Friday, April 09, 2010

An Outside Chance

I spoke with a UCLA transplant coordinator this week who told me that there is a small chance that Janet and I may be compatible. That is, even though she is an A blood type and I am an O, she might still be able to donate one of her kidneys to me.

Remember that, in general, O is the universal donor, but O's can only accept from other O's. The coordinator said that some A's are of a rare subtype that allows them to donate to O's. She said this is fewer than 6 percent of all A's, but still there's a chance Janet and I may be compatible.

That would be great, as it would make things far less complex. Otherwise, we would have to do a kidney swap (someone else has an O donor, but is an A, as Janet is, and that person would receive Janet's kidney, and I would receive the O donor's kidney) or a donor chain, in which three or more unmatched pairs participate. Or I would have to look for another donor.

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About Me

Southern California, United States
Perhaps my friend Mark summed me up best when he called me "a mystical grammarian." I am quite a mix--otherworldly, ethereal and in touch with "the beyond," yet prone to being very precise and logical, when need be. Romantic in the big-canvas meaning of the word, I see the world as an adventure, as a love poem, as a realm of beauty and wonder.

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