Learning the difference a donor can make

Learning the difference a donor can make

Posted Sep 2, 2010
BY JAMES RUBEC
On Organ Donor Day at the Super Ex, on August 23, volunteers distributed green t-shirts and asked people if they knew how many lives could be saved if they signed their organ donor concent forms. In this, the first of a three part series, the EMC explores the difference a donor can make in the life of someone in need.

Editor's Note: Organ donation is an important issue today. In this, the first of a three part series, the EMC's James Rubec explores what it's like to live on the organ waiting list, how it feels to live through a donation, and the reality of those who realize the sad consequences of a wait list too long. Watch future editions of the EMC for more on this important issue.

EMC News - David Presley didn't know it, but he only had days left to live.

"It started in the fall of 2007," said his wife Lynn Presley. "David seemed a little bit off. We took him to our doctor to get him checked out."

Ms. Presley is the current president of the Super Ex while her husband is the former president of the Super Ex.

"Our doctor, Don Doogle, took some blood tests, and sent us on our way," Ms. Presley said. "We really didn't think that anything was going to come from it."

But something did come from it, and two weeks before a long due vacation, the Presleys received a call.

"We went into Dr. Doogle's office and he told us that David's kidney was failing, and that he was going to need a transplant," Mrs. Presley said.

Mr. Presley has been waiting for a kidney now for three years. When he was put on a list, he joined 1,111 other people currently on the wait list for a kidney.

"It has all been so overwhelming, learning about renal failure, kidney disease and even about diabetes."

Kidneys are each about the size of a fist and they play three specific roles. The kidneys, like a water filtration plant, remove waste products from the bloodstream, toxins, heavy metals and anything that isn't supposed to be there. They produce hormones that regulate blood pressure and the production of red blood cells. Similarly they also regulate the level of minerals that are in the body, like sodium or calcium.

When the kidneys aren't functioning properly, toxins begin flowing through the body more freely instead of the flowing out the body naturally. The toxins impact every organ in the body, making them function poorly or stop working all together.

In the beginning, kidney failure can be hard to spot, having no symptoms to recognize. But, as the kidney function declines, a person's ability to regulate water and minerals can make them seem anemic. They may appear to be more tired than usual, but the signs of illness progress quickly after that.

"I was told in two cases that I had only days to live," Mr. Presley said. "If they hadn't gotten me stabilized and into treatment at that point, I would have died."

Mr. Presley has been living through a careful process of dialysis. There is more than one type of dialysis. Typically people think of a large machine cleaning your blood, but today there are more options out there.

"I do peritoneal dialysis. I sit down and drain my peritoneal cavity and fill it again four times a day, with different types of peritoneal fluids that have different concentrations of chemicals that clean my body," he said.

The peritoneal cavity is the space in your body where your organs sit. Typically you don't have liquid in this space, but in Mr. Presley's case he does. Because his kidneys don't work, this liquid removes the waste from his body for him. Mr. Presley has a catheter on the front of his stomach leading into his peritoneal cavity. Every time he needs to drain his cavity and fill it again he carefully washes his hands, then he uses a sanitizing jell before he pops the cap off of his catheter. He then clips his catheter into an empty bag while his cavity drains out, and the fluid, which is full of his body's waste, flows into the empty bag. The process is painless, and takes a total of two hours a day. He uses four bags a day, and this is what is keeping him alive.

"It will be three years in November," Mr. Presley explained.

He said he remembers thinking about dialysis as this big scary monster, but now feels it is something he can do in his car, something he shows his friends and something he feels comfortable describing during seminars.

You wouldn't know the extent of the illness by looking at him. Mr. Presley is a tall man, his colour is good, and his energy high but if he were to lose control of his diet, or forget to wash his hands while changing his fluids, things could go wrong quickly.

On Wednesday, Aug. 18, Mr. Presley had a pain in his stomach and the colour in the bag that he empties his fluids into was cloudy. He had to go to the hospital and get antibiotics before the infection got out of hand.

"I could stop doing this if there was a kidney for me. It isn't something you want to push on people but it would make my life a whole lot easier," he said.

The Presleys have taken up "the cause," as they call it. On Aug. 23, they held their annual Organ Donor Day to help inform people about the need for organ donation and to sign a consent form required by the Ministry of Health to confirm that a hospital knows your wish to donate.

This is the major barrier to getting the 1,111 people off the kidney waiting list.

jrubec@theemc.ca

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