I've Been Keeping a Secret
I've been keeping a secret. I've kept this secret because I didn't feel like it was my story to tell but now I'll share. I have a match. I have a potential donor. This amazing person is a match and has undergone testing to ensure that they are a good candidate to be a donor. There are a couple more tests that need to be completed for their team to be 100% comfortable with this person being a donor and I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't want a kidney to the detriment of somebody else. This person is my sister, Elizabeth.
So if you are one of the several amazing people who sent in blood or who called and you haven't heard anything, it isn't because you aren't amazing, it's because the search has been temporarily put on hold while the team tests Elizabeth to completion as a sibling is the best possible match. Thank you for stepping up and if something (a bazillion things beyond any ones control could) happens, you may get a random call asking if you still wanna give up an organ to a crazy chick on the internet.
Unfortunately IgAN isn't an exciting or fast paced disease so I really don't have much to share on the kidney front. It's mostly blood draws and routine doctors appointments consisting of poking my legs for swelling and asking if I'm nauseous or tired (yes, always...but not any worse than usual ha!). It's really all very exciting. Currently several things, potassium levels, iron levels, and bicarb levels (I have baking soda in my blood?!) are behaving. Which is nice because I work hard taking pills and watching my diet to keep them in line. What isn't behaving is my kidney function. Over the past several months I've bounced around between 17% and 20%. Yesterdays labs had me at 16.2%. To recap, they like to do transplants when you go below 15% and this is the closest I have been. We watch my labs closely as a dip like this shows a definitive decline in function even if I am able to baby them and bounce back up a point or two and buy myself some more time with my natural kidneys.
So if you are one of the several amazing people who sent in blood or who called and you haven't heard anything, it isn't because you aren't amazing, it's because the search has been temporarily put on hold while the team tests Elizabeth to completion as a sibling is the best possible match. Thank you for stepping up and if something (a bazillion things beyond any ones control could) happens, you may get a random call asking if you still wanna give up an organ to a crazy chick on the internet.
Unfortunately IgAN isn't an exciting or fast paced disease so I really don't have much to share on the kidney front. It's mostly blood draws and routine doctors appointments consisting of poking my legs for swelling and asking if I'm nauseous or tired (yes, always...but not any worse than usual ha!). It's really all very exciting. Currently several things, potassium levels, iron levels, and bicarb levels (I have baking soda in my blood?!) are behaving. Which is nice because I work hard taking pills and watching my diet to keep them in line. What isn't behaving is my kidney function. Over the past several months I've bounced around between 17% and 20%. Yesterdays labs had me at 16.2%. To recap, they like to do transplants when you go below 15% and this is the closest I have been. We watch my labs closely as a dip like this shows a definitive decline in function even if I am able to baby them and bounce back up a point or two and buy myself some more time with my natural kidneys.
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