jeepmcd
Member
Shortly after my wife and I were married, she became ill forcing her into the hospital for a couple days of nearly every week for three months. During a second opinion trip to Cleveland Clinic we were told that her kidney's have failed and she needed to undergo dialysis. She had a kidney transplant in 2001 after a bladder disease had damaged them during her collage years. An immune-supression medication used to mitigate her immune system and reduce the chance of acute rejection had damaged her transplant beyond repair. This medication was no longer used to treat kidney transplant patients after an FDA research finding deemed the drug harmful to the filtration systems within the kidney, but her doctor had given it to her anyway.
So here we are nearly two years later and I am donating into the National Kidney Registry. This is a program that pools donors and recipients together to find matches when direct matches from friends and family are not possible. So my kidney is going to a patent in San Francisco and she will end up with a kidney from South Carolina. All together there are ten pairs of people (donors and recipients) in a chain that will result in good matches for needy patients all over the country from donors that would otherwise be unable to help their friend or family member.
The National Kidney Foundation operates this registry that helps numerous people every year, but the supply of health kidneys is not unlike the ammo shortage we experience today. There are many more people in need of kidney transplants than there are willing donors.
The first two years of our marriage will include nearly $500,000 dollars in medical expenses (thank goodness for insurance), including a four night stay in the ICU for respiratory failure. Keep in mind my wife is 31 yrs old, 5'4" and 120lbs and was as health a person that I knew before we were married and the illnesses started.
This short message carries the hope that other will become inspired to check into the National Kidney Foundation and donate time, money or even more precious... a kidney. Thank you for reading this thread and I hope no one else must endure the hardships that my wife has for the past two years.
So here we are nearly two years later and I am donating into the National Kidney Registry. This is a program that pools donors and recipients together to find matches when direct matches from friends and family are not possible. So my kidney is going to a patent in San Francisco and she will end up with a kidney from South Carolina. All together there are ten pairs of people (donors and recipients) in a chain that will result in good matches for needy patients all over the country from donors that would otherwise be unable to help their friend or family member.
The National Kidney Foundation operates this registry that helps numerous people every year, but the supply of health kidneys is not unlike the ammo shortage we experience today. There are many more people in need of kidney transplants than there are willing donors.
The first two years of our marriage will include nearly $500,000 dollars in medical expenses (thank goodness for insurance), including a four night stay in the ICU for respiratory failure. Keep in mind my wife is 31 yrs old, 5'4" and 120lbs and was as health a person that I knew before we were married and the illnesses started.
This short message carries the hope that other will become inspired to check into the National Kidney Foundation and donate time, money or even more precious... a kidney. Thank you for reading this thread and I hope no one else must endure the hardships that my wife has for the past two years.
