OK - The big Fed Ex Info package arrived yesterday with everything I’ve always wanted to know about my big appointment day on January 3rd. Widgets and labels and instructions - Oh My! And Yes - things that go bump in the night....

First out of the plastic mailer was a bright rust-colored plastic thingy that looked like a huge pooper scooper, with carrying handle, for my cat’s litter box.

Ah Hah - it’s a fold out jug, a sample container, for me to collect urine for 24 hours. It has an opening with a screw-cap on it - just like a water bottle. No funnel included... Hey - I’m a girl. It’s gonna be rather like a game of skill, hitting the hole. How good is my aim? Play the Aim Game... Maybe it a new game for Xmas - Hit the Hole in the Jug Game... Batteries Not Included. Hmmm - I can see that guys have an advantage here, since they have a pointer. One gallon size it says. I drink three liters of water a day.

So what do I do all day long? Carry the damn jug of pee around with me, so everytime I gotta go, I can try to hit the hole in the jug. Can you see me carrying the orange Pee Jug into Home Depot, and into Safeway, and into Barnes and Noble? Maybe into Subway for their $2.49 lunch special. “Did you want something to drink with this?” Shall I carry it to the gym and sit it down beside the treadmill? Good thing I don’t have any air travel scheduled for collection day - TSA just wouldn’t understand.

Next out of the early Xmas package comes an easily identifiable object, but with quite disgusting possibilities - nay realities... It looks like a liner for a kids potty chair without a hole in it - stark white, shiny clean. Yeech - it’s the container for collecting stool samples... Read the directions... OMG - I have to do it three times! OMG - that means I have to wash out the poop in order to re-use it? Holy Crap (‘scuse me)... Gross-out, totally. And I think it’s bad cleaning the litter boxes! Hell, I should make my cats clean this to get even...

Oh No, it gets worse.. Another zip-lock plastic package with two wooden popsicle sticks and these little packets that look kinda like match books. Wait a minute! TWO sticks? But, I have to collect THREE samples! “Using the applicator sticks provided...” the paper says. Oh No - No, no, no - I am not gonna wash the poop off those wooden sticks and re-use them... But wait, on second look, there are only two packets,,,, Whew, I guess I only have to do two samples, in spite of what the directions say

And lastly, sheets and sheets of paper directions and requisitions... Be there by 7:30 in the morning - Nothing to eat or drink after 10:30 the night before. Park in the huge public parking garage that is somewhere in the vicinity. Run to the Lab on the first floor of some building a couple of blocks away for urine and blood testing. Run across the street for the Stress Treadmill test at 8:00 - be there 15 minutes early... Hmmm.. Kinda tight schedule, isn’t it? I have 15 minutes to get the Lab staff into action, pee and give blood, and get outta there for the treadmill test. Still fasting, according to the instructions.

Then I run up to the 4th floor of that building (I guess) and get an EKG. Next I run down to the 3rd floor for a chest X-ray. Then I run over and up to the 3rd floor of the Kidney Transplant Clinic for a 2:30 appointment with the Transplant Physician. Next I run to some other office on the 3rd floor to meet with the Social Worker. The Social Worker and I chat, I guess, and she/he has to decide if I am nutso, or have been coerced, or am being paid for my dear kidney. Since it’s none of the above, I assume our session will be short and sweet.

And then, I hope to Hell that I can get something to eat!!

Happy Holidays!

Can't resist making an elf of myself.... Click on the Happy Holidays above to see me do the donor dance.... Kidney Donors Rock, ya know...

Workouts going well.... Managed to lose five pounds as a side benefit of my time at the gym. Or being totally full of water all the time... Now I'm waiting for the big packet to arrive from UCSF... Will have all my instructions and a schedule for my big T-Day on January 3rd. I may call them this afternoon to make sure they don't forget! Do they "forget" this kind of stuff? Who knows, but it is Holiday Season and people may be taking time off from work. I'd feel like a fool if I just sat around and waited and it never arrived....

I'm dealing with an unexpected area about being a kidney donor... Out of pocket $$$$ cost to me... I was told be UCSF that I had to have a mammogram and a colonoscopy before I would be approved as a donor, and that it was at my expense. Everything else is covered by the recipient's insurance company. Well, it turns out that I have a $1,000 deductible on my new insurance, and of course, being new, it hasn't been met yet.

I was absolutely astounded at the charges for the colonoscopy - I've never had one before. A total of $6068.00 - OMG - Unbelievable! I guess that I will owe $1,000 of it, but honestly, I don't trust that Blue Cross won't find a way to wiggle out of paying some of it... I'll betcha a dollar that I end up paying a bunch more than that...In any event, I don't exactly have $1k floating around in my jean's pocket. As a single woman in the rich Silicon Valley, I am struggling to survive, like all the other women here that I know...

Of course, I would do it anyway.. Absolutely... If I had known about the cost ahead of time, do you think I would not have offered? Nonsense, of course I would. My friend's life is worth more than a piddly $1k in the grand scheme of things... No problem - I'll deal with it.... I'll just keep dancing!

OK, back on track, or should I say treadmill, again. Pain-free workout yesterday, with no after effects on my silly Achilles thingy. Still in the holding pattern for the final testing day.

Thinking about how I will modify my Holiday eating and drinking patterns... Moderation, I guess, is the key word for the Christmas feasting. I'm told to watch the protein and alcohol consumption so I will have acceptable creatanine levels, which impact the GFR levels. I'm told that the GFR levels have to be normal or it's a no-go for the donation. Glomerular Filtration Rate is one test to measure your kidney function, and it can be done from a blood sample. I think that the UCSF Kidney Transplant Center also uses other, more sophisticated tests, too, which I will obviously undergo. However, I still can't figure out why they will want to do an endoscopy... Oh well, da ankle bone connecta to da thigh bone thing, I guess...

In any event, no party-hearty New Years Eve for me this year! Not with final testing day on January 3rd...

Not much action going on the past few days. Literally. Damn me - I just had to crank up the incline on the treadmill and step up the speed last Monday evening. Dumb and dumber... I stressed out my Achilles again (!) and have had to lay off for a few days. Dammit - I was just trying to get my heart rate up. I know it’s a good think that my heart rate stays low when I exert myself, but I am always thinking about the stress treadmill test that I will do at UCSF on Jan 3rd. I want to be able to hang in long enough to pass with flying colors...

The only other stress treadmill test that I’ve done was about 15 years ago in Mountain View, and they were brutal with increases in speed and incline. Even tho I was jogging regularly back then, they ran me practically to falling down, gasping exhaustion. So shall I expect the same at UCSF?

I don’t know. It’s totally an unknown, so I want to prepare for some quick, grueling in intervals on the treadmill. It isn’t called a stress treadmill test for nothin’, right? It’s not gonna be a quick, casual stroll in the park, for sure...

The information that two-thirds of the potential donors don’t pass the physical requirements weighs heavily on me, all the time. I’ve already told you that I am not in “athletic” shape right now. So, what if I screw up and it prevents me from being a donor to my good buddy? What if all this turns out to be for nothing cause my BP, or heart rate, goes too high on the treadmill? What if they find some other crap going on that I know nothing about and have no indicative symptoms?

My friend and his family are so overjoyed at this life-saving offer of mine, to them it is a miracle. But Holy Crap, what if my body lets them (and me) down? They’ve already had a devastating let-down when his other donor was found to have kidney stones. Tiny, little grains, but enough to prevent the donation. Jeeze, I usually have elevated cholesterol - will that be enough to dun me?
Or what if my GFR, a measure of kidney function, is not up to par? I can’t imagine that other donors don’t go thru these same thoughts as I am...

One good thing is that I had an EKG last week and it turned out absolutely normal . Whew - what a relief. However, I had a none-fasting blood draw, and as I reviewed the lab results, I saw that my estimated GFR was low.... Yikes! I was freaking out a little bit, and then realized that when UCSF did the labs on my seven vials of fasting blood draws last month, they must have run the same tests and levels, and found them OK. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even be this far... I would have been ruled out right away, I think. OK. OK. All is well so far.

But I am gonna keep training and watching what I eat and, of course, guzzling, guzzling that nasty, old, life-saving water. My kidneys must think they are somehow in somebody else’s body already, with all the work they are having to do for the first time in their little kidney lives....

Three liters of water a day - try for four. OMG - I do not like water. You know what WC Fields said about water, “ I never touch the stuff, fish f---* in it.” I must say that I agree. However, my trainer, Pete, says at least three liters a day. So how are my days going? Drink, pee, drink, pee, drink, pee, repeat as needed... Oh yes, I exercise, eat, sleep and try to do some normal things in between, ya know, like working...

It seems like I have entered this vacuum in time. Donor Time Warp. Is this real and really going to happen? Absolutely no word about the kidney donation or any communication from anyone. I am in the Donor Black Hole of Time, I guess, waiting for D Day. Or rather waiting for T Day - the final testing on January 3rd. I was told that I would receive an information packet about two weeks before the test date, giving me all the stuff I need to know and do. Ya know, sweet little chores like collecting pee for 24 hours and stool samples.. Yeeech....

So I follow my program every day, and am on the treadmill, or the bike or lifting weights and feeling a bit of fatigue... Muscles still cursing at me, especially my calf muscles. Walked up a freeway overpass yesterday and felt like I was riding up Alpe d’Huez. Oh Yes, I do need a bit of work to get in shape, don’t I?