Wednesday, May 27, 2009

One week away from Transplant #2!!!

Mark's second transplant has been tentatively scheduled for June 4th!!! It is hard to believe that a week from tomorrow we will be back at UK for another transplant! We went to the Transplant Clinic today for the final crossmatch between Mark and Justin's blood. Justin met with Dr. Strup-the Urologist who will be removing his kidney. Hopefully, we will find out the results of the final crossmatch by the end of the week. If the crossmatch is "negative," we should receive our official orders from the OR.

I apologize for not updating the blog as frequently as I did for the first transplant. Justin has visited the Transplant Clinic several times for testing involved in the living donor evaluation process. We've tried to avoid doing anything that would make Justin feel pressured to make this decision. Thus, we didn't ask for specific information that may make him feel uncomfortable or give him the feeling that we don't respect his privacy. In addition, to be very honest, Mark and I are both pretty stressed right now. We've tried to avoid thinking about the transplant as much as possible in an effort to minimize stress and anxiety. This is an impossible task of course, but cutting back on the blogs at least helped somewhat.

As many of you know, the transplant was originally supposed to occur in late June or early July. However, one of the surgeons was unavailable during the last week of June. Thus, we were moved to June 4th. This is actually a huge blessing. When Mark and I visited his Nephrologist last Monday, he told us that Mark was a "heartbeat away from dialysis." He told us that if the transplant was any later than June 4th, Mark would need to go on dialysis.

Please continue praying for our family. We will need your prayers now more than ever. I think we all are more anxious and worried about this transplant than we ever were back in March.