A Tale of Two Kidneys - Chapter Two

I have good news to share about the compatibility of my kidney with the child from Phx Children’s Hospital.

TISSUE MATCHING

Everyone has unique proteins called antigens in their body. Tissue matching tests look at six specific antigens and try to match as many as possible between a donor and a recipient. The best possible situation would be a six-antigen match. A zero-antigen match can still be a match, but is less perfectly matched than higher numbers. The child and I are a three-antigen match, which is what you would typically see in a match from a sibling. What a miracle!

CROSS MATCHING

This test defines how the child’s body will respond to my kidney, whether or not his body will reject it. They take my blood cells and mix them with his antibodies and see how many of his antibodies attack my blood cells. The results were 0. None of his antibodies attacked my blood cells. This was the test that the child’s two relatives failed. They were looking for a negative result but both relatives tested positive in the cross matching, making them unable to donate. My test was negative. Another miracle!

This is great news, however, there is still the issue that Phx Children’s Hospital is unsure if they can allow me to donate because they do not have an anonymous donor program in place and I have never met the child. Although this is frustrating I believe that they have the child’s best interest in mind, and since they have never done this before they want to be especially careful. They have not told the boy’s family about me because they do not want to get their hopes up.

I have been asked to take a three hour psychiatric exam which is required for all anonymous donors (I guess they think I might be crazy and I would image some of you are thinking the same thing). I have a bunch of blood tests left and one 8-hour day at the hospital for various tests, mostly on my kidneys.

I am told that Phx Children’s Hospital will make a decision about this by the end of the month. I’ve been assured that many surgeons, doctors and social workers, both at Good Sam and at Phx Children’s Hospital are going to do everything they can to make this happen. I’ll be praying that they do!

Miracles happen every day! It’s so amazing to see one unfold right in front of me!