Well, I am writing this for Shann tonight because she is still quite overwhelmed with all the information we received yesterday in the Transplant Clinic.

They stated that for being an End-Stage-Renal patient Type V she still looks good and functions pretty well. She still does not need to be on dialysis, but they say with her symptoms, it's pretty close, so they will be watching her very closely. She doesn't have heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma or anything that is going to make her transplant more complicated, except her anemia. They still don't know why she is still so anemic and might do a test (GED) to find out anything more so they don't have any surprises when they open her up.

We found out that the donor testing is done one person at a time. Charron, her sister, will be first. If she doesn't match then we go on down the list. So if you want to be tested, let us know and when the next donor is to be tested we will give you the name of Shannan's Transplant Coordinator and she will organize everything for you. Won't cost you a penny :)

We found out her transplant is going to cost about $250,000.00. The part that is scaring me the most are the costs of the medications she has to take forever. It's just scary and unnerving right now. They said that the first year will be the most difficult and expensive.

Shann had some more disappointment yesterday when she found out that the line of work she wants to go into (Respiratory Therapy) is really not going to be an option for her now. The transplant doctors feel that it is just too risky a field for her. So, now she is re-thinking what she wants to do for the rest of her life, she knows it will be in medicine, but now it will probably be something in radiolog or ultrasound. She will wait until after the transplant to start school again.

Shann finally feels like she can share her illness since the transplant could happen within 3 months - WOW - 3 months! It just does not seem possible. She says that people need to know now, that she won't be able to hide it and that she could use the support.

On the GFR kidney rating scale Shannan is a #14. You have to be a #20 or below before you are eligible for dialysis or a transplant. They really look for the number to be around #15 though before they transplant. Shannan was a #14 in May and so she could have been transplanted then if we would have had a donor. We live our life in numbers now - oh and in low sodium, low phosphorous and low potassium diets. I spent 4 hours at the grocery store just walking around reading the labels, and I must say I think I am kind of an expert now, just so we could buy the kind of foods that Shannan must eat and also that taste good. It is very common for pre-kidney transplant patients to lose desire for protein and do not want the different meat textures - but she has to have some. So we trying new foods and experimenting so, if you have any really good recipies, please send them to us. She needs to eat more fish and I am really not very good at cooking or broiling fish, yikes, help me please!

Can't think of anything else right now...we will update as donor information becomes available, more testing, etc.

Love everyone,

Alana, Shannan and, of course, Charron!