If at First You Don't Succeed...

Well, it has been almost three months since I went through the testing procedures at UCSF to be a kidney donor. At that time, the transplant team was concerned about my cardiovascular risk and uric acid level being high normal. High normal is 6.8 and mine was 6.9

In the past months, I have lost weight, been eating healthy (gave up junk food), continued with my exercise program, and gone on cholesterol-lowering meds. I had a blood panel done through my local doc last week and the news is really good. My cholesterol has dropped 96 points and HDL is good, as well as LDL. Triglicerides are normal, and my uric acid level is 5.8 which is in the normal range. All very good news toward my donor goal. My blood pressure is now in the completely normal range...

In the meantime, my friend has had a third donor who didn't meet the preliminary requirements, and now a fourth donor has just submitted her blood for testing. This is a tedious, and discouraging process for all involved. Now I will have to try to get my transplant team to reconsider me again for donating. My transplant coordinator told me that there is no guarantee that they will even look at my blood testing results again.

It's kinda weird that my transplant team and even my transplant coordintor have never even met me - I haven't seen any of them. I just have the feeling that if they met me and saw how athletic and robust that I am, it would alleviate some of their concerns, especially with my new test results. I am going to try to present my new "self" and test results to them the first week of April... I am really hoping for a face-to-face meet with these folks... not likely, I know. But at least to speak with my coordinator in person.

Everybody send positive thoughts and energy that this time it will be green lights and a go....

A quick update on what's happening. My friend has had another disappointment. The new potential donor's blood did not match and he is out of the picture. Right now, there isn't anyone else who has stepped up. So I am still planning on going back to my transplant team in another two or three months to see if they will reconsider me.

I must admit that I slacked off from the exercise program for a short while - I was out-of-town for two weeks and then back and then gone again for a week. So I am now back on the exercise track, and am trying to get back to the water guzzling. My nutrition has been OK, and I am maintaining the 7-8 pound weight loss.

I go in next week to have a blood panel done, and we'll see if the slightly elevated uric acid level was a result of the heavy exercise that I did, or if it shows up again. I'll let you know when the result comes in to my doc a week or so after the draw...