testing, testing, 1 2 3

Meet John.

Now John's wife Laura told me that it was ok to talk about him on the blog.  In my house the consent of the wife is all that is needed.

John is our friend and a fabulous human being.  He is Erik's kidney match soulmate.  We are realistic here people, and we know things can change, but as I said before that just doesn't matter.  I figured I would write about John now in case this doesn't work out and then he would be denied his right to live on in history in the cyberspace world.  He deserves his 15 minutes of fame.  And then some.

I'm pretty sure that way back when as we sat at a crusty little baseball field in the middle of nowhere northeast Ohio at 8:00 a.m. watching a painful doubleheader John never imagined that one day he would watch blood drain out of his body, undergo an EKG, deal with dye being shot up in his veins, sit through a less than pleasurable cat scan, pee in a jar for a full day, and wear a 24 hour blood pressure monitor all for this little league coach that he just met.  Yet here we are.

I have hard time parting with my shoes, even when they are old and worn out and no longer in fashion.  John is willing to give up a perfectly good kidney.  I'm pretty sure healthy kidneys never go out of style.

Yesterday was evaluation testing day #1.  It's not enough that he is a perfect match.  He has to pass all sorts of medical and psychological tests.  He has another full day evaluation next week. In my perfect world we will know the results shortly after that.  In the world of transplant clinic time I'm guessing it will take quite a few weeks.

Mostly I am anxious to find out what is going to happen so I can start planning a vacation.  Laura and I figured what the heck, if the boys are in the hospital together all warm and fed and well cared for and under anesthesia and doped up on pain meds then it will be a fabulous opportunity for a girls spa weekend.  I'm kidding.  Sort of.

I do believe that everything happens for a reason.  Laura is the person that I would have broken down and asked to sit in the waiting room with me during Erik's transplant.  I don't like to ask for help.  I like to be left alone with strangers even less.  I'm betting that if this goes forward Laura will say yes.  She is as wonderful as her husband so I'm pretty sure she would have said yes anyway.

And now we wait.  No matter what happens we are blessed to have such amazing people in our lives.

If this happens don't think for a minute that we won't be getting the boys matching t-shirts.