Yesterday I drove my mother to her Nephrologist appointment. And let me tell you, I am so glad I went with her. As I mentioned before, a dear friend of the family was tested to see if he was a match to donate a kidney to my mom. He was a positive match, though sometimes when you are a match, a person can have antibodies that build up in the body that could cause rejection of the transplanted kidney. This gentleman has almost completed all of his required testing, so this was the appointment we would find out more information about Velcade (a drug) and this experimental study that my mom would be placed in at the University Hospital.
After her initial check up with the doctor, my mom presented the question "Ok so now ....(name of donor omitted) has completed most of his testings, where does that leave me and the study with Velcade?" The doctor got a puzzled look on his face, and said "You aren't going on Velcade, we aren't putting you into a study" For a moment, I almost panicked. I could see the look on my mom's face too, like OMG what happened, why not? I think we both thought there was a problem and she was disqualified or something. Well, the doctor elaborated more, and said that mom and the donor have very mild antibodies against each other, and that the study basically wasn't necessary. Basically, there are very little chances for rejection (but remember there is ALWAYS a chance of rejection in any transplant no matter how perfect of a match). To remove the few antibodies that my mom does have, they will use a procedure known as Plasmaphresis. This will clean the blood, and basically is just like Dialysis. This is not a separate procedure, this will be done 24 hours before the actual transplant. So it will take place after she checks into the hospital for the transplant.
The surgery technically could take place within the next month, but with it getting close to the holiday season, the hospital is starting to have it's staff using their vacation time. So they have decided that it would be best to hold off the surgery until after the first of the new year. This way the entire staff/team will be there. Also all parties involved (mom, donor, brother, etc) and things that have already been scheduled, mom personally wants to wait until after the new year. t minus 3 months and counting.
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
