Blackthorne said

Yeah, not to usurp this Hero-U thread, but my kidney history is messed up. I had my first transplant in 2003, donated from my father. At first the transplant went well, but a few months later they learned that my lymphatic channels didn't heal right, and they'd have to go in to relive the lymphocele by putting in a "peritoneal window" in my gut, so the fluid would drain to a cavity that would absorb it, in theory. However, during that surgery, the resident surgeon nicked the transplant, and in a panic they sewed me up, and pumped me full of fluid hoping to kickstart the kidney. That didn't work. Instead, it stopped, I swelled from fluid so bad, that the stitches in my centerline burst, my stomach ripped open and a bunch of my intestines fell out. While I was conscious, and my mother was in the goddam room. I got rushed to emergency surgery; the head of the transplant department was able to rearrange my guts and save the kidney, somewhat - it never worked quite right after, and my clearances were always shit. But I was off dialysis for almost three years. I was on dialysis for almost five years after that, and then in 2011, I got a call while I was in a grocery story. My second kidney came from a "cadaver" donor. Something they called a high-risk donor. The kid was an IV drug user - heroin. He OD'd and his parent signed the orders to donate while they kept him on life support. They tested the kidney for diseases and genetic testing, it matched me well, so in July 2011, I had my second transplant. In 2015, my labs started to dip a little; I attributed it to stress, work, etc... and then the birth of my kids. But my labs/levels (Glomular Filtration Rate) had been going down since Feb 2016. This year, it just kicked the bucket. My last GFR was 10. That means I have 10% function - ready for dialysis again. They've done a bunch of biopsies on me, and all signs point towards an auto-immune disease, Lupus, which I've probably had all my life but been unable to diagnose until now. I have one last genetic test to determine the full nature of the disease. That test costs $5,000.... it's insane. But if they can treat and control my lupus, hopefully this next kidney (From my wife, who is a match) will last longer.

Whew. Sorry for the rant, but I wanted to give a short recap.

Bt

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