A little more than eighteen months ago, my Father had a
failed kidney transplant via a recently deceased donor.
Surgeries like this happen very quickly; a call at 6 am, and
into a Hospital bed by 10, to be implanted with a new organ before noon.
It often has an amazing end result, but for my Father, this
was not the case.
If you have been
reading long enough to remember when I wrote this, this, and this… then wow…
color me impressed.
The failed transplant was very traumatic for our family; it
was terrifying, and so sad for all of us.
The good news is… no, scratch that…. The GREAT news is; my
Uncle Brian decided to offer my father his kidney after the first transplant
failed.
A live donor is the very best kind of organ donor, because
it gives you time to prepare your body to accept the “recycled part,” so to
speak.
And that is exactly what my Father’s body did yesterday,
when he had a successful kidney
transplant, thanks to my Uncle’s organ donation.
There is still a lot of testing to be done, and time that
needs to pass before the Doctors will call this transplant "perfect", but for our
family, so far so good, as they say.
My Dad and his brother are laughing, walking, and healing just as they should be.
It is incredible to think that just yesterday they were having operations just hours apart, and today they look amazing!!
I sat with them this morning and we talked about how
strange it is that a part of my Uncle, is now in my Dad.
We wondered who even thought to do such a thing, how
did the first transplant even come about?
We were laughing, and marveling at how simply AWESOME
modern technology and science really are.
There have been a lot of times in the past few months that I
have thought about how scary this world really is.
It often seems like you shouldn’t trust anyone anymore…
That
life should be spent looking backwards over your shoulder, instead of in front of you, towards to the future.
And then I am given a moment like this:
When I am blessed to watch my Dad laugh with his younger
brother... his Hero.
And I am reminded that
at the end of the day, when nothing in the whole world makes sense, if we are
lucky enough to have family….
Then we are lucky enough.
I'm so glad it was successful in your case! My uncle had to have a kidney transplant as well, and both my husband, and my cousin in law stepped up. They were in the process of seeing if one of them was a match to my uncle. Unfortunately, my uncle passed away unexpectedly before that could happen. Very heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteBecause of this, it warms my heart to see success stories for families like yours. :)