The Day My Dad Gave Nancy His Turbo Kidney

First off, I must say that today has been a lovely day filled with tender mercies of the Lord, love, prayers, blessings, miracles, and gratitude and I feel so lucky to be here with Dad, Nancy, Chris, and Greg to share this experience.

Now I will try to put all of the emotions and experiences of the day into words. Instead of telling the story play by play I would like to just count our blessings.

• I'm so grateful that Dad is hosting me here.
  
• It's been great to hang out with Chris and Greg and get to know them better. I'm pretty sure that I've got them convinced to come visit Utah, even just on my descriptions of the opportunities for food alone :)
  
• I'm grateful for examples of love and patience. I loved watching Chris and Greg comfort their mother after Dad left for surgery and she was left behind with her nerves, concerns, and worries.
  
• The doctors, nurses, and entire staff at the University of Maryland Medical Center have been very informative, supportive, and sensitive. (They've been rated the best in the nation at customer service for the last 7 years in a row.)
• I'm grateful for prayer. We began our day with prayer all together. We have felt the power of people's prayers all over the world in Dad and Nancy's behalf. Dad and I were able to offer a prayer of gratitude and ask for continued blessings together just he and I. Chris asked me to lead us in prayer after Dad was out of surgery and while we still waited for Nancy. They were all wonderful opportunities to connect as a family and audibly express gratitude for the love, support, and peace we felt from other people's prayers.
• I'm grateful for the prayers that were offered in Dad and Nancy's behalf that day. Dad and I mentioned over and over again how strongly we could feel people's love, support, and prayers. Grandpa Dee even had his Neighbors praying for these two. I am grateful to have had the chance to witness the receiving end of those prayers.
• I'm grateful for faith. The day before the surgery one of the surgeons put a hold on his approval because the creatin levels in Dad's body were "elevated". The surgeon had to defer to the chief of nephrology to do some more blood work and make the final decision about Dad being a donor. The reasons for higher levels of creatin range from exercise to diabetes. They needed to be cautious because they didn't want to transplant a diseased kidney. Two days before, dad had run 20 miles so of course there was extra creatin in his body! He tried to explain that to the doctors, but really they just had to wait for the blood work and final decision. It was very hard for dad to face the possibility of not being able to go through with it after all. His training for the marathon was in an effort to be as physically fit as possible as a potential donor for Nancy and at the time it seemed that his attempts were overzealous. He said he was absolutely and completely devastated. He didn't tell me this until after the surgeries were complete. On the phone before I flew out here he seemed in the best of moods and perspective and conveyed complete faith to me that everything would be fine. Before I spoke with him on the phone I got the message from Christine that the surgery might not take place. I was the exact opposite of faithful. I was so worried and scared of what would happen to Dad and Nancy both. Until I talked to Dad. Hearing his exclamation of faith was enough for me to have faith in. His faith became my faith and my faith became his faith. It's been fun to have a synergistic relationship with Dad relative to our faith. We've definitely grown closer because of it.
• I'm grateful for modern medicine and surgery procedures. Dad is the 18th person to donate his kidneys by way of this new procedure. He only lost 33 cc's of blood during the whole surgery. (That's less than what could fill a shot glass.) He has about a 5 cm incision across his belly button and a couple pokes on his side. They removed the kidney successfully. It is a turbo kidney because normally people just have 1 artery coming out of the kidney that blood enters the kidney through. Occasionally people will have 2, but even less frequently people have 3. Dad has 3. That's the kidney he gave to Nancy.
  
• Nancy had a more intense surgery because her diseased kidneys were removed. UMMC and one other hospital are the only places that will remove the diseased kidneys. Everyone else leaves them in. (Ew.) They came out just fine, although it took a lot longer then planned. They weighed 12 pounds total. They were really sick. Then came the part to put Dad's kidney inside. They were concerned about what they would do with the 3 arteries and thought they may have to pull a vein up from her leg to make use of the turbo kidney. Nancy only found this out minutes before her surgery. She likes to know things ahead of time so she can prepare herself and it really unsettled her to learn that there would be another incision. The kidney went in just fine and it turns out that Nancy had 3 arteries to match Dad's turbo kidney. The best part about that for me was being able to tell Dad. He was so relieved and happy for Nancy!
• I'm grateful that Dad loves his wife. I can tell he loves her by every word and deed he shares with her. It is a selfless love and a beautiful example to me.
  
• I'm grateful for proactive doctors. Nancy was told to plan on a 6 hour surgery, but it ended up being 12 hours! One of the main reasons was because they proactively prevented a hernia. When they opened her up they discovered that the lining of her intestines had been extremely stretched out by the swollen kidneys and was a risk of becoming a problem in the future. They decided to take care of it while she was already under anesthetics. They used a lining from a cadavar and fully replaced hers. Wow.
• I'm grateful for nurses. The care they give is amazing. They have 12 hour shifts and it's their JOB to take care of people and truly nurse them back to health. Sometimes this means keeping a record of their vital signs and other times it means allowing Nancy's sons Chris and Greg to come back to the hospital on the recovery floor long after visiting hours were over and far longer than the usual 15 minutes of visiting allowed. This was a blessing that got Nancy through that first long and miserable night.
• I'm grateful for Grandpa Dee. It had been my plan to go to the temple before I left for Baltimore, but of course I let everything else get in the way. So I didn't make it to the temple for the spiritual preparation I was hoping for before the big trip and I wasn't able to put Dad and Nancy's names on the temple prayer roll. I didn't even make the call once I got here. I felt like I had let them down and they didn't even know it, but Grandpa Dee pulled through for them and put their names on the Sacramento temple and Oakland temple. I knew someone had done it because we truly felt the power of other people's faith and prayers in Dad and Nancy's behalf. I will never forget how strongly we felt it!
• I'm grateful for wireless internet. It kept me connected to family and friends during all of that waiting and really I just love the internet.
• I'm grateful for Christine. As soon as I found out I was going to be in Baltimore for 5 days I called Christine to ask if she could help Micah take care of Nigel while Micah had to work. She agreed without hesitation and I still suspect that she even changed her travel plans to be able to help out. I'm grateful that she has posted pictures of a happy Nigel and Nohnny so I could see them while I'm gone. I'm grateful for her consistent meaningful service to me and my family. I love her!
  
• I'm grateful for Dad. He's always been a good dad. I was always so proud of him as a little girl when he would come to school and I got to show him off to my friends. Now I am even more proud of him. I know that his motives for being Nancy's kidney donor were pure love. He never sought out being the hero, but whether he likes it or not, what he has done is extremely heroic. I love him!
• I'm grateful for Micah. He ALWAYS supports me in EVERYTHING I do, big or small. He was so willing to support me in coming to Baltimore to be here for Dad. It was important to me that I be here and Micah knew it without me saying so. He willingly rearranged his really busy work schedule (including deadlines) so he could "babysit" Nigel while I was gone. (Wait, babysit? It's his son... :) I can tell that he's getting quality time with him when Nigel's not at Tine's house and I haven't worried for a second about either of them. I love him more than I ever have!