Headline: THANKFUL
FOR LIFE -- ONE YEAR AFTER MY SISTER SAVED MINE
Reporter: By Greg Freeman
Publication: ST.
LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Thurs. Nov. 28, 2002
Section:
METRO, Page: D1, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT
I'm alive today,
and I have my sister to thank for it.
One
year ago Friday, I received a lifesaving gift from my sister: a kidney. It's
the sort of gift for which I can never be thankful enough. And because of that
gift, I'm happy to report that one year later, I'm feeling fine.
But my life has
changed. Every morning and every night, I take nearly a dozen pills, which I'll
have to take for the rest of my life. And I have to go once a month to have
my blood drawn so that doctors can keep an eye on my kidney. (When I received
the kidney a year ago, my blood was drawn weekly.) I've actually gotten to the
point where I can tell those drawing my blood where to stick the needle for
maximum efficiency.
But
I feel better. In fact, I feel as good as I did a few years ago, before my kidneys
began to fail. Medical science has much to do with that. But just as important
was the willingness of my sister to donate.
She
certainly didn't have to. Cheryl McKinney is married with three wonderful youngsters,
not to mention a full-time job. But she stepped up to the plate in the nick
of time.
More than two
years ago, I got a double whammy, within a couple weeks of each other. First,
I was told that the problem that I had been having with my legs was a form of
muscular dystrophy. Then, I learned that my kidneys were rapidly failing and
that I should prepare for dialysis.
Depression?
You bet. How do you get that sort of news without being depressed? There wasn't
much to be done about the muscular dystrophy. But as doctors were talking to
me about dialysis, they also told me about the outside possibility of getting
a kidney transplant. They didn't want to get my hopes up about getting one,
though.
I
found out why later. Last year, 79,000 Americans were on waiting lists to get
organs. An overwhelming majority of them never got the call. There's a major
need for more organ donors.
I
didn't know that then. After dropping some weight, going through a battery of
tests and passing with flying colors, I was placed on the waiting list.
I
waited for a call that a kidney was available, but it never came.
All the while,
my kidneys were failing and I was beginning to feel it. I was getting weaker.
I arrived home from work exhausted. I would take naps at all hours of the day,
and I was one who never took naps.
I
knew I had to do something. I realized that I might never get an organ from
the transplant list. And I knew that dialysis would have made it difficult for
me. The procedure would have taken roughly four hours a day, three times a week.
For someone with a lifestyle as active as mine, the idea of dialysis sounded
like a prison sentence.
So I contacted
friends and relatives to see if anyone would be willing to donate. And fortunately
for me, my sister stepped forward.
And
so on Nov. 29 of last year -- just as doctors thought they were ready to put
me on dialysis -- my sister and I underwent the procedure of transplanting one
of her kidneys to me.
Like
magic, I felt better almost immediately. And my sister? She was up the next
day and out of the hospital the next.
Today, I'm busy
again, back writing columns, back hosting a radio show, back giving talks --
doing all the things that I did before.
Cheryl
and I were already close, but the kidney transplant has brought us closer together.
I sometimes tap my hand on the right side of my belly -- that's where the kidney
is transplanted -- and assure her that I'm taking good care of it.
After
all, it's not every day that you're thrown a lifesaver. And when you do catch
one, you hang on for dear life. So as everyone sits down to dinner today and
remembers what they're thankful for, I'll be thinking of my sister. To her,
I will always be thankful.
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2002, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
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