My Unknown Friend - Thanks for the Kidney

Eleven years ago I received a death sentence.

It was the same sentence that had been handed down to my grandmother, my aunt, my mother and cousins too numerous to list. I was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease, a hereditary affliction that has plagued my mother’s side of the family for generations.

The condition is particularly insidious in that it is not painful, and without blood tests one wouldn’t know one had it. Over a period of years, cysts form in the kidneys until the organ eventually ceases to function. When it no longer works, the victim succumbs to the inability to of the body to eliminate its liquid waste.

There are no cures for this disease. There are treatments. The most common is kidney dialysis by which the patient’s blood is circulated through a machine and filter that strains the blood of most of its impurities. The second treatment is a kidney transplant whereby a donated organ is grafted into the patient’s body.

I was lucky to have been treated by a very knowledgeable physician. Through medication and attention to my diet, he and my wife kept my kidneys adequately functioning for a number of years. He understood the progression of the disease and prepared me for eventual dialysis. He also arranged for me to be placed on the nationwide kidney transplant list.

Two and a half years ago I had to go on dialysis. My denial that I was sick finally met reality. Though at the time I felt my life had ended, I adapted well to the treatment. It required being on the machine three and a half hours three days a week. With commuting time to and from the dialysis clinic, that meant five hours a day or a third of my waking life three times a week for treatment. That’s not bad considering the alternative is death, but it still puts a dent in your life.

I remained on the kidney transplant list for nearly five years. It required my carrying a cell phone with me at all times, so that if an organ became available, I could be contacted and get to the hospital within hours. When you first go on the list, you expect a call at any time. As the years pass, you begin to think that it will never happen. That’s the way I felt until a month ago when I got the call from Shands Hospital at the University of Florida. “We have a kidney. Do you want it?”

Of course I did, and the operation so far has been a success. The doctors are pleased with my progress. I had almost forgotten how it feels to have properly functioning plumbing.

This means a new way of life for me. I would like to thank the family and loved ones of the person who was considerate enough to donate his/her organs. I have no idea who the donor was, but organ donation is one of the most loving things one human being can do for another.

If you have not yet designated yourself to be an organ donor, think about it. It is one way to help another human being when you can no longer help yourself.

If you have volunteered to be an organ donor, I thank you for myself and all future recipients.