Quick Crossmatch is a match

[Debra]

Found out today that the quick cross match is a yes.  I am a match.   This is great news BUT it will be another week before I find out about his antibodies and my antigens.  This is coming from his mom because she is in constant contact with his doctor.  I still haven't heard anything from the coordinator.

The 5 yr old has a high number of anti-bodies so he is hard to match.  He had a kidney transplant from a cadaver when he was 2 but the kidney flipped inside of him cutting off the circulation and dying in him.  This event really changed his system.   He has also had many illnesses in his short 5 yrs.

Hopefully I will be a 5 of 6 match.  That would be great!  I'll just keep my fingers crossed.

Thanks for all your well wishes.  Also thanks for the info on how long or should I say how short of a time period it took some of you to get the results of the cross match.  This caused me to call today to see if his mom could talk to the doctor to find out why the coordinator told me 3-4 weeks and look what I was able to find out today.  So Thanks!

[Aries7]

Great news Debra!

I think it took about a week for me to get the results for my antigen test also. Please let us know when you get the results for the anitgen test. We will be anxiously waiting to hear!

Best Wishes!

Linda

[lawphi]

Just brace yourself. There are two parts to a crossmatch, B cell and T cell.  The first takes 24 hours and the second three days. The second test is far more sensitive. I was a negative b cell crossmatch and a positive t cell crossmatch for my husband, who had high antibodies. the antibodies react to different antigens.

As to HLA match, it is not as important as people think as long as you have the right antigens in common. Class II antigen matches are better than Class I antigens matching.  I think UNOS has stopped looking at HLA B antigens for kidney transplants. I am a big fan of a double HLA DR, as that seems to be a great predictor of graft longevity.

If you are not a good match, you could easily trade your kidney to get the child the right one. I would really look into a nationally recognized center for highly sensitized kidney transplants. My husband was impossible to match and found a kidney after 2 1/2 months at Johns Hopkins.

[Fr Pat]

Dear Debra,
     Hi. I hope you won't be offended if I offer a suggestion? You mentioned that the child had received a kidney "from a cadaver", which is correct medical erminology that some hospitals still use. But many donor families (that is, the relatives who gave permission for a loved one's organs to be transplnated after death) feel very hurt to hear their loved one referred to a "a cadaver" rather than as "a person". So it is usually worth the effort to say "...from a deceased donor" rather than "...from a cadaver", and many hospitals are making this change in vocabulary. (If anything is known about the deceased donor it is even better to say, for example, "...from a young lady who died", etc.) I have met a number of donor families, and it really means a lot to them to hear their deceased loved ones referred to in a more personal way. So since it took me a while to learn this I try to pass along the suggestion.
    best wishes,
      Fr. Pat

[Debra]

Fr. Pat,

I can't believe I was so incredibly insensitive !  My mother donated her body to organ donation and research upon her death.  Your right I am simply repeating what has been used in some of the research/reading I have done and was thoughtlessly using the term.

I appreciate your observation and advise.  Thank you!

[Debra]

lawphl,

Thanks for the information.  I was not aware of any of this part of the crossmatch process.  I am trying not to be too hopeful because I don't want to be disappointed.  I had decided from the beginning of this process that if I was not a match for him I would go into a kidney pairing program so that he can still get a kidney.

His mom was telling me that if we are a good antigen match there is talk from the Doctor of performing a procedure that will clean his blood of some of the anti-bodies.  I don't know everything about this process yet but she said it would be very hard on him and before the Doctor thinks of putting him through that they want to make sure that there is the highest probability of the kidney lasting (I guess a very good match).  Since he is so hard to match I know the odds are against me but I am hopeful that maybe I am the one.

Thanks for the tip about Johns Hopkins and other hospitals that specialize in sensitized kidney transplants.

Debra