TESTING

I am not going to lie, the testing process was a mental and emotional hell.  I have never experienced such a gut-wrenching ordeal.  Shelly's brother (Troy) and I decided to test.  Everyone thought Troy would match and that I wouldn't because I am not related.  We had to wait for approval for the first test (Shelly had HMO insurance).  Both Troy and I received packages from UCSF in the mail.  We had to go have our blood drawn for a blood/antigen match.   It took what seemed like a month to even hear from the transplant coordinator regarding the results.  I remember it was on a Friday evening that Shelly got the call; Troy was not a match.  They had different blood types.  I had told Shelly from the beginning that I knew I would match.  I had never been more sure about anything in my life.  No one believed it, except for Shelly. 

Later in the week, I received another package in the mail from UCSF.  I had to have more blood drawn.  The excuse was that my blood had gotten contaminated and they needed more.  I told Shelly that it was because I matched so well, they had to re-test .  I wasn't very far off from the truth.  I found out in September or so that I was a 4 out of 6 match for Shelly.  This is considered rare, however not impossible.  I believe more non-related people would match if they would just test.  Hello, it doesn't take a genius to figure that out. I received A LOT of negative feedback when I would tell people what I was doing.  It got to the point where I didn't discuss it with anyone except Shelly, her family, and my friend that was a dialysis tech.  I was extremely excited and stoked.  I had the chance to save my best friends life.  She is a sister to me and I couldn't think of a better gift to give.  Then there would be these people who would be like, "What if you need your kidney later?", or "What if you have a child and they need your kidney?"  Even doctor's that we knew were really negative.  "There is no way you will match Shannon."  "You don't even know if you have two kidney's Shannon."  I won't mention any names but they know who they are.  All of this negativity really ravaged my spirit at times.  It was very hard to keep a positive outlook when I was being suffocated by disdain.  I never realized how paralysis of compassion occurs when the fear of the unknown arrises.  At any rate, this blood drawing turned out to be the easiest portion of the whole testing ordeal.

Ok, so I had just begun the testing journey.  After the blood test, I had to go in to see my primary care physician and have a complete physical.  I had an EKG and more blood work completed.  My memory is fuzzy regarding everything that was done but Shelly kept a journal, so she will be more accurate than I am.  I had all sorts of tests.  I was tested for HIV and leukemia and I don't know what else.  I had to do a 24-hour urine test.  My doctor didn't order all of the correct tests so I had to do the 24-hour urine test twice.  That was FUN!  Yes, I am being facetious of course.  I think everyone should get to collect their urine in a jug for 24 hours.  I had a lot of problems during the testing process as well.  I had tonsilitis and strep.  Then I got food poisoning over Christmas and UCSF put  me on antibiotics for that.  I knew I was sick when I did the 24-hour urine the second time, but I thought I had the flu.  Janine, the transplant coordinator, called me two weeks later and told me they were putting me on antibiotics. I went along with it even though I wasn't sick at that time.

I am leaving some things out.  I had knots in my stomach all of the time.  I was so sure that I would match (and I did), but that hospital does not mess around.  They will not perform a transplant if they think there will be any danger to the donor.  It was so nerve racking.  When I finally made it to the last stage of testing, I was an emotional wreck.  I had to take an incomplete in one of my classes because the transplant is all I could think about.  Shelly was getting sicker and sicker.  She was losing weight like crazy and she was throwing up all of the time.  I was a mess because she was a mess and I felt like the testing was taking forever.  My last phase of testing was the IVP and renal arteriogram.  I went to San Francisco with Shelly, her mom (Kathy), and her dad (Louie).  We are all snapping at each other and totally grouchy.  We were really STRESSED!  This was it.  Shelly got to go in with me when I had my IVP.  This is a test where a nurse injected me with contrast and an x-ray tech took x-rays of my kidneys.  It is a little more complex, but not painful.  When the films were developed, the tech showed them to us and showed me where my kidneys were on the film.  Then we were off to another floor for another test.

The renal arteriogram was a little different.  This is where the radiologist inserted a small catheter into my femoral artery (in my upper thigh) and injected dye directly into my renal arteries.  This wasn't painful because I was on controlled DRUGS.  The experience was very surreal though.  I was awake, but on another level of reality.  Following the test, I was in recovery and I asked the nurse how it went.  The radiologist was addressing concerns before the test and my concern was to know right then if we would be able to do the transplant.  So, the doc told me all was well and the nurse reiterated the fact in recovery.  I had to stay at UCSF for like 6 hours and keep pressure on the incision.  The staff had to monitor me and make sure I didn't bleed from the wound.  We left the hospital and felt like we were still in the dark.  You have to understand that during this process all of our lives were on hold.  We waited for calls from the hospital saying it was ok to do this test or that test, so we felt like we were always playing a waiting game.

I think the call came like a week or so later saying that the transplant was scheduled for the 17th of February.  So, we had to wait like two weeks.  Talk about trepidation... Ok, we had to check in the day before the transplant.  The staff at UCSF told us they would cancel the surgery if anything went wrong.  Could they stress me out any more.  Any way, we had to check in at 10 or 11 am so we got to have our last meal before we checked in.  I rode with Troy (Shelly's brother) and Shelly rode with her boyfriend Joe.  It was raining and we stopped to have breakfast on our way to the hospital.  I remember the restaurant's grill was broken so they had limited breakfast meals that they could make us.  I am getting off track again...

We checked in and the testing and education process was implemented.  I won't go into all of the details, you can email me if you really need to know.  However, I met my surgeon after he was finished with a liver transplant (very smart guy), and I met my anesthesiologist (hilarious guy).  The anesthesiologist looked down my throat, because they were going to stick a tube there during surgery , and told me he was going to give me the equivalent of three martini's.  RIGHT ON!!!!  Needless to say, I was pretty happy about that.  When we first signed all of our paperwork during registration, we had to sign a release.  UCSF is a teaching hospital so there are students running around everywhere. It was great though.  There was a nursing student that got to watch my part of the transplant and she was amazed.  She said that my surgeon handed Shelly's surgeon my kidney and it was like, off he went.  The staff kept telling me how much pain I would be in and how much harder it was on the donor than the recipient.  This is because of the position of my body on the operating table.  I was told that I would be bent in half, on my side.  They took the right kidney, which we didn't find out until the day of surgery.  They take the kidney that they think will give you problems later in life.  My doc told me that often times the right kidney in women will drop later in life andthat can cause problems.  I felt very secure at that hospital because the staff seemed really knowledgeable and caring.  The surgeons thought I only had one artery coming off of my right kidney, but apparently the artery branched off into two.  He (Shelly's surgeon) took my kidney and sewed the two arteries into one.  Isn't that the coolest.  Yeah, it was pretty cool.  So, to wrap it up, we were in the hospital for 5 days.  I have about a six inch scar that runs along the ribline and part of my rib missing.  I haven't had any problems at all and my labs are normal.  Shelly is doing great too, which I am sure she is going to tell you.  I don't even have to ever go back to UCSF again.  Once a year, I go to my primary care physician and have a few minor tests.