I’m Tired
Just when I was getting accustomed to dialysis, meaning I learned how to manage my fluids well enough, so very little is extracted, the idea of a transplant was presented to me by my social worker. For the past year, I watched my diet closely, made sure my labs were pristine, took my meds accordingly, even joined a gym, so I could counteract the effects of dialysis. I’m now proudly up to two miles on the track and 10 curls with some 5–6 pound weights, three to four days a week.
But today I received a huge gut punch. Yesterday after toiling through dialysis for 3.5 hours, I traveled to Lancaster, SC to update my tests for the transplant list. The battery of tests included: EKG, basic blood collection, PSA prostate screening, stress test, and ultrasounds of my heart, kidneys, etc. Heart is in good working condition, blood culture was perfect, but my PSA came back elevated. It should be under 4, and mine was 4.1. I was informed by the transplant coordinator that I would be inactivated on the list after being told I was at the top of the list, and after receiving two phone calls in the last two weeks for kidneys. One was a match, and the other went to another person higher on the list.
This is the same Karen who told me my insurance didn’t qualify me to be placed on the list. The social worker came behind her and said my insurance was fine. Before that she claimed she couldn’t clear me because my neurologist…