Last Weekend in Kearney

The Happy Donor and the Very Happy Recipient

Well, here it is, the last weekend here for 4 or 5 weeks. We just went out to McDonalds for sausage biscuits....a Saturday morning ritual for us. If you are reading this blog you already know that my wonderful wife Sandy is giving me one of her kidneys. This long and convoluted journey started eight years ago when I was diagnosed with chronic kidney failure caused by diabetes that started back in 1981. I have been more fortunate than most with this condition as I was initially given 5 years until ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease) set in. I now have ESRD but have managed to stay off dialysis, barely. Now the time has come for the transplant as my health continues to decline.

We began tests five months ago to determine the possibility of Sandy being a donor. This was really a long shot because she is a type B blood type and I am a type O. Without a donor, the waiting time is 3-5 years for a kidney for type O. Until very recently this would have precluded the possibility of a transplant. A year ago, the Lied Transplant Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha began a new procedure called Noncompatible ABO transplants. Essentially this involves "cleansing" my blood by a process called plasmapheresis which filters out my antibodies that would not be compatible with Sandy's blood type. I will need two weeks of treatments before and after the transplant.

We have rented an apartment in Omaha and will be moving August 17. The apartment complex rents to corporate clients who are in town for 30 to 90 days for training with Con Agra, Mutual of Omaha, Gallup-SRI, etc., so they are fully furnished with everything we will need.....all we need are our clothes and dog. Yes!! They will allow our rat terrier Sadie......she will have to become a city dog.

Sadie the real Head of the House