A Family Bond: Sister to donate kidney to her ailing brother

[okarol]

Publish Date: 1/13/2010

A Family Bond: Sister to donate kidney to her ailing brother

Karen Lung
The Daily Record
He first was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2006, and in October 2008, Ron Taylor, 61, began his three days a week dialysis, which restricts his travel and other activities.

“My kidney doctor over in Pueblo, when he saw my kidney starting to fail, he put me on the transplant list right away,” Taylor said. “The sooner you get on the list, the better. So, I had been on the list for probably 11 months before I even started dialysis.”

Taylor and his sister, Becky Wolfe, 60, are as close as siblings can be, with him dropping by her house at least once a week for her homemade cookies. When she heard of his need for a kidney transplant, she didn’t hesitate to consider the option, and she began to study what was needed to become a donor. Her main concern was how she could swing the finances, until she learned of recipient’s insurance, which covers the donor and recipient.

The next largest hurdle was testing.

“There is a lot of testing you have to go through,” Wolfe said. “They check for everything you can imagine. They do X-rays and scans, glucose tolerance tests. A lot of it we had done here and in Pueblo. And, a lot of it, we had to go to Denver.

“I knew there was a possibility I could be approved as a donor. Basically, I guess the next step after that is determining what our blood types were. I think if your blood types aren’t compatible, that’s a big factor, but we have exactly the same blood type.”

The siblings also were tested for tissue matching, among other things. They were considered a six out of six match, which makes them as close a match as twins, Taylor said.

The two, who have no other siblings, always have been close, and for Wolfe, it did not take much to make this life-changing decision for her brother.

“My main thing was making sure my husband was on board,” Wolfe said. “He’s been very supportive, so that’s been a very big help.”

Both, along with their parents, attend Cañon Community Baptist Church.

“Our parents and the church we go to, and even a couple friends of my dad, who live down in Georgia have called me on the phone to express their support and prayers,” Taylor said.

Surgery is scheduled for Thursday at the University of Colorado Hospital in Denver.

“If everything goes smoothly, I’ll be in the hospital three or four days,” Taylor said. “I’ll be staying in a hotel up in Denver, because I’ll have to go in every other day to make sure everything is working right. At the end of approximately two weeks, I should be able to come home.”

Taylor will have to wait for a while after the surgery for doctors to determine how many immunosuppressant drugs he will have to take, depending on how his body reacts to the new kidney.

“My recovery time is a lot quicker,” Wolfe said. “I should be out of the hospital in two to three days. My recovery is considerably less, because I don’t have to go in for daily testing.

“I think we’ll have a bond a lot of siblings don’t have because of this,” Wolfe said. “It’s just kind of a really unique and cool experience. It’s a privilege.”

Wolfe said they both have been blessed.

“We’re blessed we have each other,” Wolfe said. “And we have a neat family system. I have a neat husband, who has been very supportive, which helps the whole process along.”

Taylor hopes his experience will help educate others.

“You never think about being an organ donor until you need one,” Taylor said. “When you have a friend or family member or yourself that needs one, it becomes blatantly clear how important it is.”

Karen Lungu can be reached at klungu@ccdailyrecord.com.

http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/community/community-story.asp?ID=12710