The Testing - Part II

The second round of testing was a full day (hence the reason this is a VERY long post). I started with a meeting with my “advocate.” Every potential kidney donor is assigned a social worker to act on his or her behalf. The advocate is independent of the process. In my case, this meant that my advocate was a social worker in the Heart and Vascular Institute. She was knowledgeable about kidney donation but not familiar with any of the patients of the kidney Transplant Center and is, thereby, considered independent and better able to focus on my individual situation.

One of the major concerns that the advocates watch for is a potential donor that is being pressured to give. They want to be sure that people are donating for the right reasons and that they won’t regret it down the road. At any time during the process, you can tell your advocate that you do not wish to go forward with the transplant. The advocate will work with the Transplant Center and inform the recipient that the potential donor isn’t able to donate because of a medical reason. Potential donors have this option all the way up until they are put under for the transplant surgery.

My next test was a CT Scan. I had a CT Scan of my head a couple of years ago due to migraines but this CT Scan was far more extensive. In this case, the doctors needed a CT Scan with Contrast which meant pumping some dye into my system to highlight the organs. An IV was placed in my arm and the dye was injected. I had an instant warm feeling flood through my chest as the dye entered my system. I have read that some people are not real fond of CT Scans with Contrast but I thought it was pretty awesome.

I was now ready to be scanned. You lay on a bench that moves in and out of the scanner. The scanner spins around you as it captures the images and relays them to the computer. I didn’t time it, but I was probably scanned for around 15 minutes. I found it to be pretty relaxing.

After my CT Scan, I met with a nutritionist, who discussed my eating habits and emphasized the importance of living a healthy lifestyle after donation. There really aren’t any food restrictions, but it is important to remain healthy and strong to cut down on the chances of any kidney issues. She called me out on two areas that I knew were an issue. The first was my massive intake of Diet Coke (I was drinking 60-80 ounces a day at work – I have replaced that with flavored water) and my sodium intake (still working on that one – I have grown up salting almost everything). The rest of my eating habits were deemed to be okay.

In order to qualify to donate, I needed to be at a healthy weight. This was one area I was a little concerned about as I weighed around 205 pounds. That is not super heavy for a 6 foot male but isn’t exactly skinny either. The nutritionist showed me the chart and the range of weights they would accept for my height and gender went up to about 220 pounds. Ideally, I would have weighed a bit less but it wasn’t a show stopper. I committed to working on my weight before the surgery (that’s a future blog post).

From there I went on to meet with the Transplant Center Social Worker. It is this social worker’s job to determine if I am emotionally mature and responsible enough to make the decision to donate. The fear is that the potential donor is doing so on a whim or is only donating due to pressure from family or friends. The social worker asked about my job situation, family support system, and reason for wanting to donate. She wanted to be sure that I would receive the support at work that I would need with being out for a couple of weeks and then not being able to do heavy lifting for 6 weeks. Fortunately, I have a desk job and my team at work has been nothing but supportive. She asked about each of my family members and their level of support for my decision to donate (you can read the answer to that one in my “The Decision” post). We discussed who would be around after my surgery to help me out. I have a lot of family support so this part was a breeze.

The social worker went on to explain that many people have issues with their self image as a result of the scars from the surgery. I explained that I was more likely to be the guy asking everyone if they wanted to see the scar. She asked if I would feel the need to periodically stop in to see Candi to make sure that she is taking care of my kidney. I figure, once it has left my body, it is Candi’s to do with as she pleases. Of course, it helps that I know that Candi takes good care of herself so this wouldn’t be a concern anyway.

At the end, the social worker had to decide whether or not she felt I was a good candidate for kidney donation. Apparently my nuttiness didn’t come across too strongly because I was deemed a great candidate.

My final stop of the day was to visit a kidney doctor. This was a very helpful visit. The doctor had a chance to review all of my medical test results prior to the visit so this was the moment of truth. I was informed that my kidney was a great match for Candi and that I was in fantastic health. They had found nothing in their tests that would indicate that donation would be a high risk for me or Candi.

The doctor reviewed my medical history form and asked a few questions, but my history is fairly clean so it was a short question and answer period. I was then given the rest of the meeting to ask my questions. The doctor was fantastic and I walked away with a much better understanding of the process and what I could expect. He told me I should anticipate being in the hospital for 2 days after the surgery and then should plan to recuperate at home for another week and a half. Some people need as much as 6 weeks of recovery time before returning to work. However, because my job is in an office environment and I am very healthy going into the surgery, he was optimistic that I would be back to work at the end of the 2 weeks.

The doctor also took the time to explain a little more about dialysis and why live donation is so preferable to a patient receiving a cadaver kidney. He explained more about the surgical process and showed me posters of how it all worked. I was most fascinated with the fact that the recipient doesn’t have either of her kidneys removed. Instead they add the third kidney below one of the failing kidneys. For my part, they will insert a couple of instruments and a camera into small holes in my stomach. They will then deflate (that still boggles my mind) my kidney, play with the wiring, and then remove the kidney through a 2 inch incision just below my belt line. I am not one of those guys who likes to watch the medical channels on TV, but I found this to be pretty cool stuff. Overall, the surgery is fairly straight forward. After meeting with this doctor, I walked out feeling completely confident that I was making the right decision.

My next appointment would be the blood testing that takes place 30 days before surgery. This is the test where we find out if my blood plays nicely with Candi’s blood (as Candi likes to put it). As I understand it, this is where they make sure that Candi doesn’t have any antibodies in her blood that will attack my kidney after the transplant. When I go in for this testing, I will also meet with the surgeon who will perform the surgery. Now for a two month wait.