My mom last April was going to the doctor and trying to figure out why she had no energy and her anemia was getting worse. We learned that she was Stage 4 Kidney Failure. I was so mad. How could her doctor not know this from all her doctor appointments? We were told that she could be starting dialysis as soon as 18 months. She started dialysis last summer in July. She also started all the doctor appointments to get approved to be put on the transplant list due to the stage of her kidney failure. She was approved and received the letter for confirmation that she was on the kidney donor list on November 1, 2010. We were called on December 16th at 12:30 a.m. and told there was a possible match for a kidney. We were told on December 17th at 3:00 p.m. that it was a match. She was wheeled back to surgery at 8:00 p.m. that same night and her surgery was successful at 1:30 a.m. on December 18th. WOW what a whirlwind!! Such a blessing from God!!!
My sister in law and I were lying on the couch in the waiting area last night talking. We were wondering how this would change her life. We have seen amazing changes in my mom this last 9 months. We went to Canton as a family in May and she was so tired and had no energy. We had to get her a motorized wheelchair to get around. We went to Canton again after a family reunion in October and she was walking around so fast we were having a hard time keeping up with her. She has had so much more energy just from the dialysis that we have felt blessed. We pray that the anti-rejection medication works so well for her new kidney. We pray that her body will heal. We pray that God will use her life in extraordinary ways because of this wonderful gift.
So as you can imagine, we were shocked that we got the phone call that there was a possible match for mom. I was the one that received the initial call from Baylor as she was going through everything. It was a 52 year old male that had a history of diabetes and hypertension but his kidney functioning appeared to be fine. We were told that they were going to biopsy the kidney to ensure it was appropriate to put in mom. We were also told that mom’s antibodies were extremely hard and would make it difficult for a negative cross match. BTW – Negative cross match is what we wanted. It took over 24 hours for us to know something. This was one of my longest 24 hours of my life. So the odds were against us and we tried not to be too hopeful because we knew it was a long shot.
We were in the ICU when mom got out of surgery and the surgeon told us it was like mom won the lottery. He said that this was truly amazing. He said that if this kidney didn’t come around when it did then there was a high likelihood that mom would have never received a new kidney. WOW! He told mom this again this morning and I was speechless.
God truly received glory last night and my faith increased. My faith has come up short frequently the last few years since my dad died, but to see something like this well I can’t help to have tears in my eyes and be grateful! I was never really close to my mom until my dad passed away and the last three years have been a time that I have been able to grow closer to her and develop our relationship. God has given me more time with her. :) God is giving more time to my mom to be with her family.
But even though we have tears of joy there are tears of sorrow. There was someone that passed away and a family that lost their loved one. I empathize with them as I know how difficult it is to lose a loved one. We don’t know if he was single, married, widowed, divorced, but we do know that he had loved ones. I pray that God brings them comfort. He extended the life of many last night as he donated all of his organs. He is a hero!
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