The importance of blood
Blood work is the name of the game when seeking a transplant, or maintaining kidney function, or for that matter, determining what level of diabetes control you are maintaining.
Blood is the tattletale.
Blood provides benchmarks.
Since getting on the transplant list Dec. 2, 2009, I’ve had to be a blood fountain. Each month, I show up at UPMC Montefiore to surrender one red vial to provide a baseline sample, including antigen levels, for comparison if and when a donor organ is available.
Since my kidney function has declined rather steadily in the last six months, I’ve been having blood work done each month so my trusty nephrologists at Teredesai McCann and Associates can gauge my numbers and determine my treatment levels.
Then when called into the hospital, as I have been five times already for a potential transplant, they tap a vein to take as many as 18 vials to prepare for the transplant.
“Please leave me a trickle,” I advise the phlebotomist who shows fangs when he or she is drawing the blood and looks like a cast member of “True Blood.” "You're going to turn me into a raisin."
Getting blood drawn before each kidney appointment also requires some strategy.
First, you can’t be thirsty when you give blood. You have to make sure you’re hydrated to give yourself the best numbers.
Then, finding the best time to get the blood work at the local lab requires forethought. I went yesterday morning amid a snowstorm and my strategy was solid. Only one other poor soul in the waiting room. I got into the lab and out in about 15 minutes and got to work on time.
In the meantime, my patient wait for the call from the transplant team continues. I’m atop the list for O-positive blood type at UPMC. So it’s just a matter of .... oh, wait, my cell phone is ringing ...
Blood is the tattletale.
Blood provides benchmarks.
Since getting on the transplant list Dec. 2, 2009, I’ve had to be a blood fountain. Each month, I show up at UPMC Montefiore to surrender one red vial to provide a baseline sample, including antigen levels, for comparison if and when a donor organ is available.
Since my kidney function has declined rather steadily in the last six months, I’ve been having blood work done each month so my trusty nephrologists at Teredesai McCann and Associates can gauge my numbers and determine my treatment levels.
Then when called into the hospital, as I have been five times already for a potential transplant, they tap a vein to take as many as 18 vials to prepare for the transplant.
“Please leave me a trickle,” I advise the phlebotomist who shows fangs when he or she is drawing the blood and looks like a cast member of “True Blood.” "You're going to turn me into a raisin."
Getting blood drawn before each kidney appointment also requires some strategy.
First, you can’t be thirsty when you give blood. You have to make sure you’re hydrated to give yourself the best numbers.
Then, finding the best time to get the blood work at the local lab requires forethought. I went yesterday morning amid a snowstorm and my strategy was solid. Only one other poor soul in the waiting room. I got into the lab and out in about 15 minutes and got to work on time.
In the meantime, my patient wait for the call from the transplant team continues. I’m atop the list for O-positive blood type at UPMC. So it’s just a matter of .... oh, wait, my cell phone is ringing ...