My mom has Polycystic Kidney Disease. PKD is actually a pretty common disease; 1 in 500 people has it. PKD is more common than Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy and sickle cell anemia combined, and it is nowhere near as well heard of. It's passed on genetically, it's not something you can catch. Basically, it turns your kidneys into cyst filled/covered masses. The cysts/scar tissue created stop(s) your kidneys from functioning, and the kidneys usually end up weighing 20+ pounds EACH. PDK almost always ends in renal failure, which means dialysis and (HOPEFULLY) a kidney transplant.
I can't donate a kidney, but am trying to find someone who can donate a kidney to my mom. She is 52, and by last Christmas, her kidneys had grown so large that they were pushing up on her lungs and stomach. They were about 20 lbs...so her doctors took out both of her kidneys.
Now she is 100% dependent on dialysis. Most everyone knows what dialysis is, or at least they've heard of it. What they don't hear of are the complications and how it tears down your body. My mom has been on dialysis for almost 3 years. Her main complication comes from her access point, her fistula...where the dialysis techs stick the needles into her so that dialysis is possible. My mom's fistula gets blood clots in it, for whatever reason. She has had, as of the end of September, 12 angioplasty surgeries (where they stick a tiny balloon in you and inflate it so that they can pull out the blood clots) in the last 2 years. The surgeries are always successful, but this puts major wear and tear on her fistula, and her arm can only withstand so much wear and tear. Dialysis also wears down your heart...think about a machine doing in 4 hours what your body does in 2 days...pulling your blood out, cleaning it, taking off all the fluid you've ingested and putting your blood back in...lots of wear on the heart. The angioplasty surgery she had in September, the heart surgeon had to do because her arm is so fragile, and he had to go into her arm 5 times during one surgery...
So now, my mom is on the transplant list, and I am trying to help her by seeing if anyone is willing to become a living doner for her. Her blood type is O+, and the potential doner would have to start by being the same blood type. I'm not going to lie, it takes a lot of testing, and a total commitment...not to mention giving up a part of your body...and there is recovery time and probably feeling like hell for at least a few days. (Altho now more often than not, it's a laparascopic surgery for the donor.) But still, it's not a walk in the park, and there are always possible complications.
If there is anyone interested in testing to see if you can be a living donor, please message me.
My mom finally agreed to me trying to find her a living doner (today as a matter of fact), so I am going to do my best to find one for her.
If you would like more information on PKD please go to www.pkdcure.org.
If you would like more information on becoming a living donor, please go to www.floodsisters.org.
Thank you all for your time!!
Joyce
- Location: Albuquerque, NM
- it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
- it's OK to distribute this charitable volunteerism opportunity for inclusion in 3rd party web sites that have been approved by craigslist
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