Latest Update from Craig

This is why Living Kidney Donors are needed.

"I saw the vascular surgeon today, along with the vascular access coordinator. The fistula is on its last legs, so to speak, so we’re making plans for the next step. Unfortunately, there are very few options left. The two best options involve having a catheter in my femoral artery, which will cause all kinds of problems. 

Option 1 is to have that in place and have a graft done in my arm to create another access, then pull the femoral catheter out once the new access in my arm is ready- IF it works. Sometimes they never work once created. It’s pretty common for these accesses to not work, and many patients have many of them created before they get one that works. Even if it works, it will take a couple of months to be ready to use. 

Option 2 is the femoral catheter as the only access. The issue is, that my body does not like having tubes stuck in my blood vessels. Once that is in, my artery will begin to constrict to force it ou...t, and I will be left with a constricted artery. This already happened in 2 spots in my upper body, and will happen again. Once this happens, the catheter will have to be removed, leaving behind a damaged artery and causing serious blood flow problems in the leg. Then they will switch to the other leg and repeat the same thing.

SO the only way to avoid this is a new kidney- ASAP. There are a few amazing people currently being tested for the Living Donor Paired Exchange, and I am very hopeful that something will happen on that front, but the clock is now ticking very quickly. The best option is to find a match soon, so that person can be rushed through the tests. The Living Donor Paired Exchange, although an excellent program, offers n o guarantees, or I could wait another year or two. Unfortunately, I don’t have that kind of time. If anyone was sitting on the fence about getting tested, please reconsider. Things are getting very serious...

In the meantime, I’m going to soldier on, and enjoy every minute I’m on top of the grass."

"To quote Clay Walker:
I’m gonna live, laugh, love, just for today
Take all the trouble tomorrow might bring and put it away
I’m gonna drink every drop of happiness ‘til they cover me up
I’m gonna live, gonna laugh, gonna love."

It seems very unfortunate that these are his options at this point. I hope he can wait a little while and maybe in May we will be prepping for surgery.

Please keep him, and all those waiting for a donor, in your thoughts.