After finishing up at the hospital on the 15th, I was told by Edna that she would call me to advise me of the results of all my tests. she also said that I should call her if I hadn't heard anything within two weeks. This afternoon (which is generally when my postman prefers to deliver, its rarely mornings) I went and picked my mail up from the doormat. Only two letters and thankfully neither was a bill. When I turned the envelopes around I saw a Leicester post mark! I was immediately excited and nervous with a small case of butterflies.
I don't think I've ever ripped open a letter so quickly! A letter from the hospital which was mailed to my GP and had Ben and myself cc'd in. a lot of preamble about what I am planning to do and that I have been advised of the risks, also included a list of the risks (scary). But on page 2 of the letter I found what I was looking for, details of tissue typing and the cytotoxic cross-match. These two factors are how the doctors determine if I am a suitable match for Ben. These factors had been explained within the talk that we attended, so I figured I'd make sense of it all. The tissue typing performed proved Ben and I to share a 1-1-1 mismatch, do you think I was able to remember what this meant? Of course I wasn't! Sitting, staring at the letter, saying it out loud over and over but still couldn't remember what this meant for Ben and I. Next was the cytotoxic cross-match which proved to be negative. Again, I was totally baffled!
The next thing I did was call the hospital and isn't it typical that I had these results in my hand but didn't understand them and then the phone went straight to voicemail! I was a little frustrated about it and expected to be waiting most of the day if not til tomorrow for a call back. Thankfully my phone rang shortly after I had left a message. I was delighted to hear Carly's voice on the other end of the phone. I explained what I had received and asked about the results. When it comes to tissue typing, the result Ben and I have (1-1-1) is typical of a parent and child match. she said it was great that we had 3 out of 6, a really good result. Next was the cross-match, I was a little panicky thinking that negative may bring bad news. I was wrong! Negative actually means that Ben's blood didn't fight mine, which for the purposes of this test is great. So, there we have it folks, I'm a great match for Ben so theoretically all should be well.
The only thing left is to wait on my GFR (kidney function) results. Providing I have a decent score and my psych assessment doesn't flag me up as a complete mentalist, or Munchhausen's sufferer we should be all systems go! Carly even asked me whether Ben and I had discussed when we would like to do the surgery. I was completely shocked, I thought that was the kind of thing the hospital sorted out. Apparently, we can pretty much pick and choose when we want to go under the knife for this thing. They let people choose their own times with live donation so that it can be arranged around other commitments. Great for me as I expected to be potentially taking my ickle people out of school for a week to stay with my family while I went for surgery. Now at least we can find a time when they are not at school, but I'm thinking that maybe the original idea is better. At least with taking them out of school I can get work from the teachers for them to do. If I go for surgery in school holidays it will be a bit rubbish for them really, either not having me around at all or seeing me stuck in a hospital bed. Either way its a bit pants for them, but in the grand scheme of things I don't think it's too much of a sacrifice when you consider what the outcome may well be.
