a “young kidney, eager to work.”
He came home on Thursday, July 8th and recovery is going well. There are new obstacles we didn’t know about that he has to face, such as the unexpectedly high cost of the anti-rejection drugs, taking his vital signs every four hours, having blood drawn two days a week, and going to the bathroom practically every hour because he has to drink three liters of water a day, losing weight, and getting his blood pressure down. He’s complaining about not getting any sleep at night due to going to the bathroom constantly, that will end in about three months as his bladder gets used to being used again. Gee-for me as his constant companion and best friend (not to mention being his mother) for the last five years, that sounds absolutely FABULOUS! Things will settle down after three months we’re told.
If you know someone who needs a kidney, don’t be afraid to help, donate now or mark it on your driver’s license and tell your family you want to be an organ donor. A young man from Columbus, Ohio, died a senseless death on July 3rd, but the three or more people whose lives he saved or made better know it was the best gift and legacy he or anyone could ever give-LIFE-the young man and his family are heroes to me and my family. Please, be a hero to someone and encourage others to do so. Because of what my son went through, my brother-in-law has marked his driver’s license to be donor, three more lives will be saved someday!
