Do not ship liquids, blood or diagnostics in this packaging.

Kate and I were supposed to have gone first thing in the morning for a Hot Air Balloon Ride on our anniversary, since I used the word supposed I guess you have already figured out that it didn’t happen.  I got the call from the guy and the weather would not allow us to make the trip, it did turn out to be a gorgeous day, but there was too much fog early in the morning.  So as you are reading this, or first thing this morning hopefully we are floating far above ground (just got the call cancelled because of wind we are going to have to reschedule).

We left off at the decision, wouldn’t it be nice if you could just decide to donate a kidney and that was it, you were done, well that’s not the case.  There is a lot of poking prodding and making sure that you are healthy enough to be a donor.   The first thing you have to know is that you are a blood type match, check we had that one down.  But blood type isn’t enough.   I guess there are 6 things they match your blood on, the way it was explained to me was that they would put my blood and Ashley’s blood together and make sure they don’t fight. 

I was scheduled to give a blood sample in west palm beach and have it sent to UNC so they could do the test, your blood is only good for 48 hours or some short period of time so it has to be shipped immediately overnight.  I had never shipped blood before, but I assumed there was probably a special way that they transported blood.  Well I have to let you know FedEx is how I sent it, in the envelope that says please do not shipliquids, blood or diagnostics in this packaging. After they drew my blood they told me that the FedEx guy had already come so I was going to have to take it to the FedEx place myself, so we sealed it up and I drove it to FedEx and off it went to UNC.  I’m just glad my blood didn’t have a castaway situation, and I wonder what the statute of limitations is on shipping blood, I hope it is less than a year.

Well I guess you know since I have continued to go through further testing, yes I was a match with Ashley, I think it was 4 out of 6 on the chart, so we were a good blood match.  That meant we were set for the next set of tests which involved going to UNC for 3 days a Tuesday through Thursday to make sure I was healthy enough to donate and it was something I could do.  I don’t remember the exact dates of when a lot of this happened, I know we were trying to get this done before the trip to Europe in April of 2011 but our coordinator suggested we enjoy Europe and have the tests when we returned so we scheduled the tests for the end of May 2011. 

But that is a story for tomorrow, sorry this one is short but it was my anniversary cut me some slack, would I rather you get mad at me or my wife?  Well unfortunately I didn’t get that choice since I suggested going skiing the weekend before the donation, I guess that’s frowned upon by some people.  The idea of getting hurt and not being able to do the donation, but seriously what are the chances, lots of people ski or snowboard all the time and don’t get hurt.  Well as we go along we will find out who wins this one, and feel free to comment with your vote. 

To Ski or Not To Ski?