Jeff's Journal

Spending Saturday

Saturday was a better day than I thought it was going to be. “We” did not start the 4.5 hour session. “We” increased the size of the artificial kidney in an attempt to increase clearance. (I have a hunch it may be a both/and, so I am not out of the woods on the increase of time.) I could tell a difference at the end of the session. I had to stick around the clinic for a while to get my bearings. I was the second to the last patient to finish so there was one other patient in the clinic while I gathered my composure. He was trying to clot before he departed. I was trying to stand and walk in a straight line.

I spent Saturday with guests for almost the entire time. One friend working in Algeria emailed several weeks ago. He was coming home and wanted to come by and spend some time. It was fun to talk and catch up. He has been gone since January. He only gets a couple of weeks off every two months; I hope his wife knows I appreciated the sacrifice!

Another friend came by to visit. He returned from work in Asia and Europe. He added to the travel conversation. I don’t think I’ll be doing as much travel this summer, but it was fun to recall former trips. (A trip we were supposed to make this summer was to Aunt Vera’s birthday. I know you are not supposed to speak or write a lady’s age, but let’s just say this one was a biggie as she became an octogenarian and the family was going to meet in Iowa on the Mackeprang farm.) If things get dull in the clinic, I’ll begin to write and post old travel adventures.

A friend at church told me about a kidney donation article in Parade Magazine today. A story was written in December. The recent story was released this weekend and it was a follow up to the December article. In the follow up article, the author’s friend had a transplant on May 26 and is doing well. May 26 is not too far off from June 6. It got me thinking that if things had gone through on June 6, I would be on the other side of a lot of things by this date.

It was good to read this article to balance what I read in the New York Times this week (July 10, Will Any Organ Do?) about organ donation. This article told the story of four organ recipients in Dallas. In the story, the deceased donor died due to symptoms that the doctors thought were caused by a cocaine overdose. They harvested the organs and did transplants. After several days the recipients became ill and died of rabies. On further investigation it was decided that the donor did not die of a drug overdose, but died of rabies from a bat bite. When my mom had her transplant she was given a kidney that had a virus she did not have. (I’ve checked and I have had the virus, so that should not be a problem with me.) But rabies?

When the list was not as large, most of the donors died from head trauma. This meant deceased donors were healthy, just unfortunate. The list has experienced significant growth in recent years. For every person who is removed from the list, two more people are added to the list. Seventeen people die every day waiting for a transplant. As those stats add up, head traumas are not keeping pace. (Thanks seat belt and helmet laws.) As the list has grown, donors are received from other trauma. Doctors have allowed some unusual transplants in extreme circumstances. As those donations have been successful, they get talked about at conventions and written up in journals. Standards are lightened to help reduce the list. The process becomes a drifting goals archetype.

The Parade article is about living donation, a friend reaching out to help a friend. Fortunately, that type of donation is increasing. It is what I hope will be my transplant experience. The living donor from the Parade article stated this quote by St. Augustine motivated him to donate, “Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention to those who, by accidents of time, or place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with you.” I was thinking about the US population. If one percent of the population were to consider altruistic donation, that would provide good odds for folks on the list.

posted by Jeff Waldo @ 9:09 PM