The kidney saga – Part XXXX.

The doctors are now saying it will be at least 2 to 3 more weeks until the surgery, because even if they would schedule it now, my BIL has to go through 2 weeks of immune suppression before the transplant. Apparently they knew this since the beginning but forgot to tell us about it. No comments.
What’s worrying me the most is that they are also saying they cannot find out why he rejected his first transplant (from a dead donor) 8 years ago. They were hoping that the report from the hospital where he had the transplant (a different one) would give them an answer but it hasn’t, and they are confused and worried. They sent samples of his blood to several labs across Europe to see if they can find a new antibody or something that can justify his acute rejection (the kidney didn’t just stop working, as rejections usually happen. He developed an acute reaction and it had to be removed 3 days after the transplant and he nearly died). None of the labs found anything so it looks like we will never know what happened.

So basically what they are saying is, “we don’t know why he rejected the kidney, we think there’s a good chance it will happen again, and we’re not sure it’s worth the risk for both him and the donor”.

I’m really angry about this because this scenario was never presented to us before. They told us we were going ahead with the surgery and they even gave us a probable date. My BIL is so totally convinced this is going to happen (we haven’t told him the latest developments), he is making plans for his new life, he is just so excited. And now there may not even be a surgery at all. It’s just not fair, things should’ve been clear from the beginning. I swear, I would rather the surgery was on the exact same day as my delivery than not having a surgery at all.

Anyway, if they ask us if we are willing to take the risk of him rejecting the kidney we are going to say yes. Zé Maria would prefer to have this surgery in vain (would he reject) rather than forever wondering if it would’ve worked. I think my BIL is willing to risk it too. Let’s just hope they leave it up to us.