Dear Friends and Family, This letter is extremely difficult for me to write. However, I feel that you would want to know what is going on in my life. For the past few years, I have been living with chronic kidney rejection. Until now, this has only meant regular monitoring by various doctors and controlling my diet and blood pressure. Unfortunately, as of late, my condition has worsened and I have to face the reality of kidney failure in the not too distant future. On the outside, I look like everyone else with nothing wrong with them, but on the inside, I am very sick, there is no denying that. My options at this point are: kidney transplant from a living donor (best case scenario); transplant from a deceased donor via the waiting list (typically a 5+ year wait); or dialysis (which I am discovering is essentially spending most of your time hooked up to machines either in the hospital or at home). From what I understand, although dialysis will keep me alive, it somewhat becomes your life. I have learned that dialysis does not completely replace a normal kidney’s function. The dialysis machine only performs 10-15% of a normal kidney’s function of filtering toxins in my body. If I go to dialysis, I would need to go 3 times a week at 4 hours a day for each dialysis run. Dialysis is another treatment for kidney disease, but that option would have effects on my body and my quality of life and if I could avoid it, I would prefer to do so. But as many of you know, I try to cope with things as best as I can. I try to persevere and live as normal a life as possible. But now I need your help. I can’t journey on this road alone for much longer, so I am reaching out to anyone willing to help Ive been given a time frame of approximately 2 to 8 months before my kidney will completely pack it in. In the meantime, what I can do is be diligent about my diet and blood pressure as recommended by my medical team of specialists to prolong my kidney function as long as possible. It has been recommended to me that a living donor transplant is the best-case scenario to continue living a healthy life. Now the hard part: I need to find someone who is willing to donate a kidney for when my own decide to quit. I realize that what I am asking is an enormous sacrifice for anyone to make and that having major surgery is not going to be easy. On the upside, we all have 2 kidneys and yet we only need one to live a normal, healthy life. For this reason, it is possible for people to donate one kidney. Outside of the risks associated with any surgery, donors don’t typically experience negative health effects from donating a kidney. The length of stay in hospital is 3-4 days and the recovery time is 4-6 weeks, though the transplant centre is willing to write a time-off work letter for 6-8 weeks. If this request were one you would ever consider, or wish to know more about, St. Paul’s has a wonderful donor team that you can contact completely confidentially. You can reach them at 604-806-9027 or at [email protected] . They are experts in this area and can give you all the details on what is involved and what to expect if you were found to be a suitable donor. Your inquiry, as well as the process of determining your eligibility as a donor, is all kept confidential. In fact, St. Paul’s runs a very professional donor program and I will never be told whether you, or anyone, have expressed interest in donating a kidney (unless you tell me, of course). Also, donors are heavily supported and given the comfort of pulling out of the process at any time. I hope you realize how much I value my friendships and my family. My wish is not to put pressure on anyone to participate on this journey with me. I recognize that your lives have their own complexity and that becoming an organ donor will not be in the realm of possibility for some of you. Please know that your friendship and moral support are more than enough. Thank you for your consideration.... Warmest Regards, Gwyn Here’s a bit of related information: Living Kidney Donation Q & A ww w.t ra nsp la nt.bc.ca / li ving_k id ne y_ ma i n. ht m Google this phrase: “Kidney Donors Live Longer” Google: “Oldest UK donor” - an 83 year old became the oldest living donor in the UK in 2012. Yes, it’s a big surgery...but watch how he looks afterwards. He is not unique...most donors recover this way. A BBC video interviewing him weeks after he donated will be the first result on Google. FYI, this record was beaten recently in March 2014 when a UK woman at 85 years old donated her kidney! Nicholas Crace being interviewed after he donated his kidney at age 83. In the beginning of the video, listen as he explains the reason why he wanted to be a kidney donor. I think this gentleman really gets it and if we could clone him, there would be no waiting lists. ww w. yo ut ub e.co m/wa tc h? v=H A5J yt8 uW xg YouTube link about a woman who donated to her friend: youtube/watch?v=TYLfgIRIo4c or search Kidney Donor – Shaw TV Nanaimo A St. Paul’s patient showing us her nightly routine of hooking up on peritoneal dialysis yo utub e.co m/wa tc h? v=NJ1e E_ gS_wo Same patient showing the monthly delivery of peritoneal dialysis supplies: youtube/watch?v=pepIWK RTVqE Great story about a woman who received a kidney from a stranger: https://savillacreations.wordpress/2013/04/13/my-hero/ 3 Ted Talks type talks from a donor, a physician and a recipient: youtube/watch?v=SNs0GKxkmpE youtube/watch?v=UigBNjBLByc youtube/watch?v=pZjX-7i4ItQ Do you know that less than 1% of the population develop kidney disease that end up needing dialysis or transplant...in other words, it’s not common and not likely it could happen to most of the population. IF for some reason the donor ends up developing kidney disease and needs a transplant, they go near the top of the waiting list for their blood type. We have not done this after 750+ living donor transplants. The chance of dying under anesthesia while undergoing a donor transplant surgery is 3 deaths out of 10,000. That’s .03%! Per our surgeon, there is a higher chance of dying under anesthesia removing a wisdom tooth than to die under anesthesia while being a kidney donor. There is financial support for donors to avoid out of pocket costs like hotel stay and flight to Vancouver. Approximate number of kidneys per year received at St. Pauls Hospital via the waiting list based on blood type: Kidney transplantation is a life-extending procedure. The typical patient will live 10 to 15 years longer with a kidney transplant than if kept on dialysis. The increase in longevity is greater for younger patients, but even 75-year-old recipients (the oldest group for which there is data) gain an average four more years of life. People generally have more energy, a less restricted diet, and fewer complications with a kidney transplant than if they stay on conventional dialysis. Blood type O = 25 Blood type A = 25 Blood type B = 1-2 Blood type AB = 1-2
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 21:04:49 +0000
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