"I am stronger than depression and braver than loneliness and nothing will ever exhaust me".
-Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Crossmatch


A little bit of my blood and a whole lot of my sister's blood (pictured above) are about to get reeaall cozy in a Petri dish over the next week.  It's officially crossmatch time!  Earlier this week Haily and I had bloodwork done to basically see how compatible our cells are.  Haily has the same blood type as me, but that doesn't necessarily mean my antibodies will get along with her.  Siblings can be tricky when it comes to being a match.  Sibling are often either a perfect match, or not match at all.  The other tricky part is this is my third transplant, so in addition to my own personal antibodies, I have had two other kidneys in my system with their own antibodies screwing with my system.  I have been on anti rejection drugs since the age of 8, making finding a match for the third time a bit more challenging.

So, we will just have to wait and see!  In the mean time, I am continuing with my pre-opt test (I still have to do an ECG and TB test) and keep doing what I'm doing.  If Haily is a match, we keep moving forward and booking a date for the surgery will come shortly after that.  If Haily is not a match, I still continue with my work up stuff and we move down the list of potential live donors I have (calling all O+).  

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