Pablo Garcia takes on Chapter 14.
Expectations
This was one of my favorite chapters in the book because it paints a picture of the feelings that surround kidney transplant donor-recipients pairs. In this chapter, Grubbs describes the donor expectations after a kidney transplant. It is well known that a kidney transplant improves the quality of life and reduces the mortality risk for most patients when compared with dialysis, therefore the donor and the recipient tend to have great expectations for the transplant.
Six years after the transplant when Robert had blood test done and the creatinine came back higher than normal. He was disappointed and very concerned because he had been doing everything he was supposed to do. After all the struggle, he underwent a biopsy and luckily for him and Grubbs no complications. The cause of the kidney damage was elevated calcium levels and he had a surgery to remove his parathyroid hormone.
Grubbs shows how Robert was self-sufficient before developing kidney disease, how he then had to go back home and ask for help while he was on dialysis. When Vanessa donated her kidney Robert became indebted to her.
Vanessa gave two polar points of reference for donor and recipient expectation following kidney transplant. The first, was a grateful person showing gratitude to her donor in multiple ways and the other was one of her patients who was not grateful for his wife's donation and kept forgetting when to take his meds to prevent rejection.
Grubbs thought that the transplant anniversary was about her and Robert felt it was about them so there was some miscommunication. Robert showed his gratitude on a daily bases by taking care of the kidney.