On March 13, 2022 I was honored to receive my new kidney, Grace. For three years while on dialysis I knew that I was going to get my kidney soon. I started dialysis in 2018 and in 2019 I transitioned to home hemodialysis. From there, I fell in love with the medical aspect of doing it myself. I had a wonderful medical team that help me through everything including my dialysis nurse. For three years she became family. As I was starting my transplant journey, one of the obstacles that I was facing was my weight. In order for me to qualify for transplant, I had to loose weight. My next option was to have bariatric surgery.
April 2021, I went in for my gastric sleeve laparoscopic and by September 2021 I was on the transplant list. I was really excited that I was one more step closer to receiving my kidney transplant. Some of my family members have medical issues and didn’t meet the age requirement to donate to me except my older sister. She did her blood test to see if she was a match and she was.
Two weeks before her in person testing, I received a phone call from the transplant nurse telling me that I was number five on the list of receiving a kidney from a cadaver. I was really excited and very hopeful, but I also knew I had four other people in front of me. I started praying for them, that they may experience the joy of new life with their new kidney. I prayed for the cadavers family and the lost of the cadaver. I actually went into my treatment room and told my machine to hit the road Jack and don’t come back no more, no more, no more. An hour later I got the second phone call from the same nurse telling me that they’re cross matching the cadaver’s kidney with mine to make sure everything matches up well. She told me to get some rest, at this time it was around 12:30 in the morning. Twenty minutes later I get the third phone call from the same nurse telling me that it’s a match, it’s a go! And what time I need to be at the hospital.
I am an hour 45 minutes from the hospital so I called my family back and told them it’s a go went picked up my mom and we headed straight to the hospital around 2:00 that morning. The thing I was so shocked about getting the transplant, was how fast everything was moving. It felt like, I got my room and I was off to surgery. I named my kidney Grace because, God was the only one who could heal me and his love for me made me think of Grace.
Watch a video showing the journey for a transplant recipient.
