One month!

There is officially only one month until the transplant.  Next week I will head back to lab corp to do the pre-op blood work (again) so it will be done and I won't have to worry about forgetting it.  Then my pre-op apt with my surgeon and anesthesiologist will be here before we know it, then finally the transplant!  It still feels like a long time away but I know with every weekend between now and then basically being busy it will be here sooner then I expect.  I feel like I should start getting stuff together, coming up with a list of what to bring, what we should have at the house for after the transplant, and stuff like that.

Either was everyday is a day closer to Dave being off of Dialysis and being pretty much healthy again and that makes me so excited!  I would expect myself to get nervous at some point but really I am just happy things are still going as planned and I am pretty calm about the whole thing.  I think my lack of anxiety is how I know this is what I am supposed to do, because normally I'd be super anxious by now.

Well, that is all for now, hope everyone has a great Easter this upcoming weekend!

Blue and Green Day!

April is Donate life month and today April 11th is National blue and green day.

Although I do not have any Blue/green shirts that are work appropriate (they all have dinosaurs on them or something) I wanted to let people be aware of this day.  People do not need to be living donors to help people who need transplants, they can do it just as easily by becoming an organ donor on their licence.  This way when one dies (hopefully from old age) any usable organs and tissues can be given to someone in need, making their lives and the lives of their families better.  Just something to think about.  Its an easy thing to do and doesn't hurt you at all.

"Fact: Anyone can be a potential donor regardless of age, race, or medical history.

Fact: All major religions in the United States support organ, eye and tissue donation and see it as the final act of love and generosity toward others.

Fact: If you are sick or injured and admitted to the hospital, the number one priority is to save your life. Organ, eye and tissue donation can only be considered after you are deceased.

Fact: When you are on the waiting list for an organ, what really counts is the severity of your illness, time spent waiting, blood type, and other important medical information, not your financial status or celebrity status.

Fact: An open casket funeral is possible for organ, eye and tissue donors. Through the entire donation process the body is treated with care, respect and dignity.

Fact: There is no cost to the donor or their family for organ or tissue donation."

The above was taken from the Donate Life website.  Something as simple as checking a box when you renew you licence can save lives.

3D Printing Organs

Found a good article about the 3D printing of organs and different opinions on it.

"Basically what it allows you to do is build tissue the way you assemble something with Legos," Murphy said

 I feel the technology behind this is fascinating.  There are so many different things you can do with science these days it is amazing.  I can see some of the ethical debates about regulating organs grown through 3D printing and keeping up with the quality of organs produced.  But overall I think this technology that as it progresses will hopefully be able to offer more organs to people that need them.  To me getting people off of transplant lists having them be able to stop waiting so long for an organ, be it a organ grown in a lab or one from another person is what is important.  I know from experience now with Dave waiting for the Kidney transplant that Dialysis sucks and the waiting sucks.  Hopefully if he every needs another kidney (A long time from now I hope) science and technology will have progressed far enough to get him one right away, possibly by growing one specifically for him in a laboratory.  The Dr. at Johns Hopkins said that might be the case and I can only hope for more research into the creation of human organs.

On another note It would be really interesting to be on the teams researching this (organ legos sound awesome!), maybe I should have branched out a bit in my studies and learned more about the biology fields.

New Date

We have a new date!  May 15th.  This means I can still do the Warrior dash on May 10th!  Also due to it being pushed back I may have enough time save to take 3 full weeks off with pay!  At the rate i am going I only need to make up 22hours of comp time (and work good Friday) between now and the 15th and that is doable, might be difficult but doable.  Time to actually start coming in a half hour early and stay a  half hour late.

So what this means is I have to do the pre-op blood work again but I cannot do that till after April 17th!  I also have to meet with the anesthesiologist and do the pre-op apt with them and finally schedule a time to meet with my surgeon to sign surgical consents.  But things are moving along!

The only hiccup in this so far is Dave was given a blood transfusion yesterday and will receive more blood on Wednesday.  This can mess up the cross match.  But hopefully that doesn't happen!  A final cross match won't be done till the week before the surgery so no use in worrying for that long, just have to hope and pray everything works out the way it is supposed to.