Since the first day I heard the words Kidney Transplant as I sat in my doctors office with my good friend Maria I knew this day would come. The funny thing is I just assumed it would be in the distant future when my children were old enough to fend for themselves. I had been told you could go a good 10 years before we start the process. Well fate threw up my cards and 10 years turned into 2 years. Last week I went to my regular routine doctors appointment and I heard those dreaded words. "Ms. Vincent, we need to start preparing and educating you for dialysis or/and transplant".
I wasn't saddened or upset just numb because how can I add this to my already full plate of being this superwoman who raises her kids, runs a business and trys...yes TRYS to keep the house clean.
So as I start this journey I wanted to blog because number 1... I am not good at asking for things when I need them and number 2... I would rather talk about school, kids, movies then talk about being sick. So this is my main communication with where I am at. And please don't ask me how am I feeling. Most days I feel like I have the flu, but I will fake it for everyone's sake...no one wants a debbie downer- including myself!!!
Just to advise you of the medical part= I am at about 22-23% function of my kidneys. At 20% I get to be put on the transplant list and start trying for a donor. I am starting more medication to slow things down but I was advised I may have 2 months or 2 years before we hit this point. Once I receive a transplant the disease is still there- I might have a good 30 years before the kidneys fail again but they do start to fail again.
Here is the tricky part- I have a mass on my liver. While it does not look to be cancer we need to probably remove it before the transplant because it is some hemo something mass which means complications during the transplant surgery. I have an MRI every 3 months to watch this but now I have to go see the oncologist to figure out what this mass is and what we need to do.
I have my first Appointment October 4th to attend my Hemodialsis and Peritoneal Dialysis Transplant Class- 3.5 hours of my life...YUCK.
Anyways- this won't be such a BOO HOO Blog- cause Life is really good and God is great. So I will try and keep it positive and upbeat when I can :)
My wish is to have at least 3 years before we start this process, I just want a little more time.
