Yesterday was a long and tiring day at the Foothills hospital in Calgary for me as I started the Kidney transplant donor testing in earnest
The journey for Michelle and I to become transplant donors started a few months back as we know that our daughter will need a new kidney sometime in the new year. A few weeks ago the kidney transplant staff here in Calgary sent us each a health questionnaire and had us take a blood test. The questionnaire was just about 15 minutes to fill out and the blood test was just testing our blood type to see if it was a match for Taylor's blood type.
After checking through everything the transplant crew decided that they would start with me as the donor and if I fail at any point then my wife would do the same testing.
Health Testing for Kidney Donor
Yesterday was a long day getting lots of tests. At this point we know that I am a blood type match and that I am willing to donate a kidney to my daughter but yesterday they started assessing my health and the viability of both of my kidneys so that I could have a strong kidney and also be able to give a strong kidney to my daughter.
I started by having eight vials of blood taken so that I could be tested for many diseases, if I was a carrier for any diseases this would make it difficult for my daughter to fight anything since she will be on antirejection drugs after transplant.
Next I had an ECG. An electrocardiogram takes just a minute to do but is critical. It shows the medical staff how good my circulation is as well as testing heart function.
After this quick test I had a diagnostic imaging test. This was actually the longest test that I had and involved a dye being injected into me and at the same time there were pictures taken of it running through my kidneys. This test took about 30 minutes and after that I had to come after two, three, and four hours to have blood taken to see how quickly the dye was being pushed out through my kidneys. This will help the doctors find out the clearing rate of my kidneys.
Finally after this was all done I had a CT scan to see the blood vessels and tissues of my kidneys to see how tough it would be to extract and how healthy they are as well. And quickly after that I had a couple chest X-Rays and I was let go to come home.
Long day to say the least but the staff at Foothills hospital were all fantastic, helpful, and really confident in what they were doing shuttling me through the different parts of the hospital and making sure that I knew what each test was for and what to expect.
Last night I have to admit I was feeling a little beat up. Mostly I think that all of the poking and prodding was bothering me but mostly all the chemicals that were put into me were just working their way through my system. Feeling great today though.
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