KIDNEY FAILURE - A PERSONAL JOURNAL

A Miracle Offer, or Two, or Three

While all of this was going on, a strange phenomenon was going on: three former clients contacted me to offer to be donors. I felt strange accepting their offers to be tested, as I could not imagine why someone was willing to offer a vital organ to me, who had merely represented them in legal matters, even though, in one case, we also knew each other outside the legal arena, although we were never what I would consider “best friends.” However, at their request, I contacted my transplant coordinator who, in turn, contacted them. The first two were eliminated for various reasons, although one was outraged that he could not be considered solely because he was so medically fragile in other areas that it might threaten his life.

My third volunteer, Diane Ryan, to whom I have already briefly introduced you, appropriately enough, in the introduction, made a trip from Maine to Florida to visit family and to go to Shands for testing. Less than a month before writing this, I was contacted by Shands to announce a match. Surgery was scheduled for September 14, 1999. I am now in the waiting period, wondering what it will be like. However, from everything I have read, and from every question I have asked, the transplant is the best option by far, despite the medications and their side effects. Thank you Diane Ryan for this opportunity.

Questions as the Time Approaches