Thursday, February 16, 2012

Today we found out that our latest person to be tested, Mary (Vormezeele) Erickson, is not a match. She, like me and our last person to be tested, Adele, has too small of a left lobe for Shelby. Thank you, thank you, thank you Mary for going through the testing. YOU are amazing!

The problem with the last 3 people tested is that their left lobes (which is the part they take for a child) were too small. Children's has recommended we look for male donors (or people larger than us previous people are). Male donors are more likely to have larger livers, which is what is needed for Shelby. That leads us to continue to look for people who are interested in being worked up as a living donor. If you think you might be interested, please read this, this and this carefully.  They tell you what minimum criteria is needed to be met to even be considered as a living donor. Shelby's blood type is A- so she needs a living donor that has A or O blood type.  There is an 18-page questionnaire that has to be filled out and faxed to 773-975-8671 or you can scan it and e-mail it to criazi@childrensmemorial.org. We would like as many as possible applications sent in to Children's before next Tuesday. They will look at all the applications and call in the person who they think might be the best candidate.

As a reminder, Shelby's COTA (Children's Organ Transplant Association) fund covers all expenses related to living donation. It is our health insurance that pays for everything medical. COTA reimburses the living donor and one caregiver for household and living expenses. They don't reimburse paychecks, but pay for household expenses (phone bill, utility bills, mortgage/rent, car payments, etc.) and expenses incurred while in Chicago. Expenses incurred the day of the evaluation are covered, too.

1 comment:

Elly said...

Come on, liver!

Hoping you don't have to count the milliseconds much longer...

Elly (ellypatt @ LF)