Mudblood no more!

The past week has been quite a whirlwind and I finally have a few minutes to sit down & share what my husband and I have been through.

First let me explain the title... as anyone who had read Harry Potter or seen the movies knows... mudblood is the term magical people use to describe other magical people who are the descendants of both a magical parent and a non-magical parent. In our case... it literally means "dirty blood", and shortly you'll understand why.

My husband was born with birth defects including a neurogenic bladder (where the nerves in the bladder do not function properly and cannot tell you when you need to go to the bathroom, or the opposite of Overactive bladder). His family didn't know this until age 3, when his bladder burst in the middle of the night. Almost from infancy his urine had refluxed into his kidneys and poisoned them, ultimately causing their failure at the age of 27. Last year, he underwent vascular surgery so that he would have a port which would be used to connect him to a home hemodialysis machine. For the last year and 2 months, we have been performing home dialysis 5 days per week. In the middle of the school year (my husband is a Cafeteria Manager at an Elementary School) he was describing his health issues to a co-worker and another staff member, Carol, overheard the discussion. Carol thought about what it would mean to donate her kidney to my husband and came up to him shortly thereafter, offering him one of her kidneys. Initially he didn't believe her, but she was (thankfully) persistent. On Thursday, July 8th, Carol and Joey both simultaneously went into surgery for a kidney donation/transplant.

Every moment since that morning, my brain has been going a million miles an hour with what I have to do to keep Joey healthy & keep this kidney going for as long as possible. We truly have been given a gift from God and I can't ever begin to thank Carol or God enough for the gift we have received. My husband was told on the day he returned home, that his blood was more clean than even the surgeon's. Since they went into surgery, we've also received an incredible amount of support from our extended family and friends. My heart is truly overwhelmed with gratitude for every family member and friend who has been praying for us & been there to listen to me go insane when I was scared. Trust me, as the spouse of the transplant recipient, I was plenty afraid and I'll continue to be paranoid for the rest of my life, its just what I do. Those doctors and surgeons do not understand that they took my other half into the operating room that day. Literally he is half of me and I of him and without him, I could not function. I worried for Carol, as her husband did... but all the worrying appeared to be for naught. She was doing so well the doctors were going to let her go home early, but she wanted to stay to get as much rest as possible.

Our family has grown and I will always be grateful to Carol, her husband and her family for saving the life of my husband and giving my daughter the gift of her father being able to walk her down the aisle at her wedding.

If anyone that may read this, ever finds themselves in this situation - facing dialysis and transplantation for the first time, please feel free to post a comment and I'll be glad to lend support. Just remember, you're not alone and it is ok to be afraid... heaven knows I was!