Good and Bad News

I guess we'll start off with the bad news and work into the good news. On Wednesday morning we got the unexpected and very exciting call from CHOP that there was a kidney available and it appeared as though it was a near perfect match for Stephen. We got the call right at 8 AM and they had started the cross matching about an hour prior to calling us. The only concern with the kidney was its size (I'm guessing it came from a large male), so the surgeon was going to wait to make the final decision on Stephen once he got his eyes on the actual kidney. But when she asked me if Stephen was healthy, I had to divulge the fact that he had a positive test for c-diff. But since he was not symptomatic (he never really exhibited any of the classic c-diff signs), she thought the surgeon would be ok with that. But about 10 minutes later I got a return call from the nurse that we would have to pass on the kidney for Stephen. The surgeon felt it was too dangerous to go forward with the transplant. It was a crushing blow. My greatest fear with this c-diff had come true.

But because of what happened, I insisted we do a second culture to confirm he really had c-diff. And this afternoon I got the call that Stephen's second culture had come back negative!! Yippee!!!!! They require two negative cultures, seven days apart, for you to be "cured" of c-diff, but it's so good to know we're on our way.

So I'll keep up the crazy bleach and hand washing and cleaning regimine just in case, but at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel! Although this does beg the question, "did Stephen ever really have c-diff?" But for now we can't dwell on the missed opportunity. We've just got to keep moving forward and hope for another perfect kidney to come our way....soon!