In 1987 My husband took a physical for a job and discovered he had a kidney disease that had a 20% chance of ending with a transplant. For years he didn't think much about it. It doesn't pay to worry with an autoimmune disease since there is nothing you can do. In Feb 1998 he got sick enough to need the transplant. His father offered a kidney and the imaging showed a cyst next to his right kidney. They decided to go for the right side. Jorge was under anesthesia with a central line on. I went home with the kids when I got a call from Jorge. I was very surprised. I went back to the hospital. He didn't get the kidney because the cyst turned out to be a cancer tumor, associated with heavy smokers. H eis a heavy smoker, but his lungs were clear, so they assumed he was fine. The center said they would go now with his mother, who didn't even offer a kidney to her own son. I told them I don't want to chance what they could find in his mother, living with this heavy smoker most of her life, so I told them we would go to another center and don't tell them he had a mother. I worked at the hospital where this happened and the DR doing the surgery was a friend of mine. I started having all the testing done to give him my kidney. I April 1998 we were back there, on Tax day, having our surgeries done. His father was on my side all the time, his mother didn't even go to the hospital until 3 days later. My mother came fromPuerto Rico to care for the kids. It has been almost 12 years and he is well. The midication he takes has made him a diabetic, but very mild and with insulin, excercise and diet, that is under control as well.
I spoke at a transplant group as a motivationar for donors and got to meet a young man who had a kidney and pancreas. To me that is marvelous. I am glad your husband is doing well.
Maria