I haven’t written much recently because I haven’t had much to say lately. At least not in mixed company.
Actually I’ve had a lot of doctor appointments, tests, and a even a procedure done in the past couple weeks and I’ve been tired! Today I was at the dentist’s office sitting in another one of those waiting rooms with one other gentleman sitting across the way. You know how some people will go to extremes not to speak with another person in a small space, even so far as to not even make eye contact? This guy was not one of them! He would probably start a conversation with the driver of the car in the neighboring lane at a red light. I wasn’t sure if he intended on speaking with me or just talked all the time, but with an occasional “uh huh” or “umm” and a “oh yeah” or two he kept up enough conversation for the both of us. It was almost like being married again. (I’m sorry ladies, I just couldn’t resist.) (Yes, maybe that is one of the reasons.) One thing he brought up in his remarks is how as we age we pick up more spare parts as he pointed to various body parts.
It’s not something we might think about and if we do that we’d admit to ourselves, but it is quite true. Even at my tender age I have a variety of pieces that are not original equipment. And they don’t all have to be as dramatic as replacements of major internal organs. Or even minor internal organs. I would wager almost everybody reading this is helped along in some daily activity with something that was not there on Day One.
Those spare parts could be something obvious and visible like a pair of glasses or a hearing aid. It might be something not quite so obvious but still visible if you look hard enough like a dental crown or implant. If you’re looking that hard it should be at a person you know pretty well, certainly better than a random waiting room partner. You also shouldn’t stare at somebody with a larger spare part such as a prosthetic limb.
Some spare parts are less obvious and often invisible. Artificial lenses often reside in post cataract surgery eyes correcting clearer but weaker vision; pacemakers and implanted defibrillators keep weak hearts working stronger. A friend’s father was an early recipient of an early implanted defibrillator. It worked dandily, even way back then. Except whenever someone triggered the garage door opener they also triggered a mild shock to his heart. They fixed that by replacing the opener. Easier than replacing the father. And some spare parts are outright replacements like a swapped out heart, lung, pancreas, liver, even a kidney.
Spare parts. They may not add up to what became the 1970s version of the Six Million Dollar Man, but to the person with a new heart or not blurred vision they are priceless.
So now that it took you so long to read about the process you may better understand why it is taking so long to complete the process. Each of my donor candidates was stopped at some point in the evaluation. One proceeded all the way to the CT Scan when a shadow was noted on a neighboring organ. The transplant committee interrupted the process and referred her to a specialist who in turn determined the shadow was not clinically significant and recommended her to continue which the transplant committed approved. One was held at the renal function test when the IV mediated glomerular filtration rate returned a slightly elevated result. The committee referred the result to one of its own nephrologists who recalculated the result and determined due to her physical structure it was within normal limits for her height, weight, and age and recommended to continue. One potential donor returned elevated 24 hour blood pressure results. She was allowed to move on to the renal function tests but had to reschedule a repeat 24 hour blood pressure monitor. The second 24 hour blood pressure results also returned elevated and she was referred to her cardiologist. Pending his review and finding, even though by this time she had passed the renal function tests, she was held from further candidate progress. Ultimately her blood pressure could be maintained within the standards expected for a kidney donor only with the use of two medications thus she was removed from the candidate pool.
If you go back far enough all diseases have been rare at some time. The more common conditions like diseases of the kidneys didn’t become less rare because they affected more people. They became more common as those treating them spoke with others treating similar conditions comparing symptoms, patient histories, disease progression, and constants in presentation. Often when enough data is collected it becomes apparent the rare disease wasn’t as much rare as unrecognized. Treatment options and the responses then get shared, refined, retried, and publicized and the goal shifts from just education and proper diagnosis of the disease so difficult with the rare ones to effective treatment and some day eradication of the disease.
The unfortunate thing about dialysis catheters is that unlike say administration ports one might receive chemo through, they terminate outside the body and do so on a pair of tails. I’m posting a drawing so you can better see what I am trying to describe. (I could take a picture of my actual catheter but it’s not a selfie I’m anxious to snap and if you just type “dialysis catheter” into your favorite search engine you’ll get no end of new disgusting pictures to peruse at your leisure.) The part of the catheter inside floats and can actually be felt depending in where the tip resides at any particular moment. Reaching for anything higher than one’s shoulder, which given my modest height is anything off the counter, means moving the catheter around in there, also rather obviously noted. And because there is really no good way to anchor the outside tails, any movement or position change comes with a reminder that there is a part of you that isn’t really a part of you.
Again, thank you for staying on the journey with me. Coincidence continues. This month my transplant evaluation coincides with National Donate Life Month. Every April, Donate Life America celebrates National Donate Life Month, focusing national attention on every individual’s power to make life possible by registering as an organ, eye, and tissue donor, and learning more about living donation. Many years ago I registered to be a donor. That was long before I ever suspected I would someday be looking at transplants from a recipient’s perspective. If you’d like to explore becoming an organ or tissue donor, check with your local transplant center, your personal physician or the 
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