My Good, My Bad and My Ugly

Good things come to those who wait, and I have waited an ass-long time for some news that doesn't suck. I was rewarded for my patience Wednesday, when I got a call from Sandra. For the first five minutes or so, she seemed to mention everything under the sun except my MRI results. Eventually, my curiosity and frustration got the best of me and I flat out asked her for them. I instinctively braced myself for the worst as she took a few moments to read over the radiologist's report. My panic escalated slightly when she began by telling me that the MRI was consistent with the ultrasound, showing a small mass hanging out on my liver. Fortunately, the properties of the mass are consistent with what they call a benign liver hemangioma. What is that, you ask? So did I. A hemangioma is classified as a non-cancerous tumor, but that word pretty much freaks me out. I prefer to see it for what it truly is, an abnormal mass of blood vessels that poses no impending doom. In rare cases, the mass can become larger and need to be removed, but there is no evidence that it will lead to cancer. (A quick note to all health care professionals: When giving a patient results to any test that could potentially have life-changing consequences, something like, "Good news," or "It is NOT cancer" are EXCELLENT ways to begin. Just saying.) As it turns out, liver hemangiomas are fairly common in people between the ages of 30 and 50, especially in women, and generally go undetected. At last, I am finally diagnosed with something relatively normal! Sandra said they will want to do an MRI annually to keep an eye on it, but if a panic-inducing MRI is the most I have to worry about, I will take it.

Also on the good news front, my PRA levels came back from the blood work I had drawn the week before. PRA stands for Percent of Reactive Antibodies and is the percent of possible donors my blood was tested against that had a reaction (was incompatible). This test helps predict how likely I am to be compatible with a potential donor. Obviously, the higher your PRA, the more difficult it becomes to find a match. People who have had a previous transplant, like myself, have higher PRAs than those who have not since a transplant introduces a whole new set of antibodies into your system. Still, the transplant team considers PRAs of 20 or below to be acceptable candidates for transplantation. I currently have a PRA of 15! If a kidney became available today, there is an 85% chance I would be able to have it...not too shabby! Once I am listed, they will continue to test my PRA monthly, but so far so good.

You take the good, you take the bad...I was going for the hat trick of awesome test results, but alas, the defense (my body) had other plans. There was one last major test I was waiting to hear back on, my creatinine clearance. I had put off doing this test for as long as possible because it involves a 24-hour urine collection which is a serious pain. But it is one of the main factors in determining eligibility of being listed for transplantation. In the simplest terms, this test measures how fast your kidneys filter creatinine out of your blood. A normal, healthy female has a creatinine clearance between 88 and 128, and in order to be listed, you have to have one of at least 20 or below. Mine is 24, explaining why I still feel relatively good, but doesn't help me out with the transplant process. Even if all my other tests get the OK, I can not be listed until that number is below 20. The plan, then, is to retest every three months until I hit the magic number. Annoying.

On a completely unrelated note, Indian Doctor #2 decided to add another test to the mix, a leg ultrasound. I had a small blood clot in my leg a gazillion years ago, and he wants to make sure my blood is going where it is supposed to in my lower extremities. It shouldn't be a big deal, but I will tell you this, if I am blessed with Grumpy McNo-Fun's presence yet again, things are going to get ugly!