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Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: News Articles => Topic started by: okarol on October 22, 2008, 03:19:24 PM
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A father’s gift
Bert Yamaoka of Forest Grove donates a kidney to his son, Bert Jr.
By Nancy Townsley
The Forest Grove News-Times, Oct 22, 2008
Bert Yamaoka Jr. and his father, Bert Sr., struggled to describe their feelings last week as they faced Monday’s surgery in which a kidney from Bert Sr. was transplanted into his son’s body.
The mood in the warm-hued living room on 26th Avenue is anxious yet expectant. Michelle Yamaoka, her husband Bert and their son, Bert Jr., trade jokes and share stories, trying to keep things lighthearted.
Their fleeting smiles betray a palpable apprehension. In less than a week, Bert was scheduled to donate his left kidney to Bert Jr., who is in late-stage renal failure and has been on daily home dialysis for almost a year and a half.
Without the operation, Bert Jr., who turns 26 today, would face an uncertain future.
“His life would probably be considerably shortened,” his mother said.
It’s been more than two decades since the Yamaokas discovered their son had inherited acute glomerulonephritis, an illness that took the life of Michelle’s brother, Bob, in 1973.
Her father, Jim Nosack of Forest Grove, donated one of his kidneys to Bob in a last-ditch effort to extend his life. Bob lived through the surgery but died of complications 10 days later. “At the time, it was a very new procedure,” noted Michelle.
In what must feel like déjà vu, Michelle last week faced the prospect of her own husband and son going under the knife together. Two days ago, the pair lay side by side in beds at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland, hooked up to machines that kept their vital organs functioning while two surgical teams took Bert’s left kidney and transplanted it into Bert Jr.
Dr. Rubin Chandran, a nephrologist on staff at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, and Dr. William Bennett, head of the surgical team, did the honors.
The three-hour-long procedure was a complete success. Both men were resting comfortably Monday afternoon, with their family members breathing huge sighs of relief.
Michelle said she appreciated the well-wishes and prayers from friends and family members.
Bert will remain in the hospital for at least six days and be away from his job, as a PE teacher at Hillsboro’s J.B. Thomas Middle School, through the end of the year.
Bert Jr. can expect a longer hospital stay of up to two weeks, with a strict regimen of rest and medication to follow.
Michelle is happy the whole thing is over – and busting her buttons over Bert’s sacrifice.
“I wish more people would do what my husband is doing,” Michelle said last Thursday, in anticipation of the event. “I think it’s truly a heroic thing.”
As she spoke, tears welled up in her eyes. “When these two go in together Monday, that’s it,” Michelle said. “They’re my guys.”
Michelle said she wasn’t as scared as she was nervous. After all, she and her family members have been through so much pain.
The couple’s daughter, Denise, who was just 18 months younger than Bert Jr., perished in a car accident in 2000 at the age of 16.
Michelle’s mom died in 2002, and Bert lost his father several years back. In 2006, Bert’s best friend since childhood, Henry Kaulia of Gaston, died in a single-car crash on Highway 47.
Last January, Michelle, 47, was granted a medical leave from her job as office manager at Poynter Middle School in Hillsboro due to a major flare-up of systemic lupus, which she’s fought for 10 years.
Plagued by rheumatoid arthritis, poor circulation and occasional epileptic seizures, she was forced to take time off.
“I can be active for an hour or two, but then I have to rest or take a nap,” said the petite, athletic-looking woman, whose large, round eyes shine out from under an auburn pixie cut. She’s highly prone to infections because of the autoimmune disorder, which causes her to sleep up to 12 hours a day.
It’s all been pretty overwhelming, but the Yamaokas – Bert is from Kauai, Hawaii, and Michelle has lived in Forest Grove all her life – are persevering.
“People who know us think we have a gray cloud following us around,” Michelle said with a laugh. Then she turned introspective.
“Losing our daughter was heartbreaking. Nothing is ever going to make that OK,” she said, glancing at her husband and son. “But even through the worst things that have happened, there has been some light.”
On Sept. 20, 2000, Denise Yamaoka’s car hit a patch of gravel on Simpson Road in Cornelius, skidded and was T-boned by another vehicle. She died at the scene.
A few weeks later, Michelle and Bert got a note from a mother whose child, a burn victim, had received a transplant of some of Denise’s skin. “That was affirming – someone’s life was made better by Denise,” her mother said.
Still, she and Bert continued to mourn, and do to this day.
“I can vividly remember the last night my daughter was alive,” said Bert. “But all the time between then and now has been a blur.
“There’s not a day that I go without thinking about her.”
For Bert Jr., who graduated from Forest Grove High School in 2001, his sister’s absence has been devastating. “I was real close to her – we had all the same friends,” he said.
The family typically celebrates her birthday, April 17, by going out for sushi. And they try to honor her memory by doing the best they can, every day.
That includes Bert Jr. facing the realities of his own life.
Every night, he hooks himself up to a peritoneal dialysis machine in his bedroom. For eight hours, through sometimes fitful sleep, he endures its beeps – and the discomfort that comes when he turns over and feels a tube pinching his side.
He knows the internal cleansing, which drains about two liters of fluid from his peritoneal cavity, gives him a chance at a future he wants to experience.
“I’d like to finish school and then do something in the medical field, maybe in radiology or angiography,” said Bert Jr., who left his job as manager of an auto parts store in Beaverton last year after he could no longer get through a full workday due to fatigue.
“And I’d like to get married, have kids ... things most people want to do.”
So far, insurance through Michelle and Bert Sr.’s employer has covered nearly all of the $32,000 a month it takes to pay for the home dialysis.
“I don’t know what people without good insurance do in these situations,” Michelle said.
Looking at Bert Jr., it’s difficult to detect that anything is medically amiss. A strapping young man with dark hair, deep-set eyes and tattoos on both arms, Bert Jr. has his father’s Polynesian good looks and his mother’s easy laugh.
He and his dad practice Kenpo karate and Kung Fu, martial arts that keep them both centered spiritually and emotionally. “It helps me to keep a cool head and stay calm,” Bert Jr. says.
Michelle, who isn’t a regular church-goer, relies on her Catholic roots for strength.
“I pray all the time. My faith gives me a sense of comfort,” she insists.
Restless, and wanting to escape some of the pressures of life in a small town, Bert Jr. moved to Kauai in 2004, where he attended community college for a time.
He moved back to Oregon last December after doctors told him his kidneys were functioning at about 40 percent of normal. “He was in denial for a long time,” his mother said.
Without a transplant, Bert Jr. would be on dialysis for the rest of his life. With a transplant, he can look forward to a “near normal” life, says Michelle.
Father and son rode their Harley Davidson Fat Boy motorcycles from Forest Grove to Portland nearly every weekday over the summer for tests.
It was “a great day,” Bert Sr. added, when the family learned he was a match for the operation: his blood type and tissue type were just right for donating a kidney to his son.
When the critical question came, said Bert Sr., “I didn’t have even a millisecond of hesitation,” over deciding to be the donor.
For his part, Bert Jr. is grateful – and amazed at his father’s courage.
“He’s saving my butt,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to repay him, but I’ll try.”
Once he’s out of the hospital and back on his feet, Bert Jr. plans to take it easy and follow doctors’ orders.
When he’s tired, he’ll spend hours playing World of Warcraft, an Internet video game.
He hopes to spend time with his girlfriend, Jessica Sondgeroth of Flagstaff, Ariz. The two met through mutual friends. “I’m gonna try to fly down and visit her as soon as I can,” Bert Jr. said.
For his dad, who turned 50 this year, recuperation might take a while longer.
“He’ll be feeling better and I’ll be feeling worse,” joked Bert Sr. “But I’m totally happy with that.”
Want to be an organ donor? Start with a family chat
Becoming an organ donor isn’t as simple as putting a “D” — for “donor” — on your Oregon driver license. There’s a bit more to it, says Michelle Yamaoka.
First, talk the matter over with family members, making sure they’re clear about your intention to donate. Tell them that organ, eye and tissue donation is consistent with your life values and that it feels like the right thing to do.
Then, “you need to declare your intentions on Oregon’s donor registry,” Yamaoka noted. To do that, visit www.donatelifenw.org or call 503-494-7888 for a paper registration form. Then, have your driver license coded with a “D” if you are over 18.
In Oregon, about 344 people are currently waiting for a kidney transplant, according to information on the Donate Life Northwest web site.
http://www.forestgrovenewstimes.com/news/story.php?story_id=122464772472623700