It was a gradual climb, little increments of creatinine increases, a nasty flu that triggered a suspected rejection episode and then it all settled down again. Boy Wonder did what he always does - confounded science and dodged the odds. We were running free.
Last December, it caught up with us. We had out-run our luck, the new kidney was overworked. Like any self-respecting, fifty-year-old organ trying to keep up with demands of a busy fourteen-year-old boy, it had a meltdown. The biopsy report took the ground from under me, rattled my retinas into a horribly clear vision of our Boy Wonder's impending kidney failure. We had time they assured us, it was Christmas week, we should go home collect ourselves and we'd make a plan in the new year.
Fate had other plans that plunged us into the Nightmare of Christmas. By the time Santa visited him in hospital we were preparing for a return to dialysis. We were at sea, adrift once again with no sight of the shore. Within four days he was reversing his misfortune, baffling the boffins and once again we set sail for a new normal. Our sunny side replaced by a robust set of storm shutters, we returned home to await the next move. The kidney was not going to last long.
So in keeping with tradition, Boy Wonder has done it again because against all odds (and then some) today we celebrate ten rip-roaring, spine tingling, belly laughing, beautiful years since the Other Kidney coughed up his spare lean, mean, peeing machine. We remember with awe, the humanity and professionalism of an incredible team of medics in Temple Street and the unwavering support of friends and family.
Today we think of all those waiting on the list, all those families in pause mode and we give thanks to those who in their darkest hours thought of us while their world fell around them and said yes to organ donation. Without your courage and humanity kids like our Boy Wonder wouldn't stand a chance.
Today we take stock, give thanks, exhale a little (but not too much) and we shake ourselves out, dust off the despair and think what the heck we've come this far, we might as well just keep going.
Cheers,
Ann
