Overcoming kidney failure

Overcoming kidney failure – twice

Posted: Monday, April 16, 2012 4:05 pm | Updated: 4:10 pm, Mon Apr 16, 2012.
By BUZZY HASSRICK | 0 comments
“It was all quite sudden,” says Liz Danforth of Cody.
A student at Brigham Young University, she sought medical advice after becoming quite ill.

The doctor told her, she recalls, “‘You’re checking into a hospital now.’” Her kidneys had failed.
“They usually both go at once,” she explains.
Danforth, 21 at the time, had many bouts with strep throat during her childhood, with few options because she was allergic to penicillin. She believes that might have caused the kidney problem.
After the sudden illness in college, she went through a cycle of flare-ups and improvements and then ended up on dialysis for a year. When the time came for a transplant, her six brothers and one sister offered to help.
“All my siblings were so willing,” she recalls. “It was truly humbling.”
The Air Force flew her oldest brother back from the Philippines and although they most resemble each other, he was the poorest match. Another brother, who was in his 30s, became the donor. The experience changed their relationship.
“It was almost as if I could do no wrong,” Danforth says. “He told my sister, ‘It was the best thing I ever did.’
“I have a wonderful, supportive family.”
Despite that support, there were setbacks.
“Nothing was simple,” Danforth says of the many complications from the first transplant, including a cut on a kidney that leaked urine into her body.
“It was really depressing,” she says, and painful. After doctors rerouted the urine through a hole and into a bag, “all of a sudden I was really well. Basically, I was quite healthy.”
The new kidney functioned well, after a couple of years of misery, she says.
“For years I had a wonderful kidney,” she adds. “For a long time, I hardly remembered I’d had a transplant.”
Kidney
failure again
Then about three years ago Danforth started feeling poorly, and her creatinine level was spiking. Since kidneys filter out that chemical from the system, an elevation in creatinine indicates a problem. Yet she wanted to get the most of out of the first transplant.
“You know the one is working, if not perfectly,” she says.
Danforth opted to wait until her quality of life declined, while knowing one of her sisters was a good match.
“We’d always joked that she was my next spare part,” she says, though knowing the operation would be serious. “It’s not something you can just expect someone to do. Surgery is always a risky business.”
Danforth said her younger sister worked hard to get in shape for the donation, even competing in a half-marathon. The second surgery went more smoothly than the first.
“It’s so much more routine now,” she says. “It’s much easier surgery on the donor today,” because it’s less invasive.
One manageable, but bothersome, side effect emerged from the destruction of her skin by the immunosuppressant, which makes her susceptible to skin cancer. Danforth must be careful about protecting herself from the sun as well as avoiding sick people. She washes her hands frequently.
Other than that, she says, “I’m doing great,” citing her lower blood pressure and creatinine levels. “I’m healthy. I’m happy. I’m grateful.
“Having a chronic illness makes you appreciate life.”
That’s one of the positive aspects. As a 21-year-old, she adds, “You just want to be well. As a 59-year-old, you’re appreciative.
“It’s deepened my relationship with the family.”
Thousands wait
More than 111,000 people are currently on a federal agency’s transplant waiting list, and the number of people who die waiting for transplants continues to grow: from 10 people each day in 1990, to 14 per day in 1996 and to 19 today, according to thenationalnetworkoforgandonors.org/.

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