A liver, a kidney and Ewan McGregor.

Back in January, I wrote this post about my college roommate Laurel (who, despite the title of my last post, has never owned a papasan chair but did once bring home a Heywood Wakefield coffee table) and her unsuccessful attempt to unburden herself of a kidney.

Our friend Robert's liver suddenly failed due to Wilson's Disease, and while he was the successful and grateful recipient of a donor liver, (thank you donor's family from the bottom of my heart), his kidney function never came back. And that's where Laurel came in, offering him one of hers.

Despite Laurel's altruistic motives, the kidney gods were reluctant to cooperate. Three surgery dates were scheduled, and three planned surgeries were wisely but disappointingly called off, sometimes as late as the day before, each because the various organs' antibodies couldn't get along. Three trips from Nevada to California for pre-op tests. Three trips from Iowa to California for Laurels' parents. Plasmapharesis. Chemo. And of course, dialysis. Endless hours of dialysis.

(So what I'm saying here is, if you were planning to sell a kidney on eBay to buy, say, a George Smith sofa or some de Gournay wallpaper, you might want to rethink that plan. It's just not that easy.)

I'm happy to report that Laurel finally divested herself of her not-absolutely-necessary and yet not-exactly-extraneous organ Friday morning, and now the kidney of my very small friend with a very large heart and excellent taste in furniture, even in college, is cleansing the blood of my very tall and equally big-hearted friend, Robert.

In other life-affirming news, Ewan McGregor continues to be hot.



I can't wait to see Beginners.