April is Donate Life Month

Hi everyone! Did you know that April is Donate Life month? I would like to take a blog post to tell you about my experience with organ donation, and to educate about why you should be a donor.

 

When I was thirteen, I started going to the doctor more and having more blood tests. It's amazing to me how young I was then, because I really didn't think much of the fact that I was getting more and more blood tests. Eventually, we went to a nephrologist, and my mom told me that I needed a kidney transplant. When she told me that, I cried and cried, but I don 't think I even really knew what that meant. I had heard of transplants before, but I always thought that was something other people needed, not me.

 

Putting all of that aside, I went to the hospital one day to have teeth extractions--I needed seven teeth pulled, and because of my medical condition, it needed to be done at the hospital. However, once we were there, my blood tests results showed my creatinine levels rising drastically. Creatinine levels check kidney function. A normal level is about 0.6, and I was at 6.8.

Next thing I knew, I woke up in the recovery room at Lucile Packard with a catheter on the right side of my chest. A tube had been inserted into a central vein that goes directly to the heart. I was going to be on dialysis until a kidney was available for me. To this day, I still remember the pain. It was the worst pain I have ever felt in my entire life. I couldn't move to my right side, and when I walked (which wouldn't be for a couple of days) I had to keep my right arm stuck to my side as to not move my body too much.

Dialysis was probably one of the most interesting things that I have ever done. Dialysis is where tubes are connected from a machine into a catheter which can be located on the arm, chest, or stomach, and blood flows out of the body into the machine. The machine cleans the blood, replacing the normal function of the kidneys, and is put back in to the body. Some kids and adults are on dialysis for years, about three hours a day, three days a week, every single week. But I was extremely fortunate because I was only on dialysis for a month.

Little did I know, from the time I found out I needed a kidney transplant to the time I was on dialysis, my aunt, Theresa, was going through numerous blood tests constantly to check if she could be a donor. Then one night after dialysis, my mom, my sister, my grandma, aunt Theresa, and I went out to dinner in downtown Palo Alto, and Theresa told me that she was going to be my donor.

I was stunned. If I could go back, I would say thank you a million times to her. But like I said, I was so young, I just sat there. I didn't want her to have to go through that! My mind couldn't comprehend the incredible journey that my aunt and I were about to take. And so, on July 13, 2009, Theresa went in for surgery and I had mine shortly after.

This picture above shows the first time we saw each other after the surgery. The amazing connection that we have is indescribable. I still can't really believe that I'm walking around with her kidney. Today, Theresa and I are both doing great. Theresa is a true hero, and I can't ever thank her enough for the amazing gift that she gave me. Thanks to her incredible character and actions, I live a normal life, dialysis-free.

But what about those kids that are still on dialysis? What about the kids in need of a heart? They can't go on something like dialysis to keep their body functioning properly. More than 115,000 men, women and children are on the waiting list for organs. There's something that all of us can do to help them. Go to http://donatelife.net/ and register to be an organ donor, and like their page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/DonateLife.

If you have any questions about becoming an organ donor, leave you question in the comments section or check out the "Understanding Donation" section on the Donate Life website. It only takes a few moments to sign up to be an organ donor, and those few moments could save a life.