My mum had been suffering from partial kidneys failure since a few yrs back, her condition had been under control with medications and regular follow up. But this yr early April, one month after I delivered my second son, baby Allen, my mummy finally broke the news that she will be needing dialysis soon as the doctors have informed her that her kidneys have deteriorated badly and heading towards complete failure... As a nurse who had experienced working in Nuh major Ot and even assisted in kidneys transplant before, I consoled her and volunteered to donate one of my kidneys to her.
Kidneys transplant surgery seems very common during my working days and is considered so much more simpler than liver transplant thus I had not much second thoughts on this. So we headed to the transplant office one day and requested for the kidney transplant . That day the assistant director of the transplant team talked to us. We are super concerned about the financial issues regarding the transplant procedure cos we are just an average family, earning just enough for everyday life without much savings. the assistant director reassures us that we do not need to worry about the financial issue at all as we can claim the surgical fee from medisave and the fee will also be highly subsidized by the government if we are looking to c class. We felt so much better after that and decided to go ahead. What comes after that got worse though, after each session we found out that there are more and more hidden costs. All the preop checks for the donor and recipient costs at least 3-4k and becos is done as outpt, we got to fork out full cash for them. For me alone, I had to do so many blood tests, chest xray, ECG, ct angiogram, blah blah blah. Every session they need to either set iv cannulation for me or draw my blood. The record is 11 tubes of blood drawn in a single day. I got the giddy spells after that. They need me to see a psy, tis doctor that doctor and even a dentist before we can do the surgery. I hated the dentist;( they always give me the hair standing sensation with their zzz equipments.
My mum got very upset because of all the charges and tests we need to go through till the point of giving up on the transplant. Sigh, wat can we do? No matter how much is the cost, her life is priceless. Although the transplant costs a bomb and is causing a strain on us, it is much more better than her having to go through dialysis thrice a wk, and going through dialysis can enlarge the heart and cause cardiac problem in the long run even. If I am suitable after all these checks and we proceed with the surgery, she has a chance to lead a normal life again and watch her grandsons grow up. So why not? What do u all think? Dialysis or transplant will be better?
Ps: I am having phobia of needles now due to all the poking pre op checks;( jiayou to me! And hope the everything will go smoothly... Ohya and big thank you to my darling husband who supported my decision all this while. Loveya!
