Newbe from Woods Cross, Utah

I have a long story to tell so I will start with the short version to introduce myself and then details for those who may be interested.

.....The short story......
It all started when I was diagnosed with diabetes when I was 16, all the way back in 1982. I have known that my kidneys would die when my CRIT and BUN started to increase 6 years ago. With diet, drugs and allot of blood test, I put off my need for new kidneys (mechanical or real) until fall of 2007. My Doc said its time and I put out the word “I need a Kidney”. My Doc said that if we were successful with a quick transplant, we could do the transplant before I ever need dialysis. She told me as long as my kidney function did not drop below 10% I would not have to start dialysis. It was not long and I had 32 people on my list of eager donors. My brother was the first to test and he came back as a perfect match. While I was doing the final preparations, I meet with the surgeon and he asked me why I had not considered a pancreas transplant at the same time. Needless to say, I decided to do the double transplant and went on the waiting list. You all may know you cannot have a live donor donate a pancreas and its best to have both organs from the same donor. After only 6 months and 13 days of waiting, I got the call. Everything was going perfect, I was in the hospital on the operating table with my new pancreas and kidney waiting. I felt so blessed………..

The first thing they transplant is your pancreas. When the surgeon opened my abdomen to expose my lower intestinal track and transplant the pancreas, he saw cancer. The transplants were aborted and then my surgery became cancer exploratory surgery. They cut out all they could see at the time and closed me up to recover. The guy in the next room on the hospital recovery floor was the one who got my new pancreas and kidney. He and his family were so happy and he never knew who I was. My daughter would always say when he did the rounds with his IV pole, there is the guy that got my dad’s new kidney.

After I recovered from my surgery and got the cancer under control, my kidneys got to the point I needed dialysis. By this time I had already knew I wanted to do home dialysis and my doctor said let’s give it a month in the center to establish your dry weight and other treatment parameters. After only 5 weeks in the center, I started home dialysis class and move to the training center for the remaining away from home treatments. I have been at home now for only a month and am using the NxStage System One using a graft. They tell me that because of the cancer, i will be on dialysis for life

I will post more details later. “Aka The Long story”