Wow. So we have a great bit of news on the tail end of a really disappointing week. Just for a bit of a recap – we had a great living donor confirmed back at the end of July 2020 and a transplant scheduled for mid November 2020. But just a week before the transplant we got word that some of Isaacs antibodies were now reacting with his donors (not good) and transplant was postponed as we monitored things for a few months.

Everything seemed to have settled down after a few months and we were able to reschedule with our same donor for March 2nd 2021, but once again, the day we were set to leave we got a call from our doctor that Isaacs antibodies were reacting again and we needed to cancel this transplant and begin again with a new donor. That phone call felt devastating. Isaac has been hanging on by a thread this past year and still has some good days, but most of them the last few months have just been hard. We were feeling very overwhelmed at the idea of reorienting our lives for the second time. Cancelling rentals again. Unpacking again. Re-enrolling in school again etc…Its a lot of work to move for six months! We spent a few days grieving and processing the change of events. We worked out a new plan with our transplant team and also a plan to start Isaac on dialysis in the coming few weeks. I got everything squared away and un-did our move. We were ready to stick it out in Charlotte for another 6-8 months and start the process over with donor workups. One option we did have on the backburner after talking over the weekend was that we would continue to keep Isaac active on the deceased donor transplant list. Isaac has been on this list for almost two years already. It can be a very long wait for a kidney this way, and also, our odds of getting a kidney that matched well with Isaac was very unlikely. He is a high risk transplant anyways, so they have been hesitant to go that route, but we knew it was a vague, but pretty unlikely possibility. 

This past Thursday (as I was unpacking!!) we got a call from our Transplant team saying that they had an exceptionally well matched deceased donor kidney for Isaac – they were really excited and said that we wouldn’t be able to find a better matched kidney for him – we immediately accepted and drove to Ohio straight away. Within an hour of arriving, Isaac was in the OR getting prepped for transplant. The surgery lasted for about 8 hours. We dozed in and out of sleep some, and at 4am the surgeon came out to let us know that everything had gone well. The one caveat being that that the kidney, although well matched, was quite large, and if you know Isaac at all, you could probably guess he doesn’t have a whole lot of extra space floating around in his abdominal area. It took two surgeons to essentially squish it in as they reconnected everything. The size was the big concern the first day or two, for a lot of technical reasons  – as well as pain management, but everone seems really pleased with how his new kidney is doing. His creatinine (kidney fuction) is now PERFECT and he is healing at a slow, but consistent pace. We are three days post transplant now, and he is engaging with us more and able to sit up without being quite so achey. We have also been removing a few IV lines and central line lumens each day, so he is getting a bit lighter and more comfortable as all the cords fall off, too. 

We are still having a difficult time processing the whirlwind of events that have taken place this last week, but we are so thrilled to finally be on the other side of transplant. I can’t even express in a post like this how much of a huge weight has been lifted off of us to be at this place. I’m so excited for Isaac to be feeling better. And even though we have been out of state for this transplant and far away from friends and family, I just want to say that we have felt so well loved and supported through this past week. I really don’t feel like we are lacking anything and so appreciate our friends and neighbors that have been willing to help – even if I haven’t had anything to ask of you all. I know we can if we need to. Its hard for me to ask for help, but I will if we need it. Thank you all so so much.

All of our love and virtual hugs from the Colemans!!!