Wow, its been a long time again!

A LOT has happened in the last 7 months. Life seems to be throwing us curve balls all.the.time.

Since March we’ve been on a whole different journey; my sister had gone into end stage renal failure. She was diagnosed with FSGS when she was 19. Initially we were told that she wouldn’t live beyond 30, for the last decade she’d been doing so well especially after following a strict vegan diet, that her Nephrologist said that she could expect to lose her kidney function at 50-60 years. So this was a big surprise.

She was very very ill. At one point I thought I had to say goodbye to her, but I just couldn’t. Things finally worked out where she was admitted to hospital and she started on Heamo Dialysis. It was touch and go in the beginning, her potassium was very high, her hemoglobin was very low. 4.1 to be exact. The night she was admitted was just in the nick of time, the Doctors were sure that she wasn’t going to survive the night. Fortunately and praise God she did.

From April I knew I was going to donate my kidney to her. I also knew that I needed to lose weight. At that stage I wanted to lose weight because I know carrying extra weight after major surgery makes life more difficult. But as soon as we started the process of donating my kidney I was told that my BMI should be below 28, I’ve lost 14kg so far, I need to lose 9 more. It’s slow going but I know I will get there in the end.

I’ve done a huge amount of blood tests, they’ve tested absolutely everything, any disease I could be suffering from that would prevent me from donating, as they do not want to put my life at risk, and also make sure that I do not have any diseases I can transmit to my sister via my kidney.

My kidney function is perfect! My liver function not too good, I had raised liver enzymes which I can only think is related to my obesity. As I’ve stopped drinking anything in May already, before that I’ve only had a few drinks socially, I’ve stopped my 2 glasses of wine at every night long before that.

Basically they are looking for any reason to exclude me. Which I think is a little absurd, I mean really, she needs a kidney transplant, I have two, I’ll gladly give up one so that my sister can have a chance at a normal life. Dialysis is not a great life, she spends 4 hours, 3 times a week at the National Renal Care Unit hooked up to an artificial kidney. My heart goes out to her, I so wish my little sis didn’t have to go through this, but she handles it with grace and strength! I’m so proud of her!

My blood pressure is fine.

I’ve had x-rays of my chest – all normal

I’ve had x-rays of my kidneys and other internal organs, all normal except a little fat on my liver.

On Monday we had our Psychological assessment, the Psychologist was happy with me and my sister’s state of mind, so we’ll be getting a good report.

Next step is to have an afadavit (sp?) signed at the Police station stating that I willingly want to donate my kidney to my sister and that we are biological sisters.

All of this and we don’t even know if we’re a match yet! So strange, you’d think the first thing they’ll want to do is tissue matching to make sure I am a suitable donor. Anyway, that should be our next step. We’re seeing the Nephrologist at the end of October to discuss our further steps. I also had to repeat a urine test because my creatinine levels weren’t high enough, ideally it should be low and points to good kidney function, but in this instance they want it high as the transplant board devides it in two to get a feel for what it would be without my second kidney, which makes NO sense at all as the remaining kidney will take over the function of the missing kidney! It just seems to be another thing they’re too strict on to exclude me.

Looking back it certainly makes sense why I’ve decided two years earlier than I initially thought we’d stop trying for babies. I’m now at peace with it, completely, and without that peace, the psychologist would have advised against me donating my kidney until I’ve conceived or made peace with it, and the whole process would have ended.

God truly is in charge of my life, even when I thought I was making the biggest mistake of my life by giving up our journey to parenthood, I knew in my heart I had made the right decision. It was such a conflicting time for me, but I knew I had to trust my life into His hands, and that he has a purpose for everything!

Hubby and I are truly happy with our decision, we are happy and content. Working towards a bright future filled with no debt, overseas holidays and freedom and lets not forget, a healthy happy sister, without whom my life would be SO empty!