Woman takes donor search into her own hands

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Published: July 24, 2009 10:13 am       

Woman takes donor search into her own hands
By TAMMIE TOLER
Princeton Times

PRINCETON — When the chills set in last February, Sue Reedy thought she had a cold.

“I started chilling, literally shaking all over,” the grandmother and longtime Concord University Game Room manager recalled. “I had the electric blanket up to about way high, and I still couldn’t get warm no matter what I did.”

The spry Athens lady had only settled into the newfound freedom of retirement last summer and was determined to combat what she and Dr. Marshall Long believed at first was a sinus infection head-on. As she got about halfway into her second round of antibiotics with no sign that the symptoms were going away, Reedy called the doctor again.

As she recounted the last few grueling months, Reedy remembered telling the doctor she was worried “there’s something bad wrong with me.”

When the results of her blood work returned, Reedy was right. Long advised her that testing revealed both her kidneys had failed at the same time. As her body became unable to handle the waste her kidneys previously filtered, Sue was getting sicker and sicker.

“Dr. Long called me and said, ‘Sue, go to the hospital and go now,’” she said.

After spending one night at Princeton Community Hospital and undergoing her first dialysis session, Sue quickly transferred to Morgantown and Ruby Memorial Hospital. There, she hoped to find answers as to what caused her sudden renal failure, but all she learned was that she may never know.

“They said it was like a huge umbrella, and there was like a million things under that umbrella that could have caused what happened to me,” Sue said.

After a brief stay in Morgantown, Sue returned to Mercer County, where her treatment now requires careful monitoring of her fluid intake and dates with dialysis three days a week. She’s the first to acknowledge that she’s doing remarkably well, considering the dramatic change the illness has made in her life.

The grandmother of three, Sue once watched her grandchildren almost daily for her son, Shane, and daughter-in-law, Sandy.

“It threw everything out of whack. I did keep the grandbabies a lot, and I would pick them up from school,” she said. “So, this has not only affected my life, but it’s changed things for Sandy and Shane, too.”

Now, Jacob, Josh and Sarah go to a babysitter, and that’s tough for the little ones to understand. That, in turn, leaves Sue with a heavier heart.

“They just know that I’m sick. They want to know why I can’t pick them up early from the babysitter, and I just have to tell them that I’m too sick,” she said.

Facing weight loss and the myriad complications that come along with renal failure and dialysis treatment, Sue said she’s also racing against the clock in hopes of finding a possible kidney donor. She hoped to seek treatment at a medical center in Johnson City, Tenn., because she believed officials there moved more quickly on kidney transplants.

When her insurance company nixed the plan, Sue shifted her hopes to Charleston.

“They won’t do kidney transplants after you reach a certain age,” she said, explaining why she’s taking steps to find a donor on her own.

According to the Mayo Clinic website, www.mayoclinic.org, kidney donors are generally 18-70 years old, in good health and display normal kidney function and anatomy. Pairing a donor and recipient requires a blood type, antigen match, and cross match, which can only be evaluated by trained medical officials.

So far, Sue isn’t on an official transplant list, and she fears she’ll run out of time to reverse her renal failure if she waits on traditional routes. She’s counting on family and friends to spread the word of her condition in hopes that a possible donor may be identified.

She’s distributing flyers containing basic information, but she still understands a decision to donate will be difficult for anyone.

“Most people won’t be interested in being a donor. I know that. There’s surgery involved, and that can be tough,” she said.

She doesn’t want to put any pressure on any possible donors, but Sue also said she can’t sit idly while her days on dialysis continue indefinitely, limiting her to 32 ounces of fluid in a 24-hour period and leaving her weakened in the process.

“I’m going to give anything a try,” she said.

She encouraged anyone interested in possible donation to contact her at (304) 384-7683.

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.

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