12:30AM – At 11:45PM, I received a call from a Duke transplant coordinator. I thought I had seven years of waiting on the Duke list. My best chance for a transplant has been to get on the Charlotte list, transfer my three years of waiting on Duke’s list, and maybe get a kidney within another two years or so. And that would reset my waiting time at Duke to zero, thus the seven-year average waiting. Tonight, though, I got a call informing me that I’m the third alternate for a kidney that is ready for transplant NOW.

Just like that. I’ve got from “there’s no way I’m getting a transplant anytime soon” to “I may get a transplant TODAY”.

I may get a new kidney today.

But probably not. The top two matches would have to have developed some new antibodies since their last blood work, or they’d have to have some other sudden health issue, in order to be disqualified.

But I got a call, and it’s insane, and I don’t know how I’ll get any rest between now and 5am. Around 5am, that’s when I’ll get a call telling me whether or should come in or not.

I won’t post this now. My mother and my sister know. No sense in getting anyone else’s hopes up.

1:05AM – The coordinator called again. The surgeon wanted to confirm something I had said earlier, that I was ok with getting a kidney from a donor who was positive for Hepatitis B. There’s a 5% chance of contracting Hepatitis B in this case. I could’ve sworn I once had a vaccination for Hepatitis B. Apparently, this does not change the chance of contracting it. But I’m going to assume this is not a deal-breaker. I’ll have a couple of hours to change my mind, presumably, should I discover that I ought to be worried.

But, again, this is all probably moot.

2:15AM – I’m going to try to sleep. I’ll go ahead and post this and update it later. No one is reading this in the middle of the night anyway…

3:00AM – Not asleep yet, but I was just jolted by Herman’s barking. It was coming from outside. I had left him out–about an hour ago–and completely forgotten about this! Given that I don’t have an enclosed fence, I never let him out unattended for more than about 3 minutes. I just let him out at night in drizzle for an hour. And I have no idea what he did with himself. He must be a bit confused, although he must have also enjoyed himself since I didn’t hear any barking for an hour. Ok, sleep. I should get a call in a couple of hours, and then this episode will mostly be all over.

5:30AM – called just to be told not to eat or drink anything, which I already haven’t done since 7pm. Will get another call in 2-3 hours. No further explanation provided. Back to sleep.

8:45AM – Got a call at 8:30. They told me to come on in. That means I’m next. Scrambling to plan for a week/a month away from home. Will head to the hospital shortly. Will update here if I’m really going to be wheeled in.

9:45AM – No kidney. No insurance approval. Waiting on “emergency approval”. Stunning to realize that I really was/am “next” and all set to get a kidney. But it’s a no go at the moment. I’m still at home.

10:30AM – No emergency approval. There’s a kidney on ice that will need to go to someone else. And I will try to forget that these past 10½ hours happened. Except I’ve got to deal with a bunch of insurance bullshit now that I previously unaware of.