Jeannie: I have a new kidney!

How about a whoop and shout for Jeannie, a very special member of the HBO family. DFO just forwarded a message from Jeannie with some praiseworthy news. Jeannie writes: “I wanted you to know, and all of Huckleberryland, I have a new kidney. Monday night and I was home Wednesday night. They don’t fool around. I had my last test and about three weeks later I was called to say “wait by the phone” and eight days later , last Saturday evening, I was told I had a donor!  Immediately, though, I realized my donor was on life support and that brought a whole new perspective on things.  I am so grateful to this donor and to their family.  I felt very sad about their grief at this point.  So I was happy and then crying and then happy and then crying. For Mechanic Man and me, it’s like bringing home a baby at our age!  We’re taking temperatures, measuring things, doling out pills and more pills, writing everything down in a journal and for the next six weeks, we will go to the transplant clinic three days a week with all our supplies, book, thermometer, blood pressure cuff, and all my drugs and get labs done and educational time with the doctors and nurses at the clinic - about four hours.  So I’m going in pretty much when I went to dialysis for about the same length of time.  I can do this.  Mechanic Man deserves a star or something! I wanted to thank everyone for following me, praying for me, supporting me.  It has been so humbling and awesome! I am going to name the kidney because it doesn’t actually belong to me; I am only carrying it and caring for it.  I hope to honor my donor with a long and productive life.