kidney update

Friday brought a doctor's appointment for my dad. Although his kidney function didn't decline drasticly, it is apparent that his numbers are fluctuating. He is also either feeling worse (fatigue wise) or he is expressing his feelings to the doctor more effectively, because the doctor is saying we need to move forward with kidney transplant procedures, due, in part, to his feeling poorly. Another factor that the doctor is considering is that his fistula that he had put in several months ago seems to be failing. Now, they haven't even used this fistula, but, it's failing nonetheless. So, if he were to need dialysis, they would have to repeat the fistula procedure first - which is not something we want to deal with if we do not have to.

So, what this means...

Dad has to have a bit of blood drawn and sent to the lab. And I will be going to U of I hospitals to have my complete work over, including tissue typing. Shelley called me within a few hours of Dad's appointment, and we are looking at dates (probably in September) for my mega probing and prodding day. Then, it's a matter of looking into what would be the best time for me to miss work. There is never a good time to miss, especially considering the fact that I am starting a new job this year, but there are times that are better than others. And, in the big picture, work isn't nearly as important. The kids will do just fine with a quality sub.

I'll admit that when things were put on hold I went into some sort of a mild depression, not that it takes all that much for me to do that, I suppose. I think it's mainly because I could see him feeling worse, and I felt like we weren't doing all we could to change that. So, even though needing a transplant, isn't exactly good news, proceding IS good news, in my opinion. I guess I dealt with the issue of my dad needing a transplant a long time ago...so that's why I can look at this as good news. The transplant was inevitable, now it looks like we are actually going to do something to make him feel better.