Got a call that there’s a kidney out there

Last night at midnight I’m asleep and the phone rings. It’s the kidney transplant center, calling to ask me questions to see if I qualify at this moment to be positioned to be the back up recipient for a kidney: not sick, not on antibiotics, not just back from an international trip, etc.

The kidney will be donated by a man on life support due to an accident; his family is removing him from life support today. Today they’ll test his tissue with the primary recipient, and also with mine, to see how good the match is, and they’ll check the likelihood of my body rejecting the kidney. That rejection factor can vary from month to month. Also, when the donor is removed from life support, if he doesn’t die within 90 minutes his organs aren’t viable for transplant.

I’ll get a call by this afternoon. It feels surreal, thrilling, shocking, unlikely and possible. Is this a normal day or THE day? This is the roller coaster ride for those of us needing a transplant, and our loved ones.

And lest we forget: today is this donor’s death day. His family will have one of the hardest days of their lives today. Holding him and his family in my prayers. Hopefully his/their gift of life to others will give them comfort.