Living Kidney Donation

Sorting out last minute hitches i.e. Heart ultrasound

I had to wait a few days before an appointment was given to me. Before I heard, I emailed my co-ordinator a couple of times, flapping around a bit with meaningless questions! lol … Finally the ultrasound department rang me with an appointment for 2 days before the operation. I emailed my co-ordinator to tell her, although I am sure she would have already been told. I also asked when we would get the results? Could I come straight over to her department and sit and wait for them? She responded saying she was not sure if they would give me the results straight away but she had given the anaesthetist my phone number so he could ring me asap once he heard.

The anaesthetist actually telephoned me that evening to put my mind at rest. He reassured me that there was nothing major wrong with my heart at all, that he was just a very very thorough person and wanted absolutely everything covered. I was not to worry. I very much appreciated not only his phone call which did put my mind totally at rest over this, but I very much appreciated him as well. I had 120%+ faith in the whole transplant team. If I was not, I would not be doing this. I was really more concerned for the recipient and how they would feel should the operation have to be postponed until this “wiggle” was sorted. It was the time scale I think that got me anxious. Had all this happened with plenty of time to spare, then it would have been just one more test I had to have. But only 2 days from the operation was not leaving much time to spare should any further tests be required.

With only a couple of days to go to operation day I wasn’t going to be allowed to sit back and relax just yet! lol …. I think God thought this would be a good time to teach me all about Patience!  I was now though quite relaxed having spoken with the anaesthetist.

On the appointed day got to the Heart Echo department which was not at the same centre as the transplant unit but a couple miles away. Had to laugh, even though I had an appointment time, I still had to take a ticket, bit like being at the deli counter of local supermarket! Got seen about 3.40pm. The ultrasound was very much like the ultrasound you have when pregnant or the kidney ultrasound I had during my evaluation. After the ultrasound I asked her if there was a heart consultant around, could I have the results now. She sort of looked at me as though .. umm .. I was over stepping the boundaries. She told me no, that she had instructions to fax the results to the heart consultant (who she thought had gone home) and he would look at them tomorrow. .. ugh! I explained the transplant was the morning after that and so tomorrow was too late when people at my hospital were standing by to get the results (I didn’t know if they were waiting actually at that moment .. but I was!). She said that if I could get them to telephone her with the request she would fax them over. Great! I said – wonderful! I will drive over there now and find someone and get them to ring her, what number do they ring. She was surprised that I would be going over there. I explained I needed to know if it was all okay today, I couldn’t bear to have to wait it out another night when the operation would then be the very next day.

I felt the tears beginning to well up and couldn’t hold them back. It was beginning to get on top of me now.  All the months of  waiting for appointments and then waiting to hear the results; the emotions of having recipients being a non match and now this, it was just too much now and the tears rolled.  Whatever else could go wrong, I was starting to believe would go wrong. For some reason things were just not meant to go smoothly at all.  I just wanted things to be sorted so I could go home and relax and not be waiting for yet another phone call.  It was all so close to becoming a reality, yet silly little hiccups kept getting in the way, lol. She took pity and said if I waited just outside she would give me the results and I could take them over to the hospital. Yeah!!!!!!

Few minutes later she came out and handed the sealed envelope to me with a smile. I thanked her so much and rushed them over to the transplant center. The reception desk of the department was closed. While pondering on where to go next, someone came along and I asked them if my co-ordinator or someone on the team was around. My co-ordinator came and was amazed they had given me the results .. lol … I just grinned!! She said she would fax them straight over to the anaesthetist, but if he was not there, at least I would know they had them and I would hear asap next morning.

He was there!!! My co-ordinator came back with both thumbs up and she got the biggest hug she wasn’t expecting …. lol ….

I felt such relief.  I could go home now and relax and sleep!  I am a bit of an old worry wart I know. I don’t mind waiting to hear about things as long as I know when I will hear! Last minute hitches didn’t feature in my thoughts at all!

Thank you God for making this all okay and I should have had more Faith and not worried.

PHEW!!! From then on everything did go like clockwork. But just note that what with having delays in getting a suitable recipient and then this last minute hitch … things are not a done deal until they are actually done! I think I got the short straw with quite a few things along the evaluation ladder. But I don’t mind as I also learned a lot along the way. Nothing was anyone’s “fault” – things happen just because they do. We just have to accept, try and have patience (easier said that done!) and above all have Faith and never stop believing!

The final day was spent relaxing at home and I slept like a log that night. Next morning I got ready, waited for my son to arrive and we were off.  I was not at all nervous. I just still could not believe that this day had finally arrived!  I had gone to bed the previous night wondering how the recipient was feeling. I hope she/he was as excited as I was and did not have too many nerves playing games with her/him.

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