August 3: The Results Are In!

Kidney problems run in my family. An Aunt (on my Dad’s side) died in her early thirties from kidney failure. My Dad had diabetes and died at the age of sixty-six. So when I went in for my annual check-up in June and the lab work came back indicating problems with my kidneys I was a little unnerved.

It has been a worrisome summer. After exams with specialists, X-rays and sonograms, the results are in. During the sonogram it was discovered that I only had one kidney. Where the second one should be there was evidence that one had been there at one time, but had atrophied—shriveled up like a raisin.

After another sonogram they found another kidney. I have two, although misplaced. The technician asked me when I had the transplant. She was stunned when I informed her that I hadn’t. “The second kidney,” she said, “is exactly where a surgeon would place it in a transplant scenario.” The arteries attached to it were also configured the way a surgeon would have done during a transplant—efficient, but not natural.

So I have two kidneys, both on the right side, an upper and a lower. Both are functioning properly and there appears to be no further problems. A well-balanced diet, plenty of daily exercise and all should be well.

The doctor said it looks as though the left kidney collapsed, and that a transplant was performed, although I never had a kidney transplant. Kim thinks it’s a miracle. I don’t know what to call it. But I am grateful. I will sleep without worry tonight for the first time in a couple of months. Thank you God.

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."
Psalms 139:13-16 (NIV)