Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Dan's surgery

Dan's surgery went well except for the fact that they moved it from the am to the pm and I couldn't be there. So two of my best friends took my place and were there when he came out of surgery, went and filled his meds, took him home, made sure he was okay and waited until I got home from the restaurant. I am very grateful for them!

He is sore today and resting. Since the surgery lasted about one and a half hours, he is also recovering from the anesthesia... If he feels better tomorrow he can be at Tierra in the evening as maitre'd.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Dan's story in the press

Dan's need for a kidney was featured yesterday in Meridith Ford's "The dish" column in AccessAtlanta, a magazine of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Meridith is the food critic for the AJC. She called us last week and did a phone interview of both of us (she was not allowed to interview us in person in order to keep her persona a secret.)

We are very grateful for the exposure and hopefully it will help us in this search. If anything, it makes people aware that there are thousands of people in need of organs and that a person can donate a kidney and have a normal life.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Getting ready for Peritoneal Dialysis

In order to get Peritoneal Dialysis Dan needs to have a catheter placed in his peritoneum. He has been scheduled for that surgery on Tuesday, May 27th in the morning. Eight days later, on June 5th, he has to go to the dialysis clinic so that the Peritoneal Nurse (PD nurse) can run liquid through the catheter to make sure it is working correctly and a few days later he can start dialysis.

The process of learning to give oneself PD is intense. He will have to go to the clinic for about 6-7 days for 4 hours a day so that the PD nurse can teach him how to do it. He can then handle the exchanges himself, at home or at work. He will have to do 4 exchanges a day for a month and after that his prize is a little machine that handles the process for him while he sleeps at night....I am sure that will be a great day!

Friday, May 16, 2008

Calling all Type Os

Dan’s blood type is O+. For an O patient, only another O person is a possible donor. For organ transplantation a positive or negative blood type is okay.

Dan has one sibling who is Type B, therefore not a possible donor. I am Type A, again not a possible donor. He has had two friends go on through the physical part of the matching process for a kidney transplant only to have them find out they had health issues of their own.

What Dan needs is a Type O person who would be willing to go through the screening process to become a living donor and give Dan the gift of life.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Slowly being poisoned

In 2003, Dan went in for a regular checkup and came back from the doctor with a Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) diagnosis. He didn’t have any symptoms at that time so that was quite a shock. Since then his kidney function has deteriorated, first slowly and much faster in the last six months.

Because of his reduced kidney function, Dan suffers from chronic fatigue, loss of appetite and back pain caused by pressure from his enlarged kidneys. For some time now, we have been splitting our work at Tierra so that he doesn’t have to work five days straight in the kitchen, which can be grueling and exhausting. When he burps he gets an ammonia aftertaste and his skin color is becoming pallid as a result of the build up of toxins in his blood.

Basically, he is slowly being poisoned. Patients with PKD are highly encouraged to get a living donor before they have to go on dialysis. Unfortunately, this was not to be. Dan will have to start peritoneal dialysis soon.