Breakfast, Blood Work & Fireballs

This morning I was able to attend Donate Life Northwest’s annual Lifesavers Breakfast. The keynote speaker was the esteemed musical director of the Oregon Symphony, James DePreist. In addition to being a local celebrity here in Portland, Mr. DePriest is also a kidney recipient. He received a new chance at life courtesy of his friend, Susan Baumgardner in 2001.

Mr. DePriest is an absolutely wonderful public speaker. His speech made me laugh and made me cry. He told of his experiences going through dialysis in different countries from Norway to Spain and across the United States. I never put much thought around the idea that dialysis in different countries would have a different process and experience.

After the event I was lucky enough to meet his donor Susan and although it was a short introduction, it was great to have a talk with her. I hope to have some time to get to know her better in the future.

I was reflecting on this very idea while I was running this afternoon. I’ve met some amazing and wonderful people through this kidney donation process. From kidney donors and recipients to hospital staff that I seem to interact with on a daily basis, I’ve genuinely been grateful for the people I have come to know in the past few months. I’ve also learned more about some of my existing friends and their personal experiences with kidney disease, organ transplants and other related circumstances. Overall, this has been such an amazing journey for me to expand my little world. It’s certainly an advantage to organ donation that I didn’t expect to receive when I went into this process.

Unfortunately, this morning’s breakfast was the high point of my day as I seem to have come down with a nasty cold. Because I am eight days away from the surgery, I am supposed to stay away from all over the counter medications – which apparently include cold medicine. Since I can’t take any kind of decongestant, I have opted instead for a post-Halloween sinus draining treatment that centers on frequent ingestion of Fireballs and Altoids. It isn’t the most effective treatment I’ve ever had, but at least I’m not putting stuff in my body that has been deemed off limits by my medical team.

Anna had her final blood draw this morning in Seattle (for the final antigen match) and I went to a local hospital yesterday for mine. And yes, I went in full Halloween costume. It made the tedious task a little more interesting. I still rest on my earlier statement that the phlebotomists at Virginia Mason are the best around. I’ve got a nasty bruise from yesterday’s blood work. Just proof that Anna and I are in good hands.

The real kicker about yesterday’s blood work though was that the hospital staff wanted to send me away with my own blood sample and have me mail it to Virginia Mason myself. It took about half an hour but they finally figured out the process was for THEM to ship the blood work, not me. How bizarre would that have been for me to be walking around town with 10 vials of blood on Halloween? I suppose if I had dressed up as a vampire instead of a fortune teller it might have worked out nicely.