No, I am not referring to anything that includes Richard Dreyfus building a monolithic dirt mountain in his living room. This is way more realistic, and I believe will have a better outcome than ol' Richard going happily away with a bunch of very nice aliens.
FIRST AND SECOND ENCOUNTERS
You may recall that recently I met a remarkable double-lung recipient, Michael, who received his organs from a young police officer killed in the line of duty. Thursday, after a great lunch with Greg and Suzie at Sean Taheri's excellent restaurant in Pleasant Hill, we S2000'ed it back to the Ile du Livermore for the weekly Farmer's Market. While examining the produce, I noticed a man towering above the crowd and recognized him as Michael. He is 6'8" tall. After he realized who I was with my mask on, we had a nice chat and he invited us to the California Transplant Donor Network picnic on Saturday in Pleasanton. We called the event organizer to ask if we could attend, and were warmly assured we could.
THIRD ENCOUNTER
We again drove the S2000 to Pleasanton and found the group. We immediately began meeting people; there were the paid CTDN staff members, and many volunteers representing both recipients and donor families. Pretty incredible stories everywhere. We ate our burgers sitting next to a young woman, Tiffany, who just had her FIFTH kidney transplant, and she will be joining many of the others for the 2010 Transplant Games in Madison, WI. Her first one was at age 12. Our friend John from TRIO is campaigning to receive an experimental islet transplant that will relieve him after 50 years of diabetes. He already got a kidney from his tennis partner.
We spoke to Isa, also from TRIO, who is currently, along with her twin sister Ana, visiting all over the world promoting organ donation. They have written a book, "The Power of Two", about their struggles with cystic fibrosis and their subsequent double-lung transplants. Ana has had two transplants and is in the hospital now. Isa is heading for the Transplant Games where she will swim AND play the bagpipes! That takes some lung power, yes? A feature-length documentary based on the book is in production now, and I believe will debut at the Sundance Film Festival this year.
We were introduced to June who is responsible for volunteers here in Alameda County. She enthusiastically took our contact information and already has us scheduled for a CTDN table at an event at Eden Hospital in two weeks. Even though we have not been through the volunteer training, she liked our story and I am confident we can speak to people about transplantation intelligently.
THE CONDITION MY CONDITION IS IN
There was a bit of urgency on Thursday as the Monday lab results arrived. It appears my Tacrolimus (an immunosuppressant) level is way low. The coordinator asked if I had skipped doses or stopped taking it. Well, no, of course not. So they bumped it up, but not too much since an increase could wake up that nasty BK virus and help it assault my kidney. I will be heading to UCSF early Monday morning to get stat labs done so we can determine where I'm at.
My morning and bedtime blood pressures have been frighteningly high, so I calibrated my meter at Cardiac Rehab. It's not very far off. So again I called UCSF and was prescribed Amlodipine. I had taken this right after the surgery and Cheryl recalled it gave me a serious case of CRL (Charging Rhino Legs, a very old Henry concept) so they took me off of it. The pharmacist here confirmed that a side affect is swelling of the feet and legs. Darn.
So again, despite the side issues, we are continuing to enjoy good health, enthusiasm and a newly-rediscovered passion for my little sports car. I did not drive it much for the last five years, and it is once again pleasing me immensely, even after nine years of ownership. I am actually glad they stopped making them last year since I am certain I would have had hungered badly for a new, updated model. But hey, I'm good as it is.
Happy Sunday and have a good week.
Bob/Irv
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