Rejecting kidney

The news for Maria here isn’t good. Bottom line – she’s in rejection.

Let’s talk about types of rejection first. There is cellular rejection and antibody rejection. Cellular rejection is somewhat common and is the type that Maria had a couple times within the first 6 mos of her transplant back in 2003. The other type is antibody rejection and that’s the big bad boy who wipes out transplanted kidneys, though both types can end a successful transplant.

Based on the biopsy results, Maria is definitely in a cellular rejection. This one they are thinking is at least type 2A, whereas her previous rejections were 1A. The doctor says that is quite a bit more serious.

Possible double whammy alert – There is a “smoking gun” that this could also be antibody rejection. When they tested her antibodies in 2012 they were fine and this time around they are sky high. The biopsy won’t tell its tale on antibody rejection until tomorrow.

For now, they are treating the cellular rejection. That involves IV meds, thymoglobulin, which can happen inpatient and/or outpatient.  They pair this with solu-medrol.

If there is also antibody rejection, then the treatment is more involved. They have to do plasmapheresis to do something with the antibodies. It works similarly to dialysis. Maria has a working shunt but has never had it accessed for dialysis so there is some anxiety for that.

Whether or not the kidney can be saved, the probability of saving it, and the exact treatments are all up in the air for now and I’ll give more details as they unfold.

What we do know is that Maria is hospitalized through Monday at a minimum. Even if she gets out of the hospital Monday or soon thereafter, she will have a slew of outpatient appointments and treatments for a minimum of weeks.

This throws us back to that vulnerable place where we can’t do it all alone. I don’t know exactly what we need or when but I can tell you we will need plenty!

Gus starts back with conductive ed on Monday. That’s getting him to Covington 5 days a week from 9 AM to 2:30 and back home again.

I have no idea what shape Maria will be in to drive or not but she will need to make frequent trips to Christ Hospital for her outpatient stuff. We went down to 1 vehicle to afford the wheelchair conversion so if someone else takes Gus and our van to school, Maria doesn’t have transportation even if she can drive.

Problems for another day….

We appreciate the blessing of you all, our family and friends, more than we can say! Please keep praying!