Jeff's Journal

Donor #9

Many people have been asking about Donor #9. Donor #9 came over tonight to visit. I thought you would like to see his picture.

Tonight was a good time to hear his side of the story and compare notes. The coordinator does not “share” information. It is up to the donor and the recipient to get the story from each other. He has had a full summer and this has been the only night before surgery we could get together. As we talked, I learned some things that my transplant coordinator had kept from me!

He started this journey on June 7, the day Donor #1 and I were to have had surgery. He was at the Union Baptist Association (UBA) office and heard what had happened. After doing some research of his own about kidney transplants, he called me and then called the transplant coordinator. On June 17, he had moved to stage one testing.

Donor #8 failed stage 3 on July 7. (A bonus to all this is that many of my friends are very aware of their health conditions.) Donor #9 and I were tested for the initial cross-match on July 8. The first cross-match came back negative and that was the green light to move to the next phase. It required many more vials of blood and a complete body scan and physical.

Those test results provided information for the medical review board. The medical review board made their decision after a couple of weeks and then it was time to schedule surgery.

Since two surgical teams are needed for this transplant, they had to find a date where two operating rooms were available when the two surgical teams were going to be in town. Once the date was set, it was time for the final cross-match to be performed as a double check. It came back negative and we are moving forward to September 7.

OK, I know if I only kept the masked picture I would receive untold negative email. To prevent that from happening and since I have his permission, here is Donor #9 with out the mask.

Donor #9 is Jerry Wooley. He is one of the pastors at Park Place Baptist Church in Houston. He and I have known each other for over a decade of working together through UBA projects. He told his church this morning, so the cat is officially out of the bag. This will be his first time to have surgery and since I cannot have flowers in my room, feel free to send him lots of best wishes.

I cannot say enough thanks to Jerry. Other than Shelley saying “yes” she would marry me (and actually showing up at the wedding to go through with the deal), this is the most profound gift anyone has ever offered to me. Jerry is offering a functioning organ from his body to replace the organs that have failed in my body. Jerry will save my life on Wednesday.

We have decided we’ll get together September 7, 2006. He is deciding where we eat next year since all I could get him this year is a hospital meal.

posted by Jeff Waldo @ 9:22 PM