Transplant Update

Yesterday was the "big day". Cleo met with the transplant team at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta. Our day started very early...left the house at 5:20 am in order to be at the hospital promptly at 6:30. You never know what traffice will be like in Atlanta even that early in the morning, and we definately didn't want to be late. Anyhow, we made it in plenty of time and got started immediately. They had sent all the paperwork ahead of time, which cut down on a lot of time and then took him back to a room. There a nurse gathered the paperwork, gave him a name band and got the ball rolling. From there we went to the radiology dept. and they did an abdominal ultrasound...sent us to the cafeteria to get breakfast and whisked us to the education class which was a mass of organized information, literature, etc. explaining the whole transplant process. We went back to the clinic, where they drew at least 15 (yup, you read that right, 15!) vials of blood. After that we met with a social worker, a psychiatrist, one of the transplant surgeons, the head of the transplant dept. who is also a nephrologist, a dietician and were then introduced to the lady who will be Cleos' transplant coordinator. Now this may not seem so daunting to some, but we met with each of these professionals one at a time and they each had their own agenda. After that was done, they sent him back to radiology for a chest xray and then off to pulmonary for a PFT test. The whole process took 8 hours and we were both exhausted and ready to be home.

The whole goal of the transplant team is to find a suitable living donor so that when the time comes (and hopefully before Cleo goes on dialysis) the transplant can be done right away. The odds are so much better for organ longevity with a living donor and if he doesn't have to be on dialysis he will be stronger for the surgery. We must now wait for 3 weeks until the transplant committee meets again and they go over all the test results and evaluations done yesterday. According to the head of the transplant team, Cleo should be an excellent candidate and he feels very confidant that they will put him on the list at that time. Once we receive the call from our transplant coordinator letting us know their decision...then it's out of our hands. Any person wishing to be tested as a potential donor will then have to contact her personally expressing their desire to be tested. We cannot be involved in that for ethical reasons and the transplant team cannot contact a potential donor as that's considered "soliciting" and is illegal. Some of the initial tests could be done locally (where a donor may live) but if they were a blood match and the other tests looked good, then that person would have to come to Atlanta for 2 days of intense testing with the transplant team. The ONLY person who knows the outcome of the donor testing is the donor. We are not allowed to know unless that person wishes to tell us and the transplant team cannot divulge that info to us. If a match is found then the surgery would also be done here in Atlanta in adjoining operation rooms. They will test as many candidates as needed to find a match, but will only do one at a time due to the high cost of testing. Our insurance does pay for the donor testing and the Georgia Transplant Foundation could help with transportation costs for donors as well.

Cleo and I just want to say that we feel so blessed to have so many family and friends who have and continue to pray for his health and a positive outcome from this ordeal. This is all somewhat overwhelming to think that anyone would be willing to donate their kidney and go through this grueling process with us. It is not something that we would EVER ask any of you to do, nor could the gift ever be repayed, but since so many of you have expressed an interest in getting tested we wanted to pass this information on to you. As soon as we hear from the transplant team, I will update again and post the coordinators name and phone number.

Once again, we are extremely grateful for the gift of each of you in our lives. This road is much easier to travel with you by our sides. We love each of you.....