How do you react to something you have no control over? This is a question I ask now right after seeing my neph. I do not know how to react after some disturbing pre-transplant test results. These past weeks saw Ninette(my wife and prospective donor) and I doing lab blood work. These are very expensive blood tests not covered by health insurance. As I said previously, this is Stage 4 of a 5-stage process according to my neph. When we pass all stages, the transplant is a go. We've breezed through Stages 1 to 3 but now there's some snag.
The neph keeps a tabular record of all the tests we have undergone and all their results. Up until today, the space labelled 'Problem' remained empty. I had a positive reading in the PRA Class I antibody screening. PRA stands for Panel Reactive Antibody and is routinely done on patients awaiting organ transplantation. A positive means that I have anti-human antibodies in my blood. And, because of this, I have to undergo a deeper test called the PRA Specific Class I to determine the percentage of the population that the antibody in my blood reacts to. As well as compare it with Ninette's tissue typing and crossmatching results. Hopefully, I get a low percentage and probably the transplant can go on and I just will need a bombardment of modern immunosuppressants. If otherwise, then I am not a suitable recipient and Ninette cannot be my donor. Then it will be back to zero.
So I gotta have this other blood work up. I asked about it, and the cost is quite staggering. But I gotta do it. Because, I admit it, the only thing that keeps me positive and going is the possibility of this transplant, and Ninette's love and generosity to give me a new lease on life. And since this is out of my control, I'm just gonna pray over this.
Some friends told me that my posts are very long. So let this be just a short one.
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