Pause Part 2

Pause Part 2

The next step after starting the dialysis was the discussion on organ donation. Because of his age- 71, it was quietly thought it would be unlikely to get an organ through the waiting list, as he would have to get a healthy kidney- that matched his proteins- in his age group. After a family discussion Sue, his wife, decided to approach the transplant team to see if she was a match. Unfortunately due to having successfully survived breast cancer in 2002 she would not be considered. This was a huge blow- especially for Sue.

OK what next? Andrew the eldest son has a history of a heart problem, so would not be considered due to the drugs he is on. Kevin, the youngest, is in Australia. Tia (Deirdre) their daughter did go down the road of finding out about it being done in NZ, but the cost was prohibitive at the initial investigation. So the only one left was Nigel.

Off we trekked to Beaumont to see if they were a match. Nigel initially said that he would see if he was a match first before made any final decision. The team are wonderful, they make you feel very at ease and go to every length to explain all the ins and outs along the way.

There were a lot of blood tests, every time Nigel went up there was more blood to be taken. The other obstacle was his weight, they wanted his BMI to be under 30. So Nigel went about losing weight and getting fit. They said it would take a while to get the date for the operation. I did not realise when they said that, that it was going to take a full year. I think I would have panicked.

But month in month out Nigel went up to Beaumont and was weighed prodded poked analysized and talked to. He, to his credit, passed every hurdle they put in front of him.

As we have our own business it was decided that the operation could not take part around the sacred “Payroll End of Year”. But we were hoping that it would be around the end of January. Unfortunately Alan had a fall in November, dislocating his patella. This meant an operation- crutches- splints- and that Beaumont would not even entertain the transplant until he was 100% again.

Another set back was that his central line got infected. So they took it out of course. However this was one of the hardest part of the whole journey, as he had no dialysis for eight days, we had to feed him with a special kidney diet, he had more medication to keep his potassium level down. And it was Christmas Week. Eventually after many conversations with the wonderful staff in the dialysis unit the line was put back in, and with an enormous sigh of relief dialysis started again.