Thursday, March 04, 2004
You Only Need One
Next Tuesday, March 9th, my mother will go to the hospital to donate one of her kidneys to a co-worker. Betsy, her co-worker, has a genetic kidney disease that has affected all the women in her family. Last year, a month or two before Christmas, she had her second kidney removed and has been living on dialysis ever since. Her husband could not donate because he had had a benign melanoma removed at one point, which is good for him, but bad for his kidney donation prospects, as sometimes the melanoma is lurking in the donated organ and can come back as malignant. So my mom got tested, and she turned out to be a good match. While I was home over Christmas, I got to take my mom to the hospital for the final test. The surgeon drew pictures of her kidneys on the sheets for us, which was highly entertaining, and now I know that the left kidney usually has the least number of little veins running from it to the heart, because it has one big artery instead. It is the one they generally try to take, so that's the plan for my mom.
I am very proud of her for doing this. I will be sending her all my healthiest thoughts on Tuesday, and I hope you will, too. I would be there in NC, but I'm going to be in Japan next week, so I will have to think those thoughts very loudly. My aunt is going to be there from Tennessee to try to take my mom's place helping Grandma with Granddaddy, and the next week, my aunt and uncle from NJ are coming down. I don't know what they'll do after that, because it's supposed to take about a month-6 weeks for the donor to recover.
I love you, Mommy. You are awesome.
Next Tuesday, March 9th, my mother will go to the hospital to donate one of her kidneys to a co-worker. Betsy, her co-worker, has a genetic kidney disease that has affected all the women in her family. Last year, a month or two before Christmas, she had her second kidney removed and has been living on dialysis ever since. Her husband could not donate because he had had a benign melanoma removed at one point, which is good for him, but bad for his kidney donation prospects, as sometimes the melanoma is lurking in the donated organ and can come back as malignant. So my mom got tested, and she turned out to be a good match. While I was home over Christmas, I got to take my mom to the hospital for the final test. The surgeon drew pictures of her kidneys on the sheets for us, which was highly entertaining, and now I know that the left kidney usually has the least number of little veins running from it to the heart, because it has one big artery instead. It is the one they generally try to take, so that's the plan for my mom.
I am very proud of her for doing this. I will be sending her all my healthiest thoughts on Tuesday, and I hope you will, too. I would be there in NC, but I'm going to be in Japan next week, so I will have to think those thoughts very loudly. My aunt is going to be there from Tennessee to try to take my mom's place helping Grandma with Granddaddy, and the next week, my aunt and uncle from NJ are coming down. I don't know what they'll do after that, because it's supposed to take about a month-6 weeks for the donor to recover.
I love you, Mommy. You are awesome.
