Divine direction: Kidney donation won’t slow Camdenton Postmaster Carla Helton downBy Deanna Wheeler
lakenewsonline.com
Posted Aug 25, 2009 @ 08:30 AM
Camdenton, Mo. —
Last month Carla Helton completed the 442-mile trek across Iowa for the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, or RAGBRAI. Next year it’s a cold trip to the mountains to snow ski for the first time. Next month the Camdenton postmaster will be donating her kidney to a relative she has yet to meet.
The relative, Helton’s step-mother’s niece, is 49 years old and has suffered from Type 1 diabetes most of her life. When phone calls started circulated throughout the family that the relative would be needing a kidney transplant, Helton made the decision to go submit a blood test that determined she was a match.
More tests were ordered, and then more tests, until it came down to Helton and her aunt on who would continue with the more extensive and exhausting medical tests.
Helton’s relative asked if she would continue.
To explain why the decision to say yes came so easy, Helton started a memoir of sorts. Helton calls it her “dissertation”.
Five pages later, she offers insight into her thought process.
She describes the nervousness, the excitement and the anticipation through the blood tests.
Helton says she was more nervous waiting to see if she was a match back then than waiting for the surgery to happen now. Odd, she knows.
Throughout the five pages, Helton goes through a list of reasons why she wasn’t donating her kidney. Typical reasons are excluded quickly. First is her step-cousin, Natalie, who is the recipient.
Her boyfriend, Matt, is also excluded quickly. Along with family members and friends.
“Anyway, what I have figured out about this whole thing is that it has everything to do with my sons,” Helton writes. “Not very long ago, the three of us were having a discussion about faith and believing in the Bible.”
During that discussion, one of her sons questioned her on her faith. Helton writes, it was her other son who opened her eyes and helped her realize that we all have the “capacity to BE the Holy Spirit.”
“God has been leading me to do this,” Helton said. “If he didn’t want it to happen, it wouldn’t have. But it is.”
The surgery is scheduled for Sept. 15 at a hospital in St. Louis.
Helton estimates it will take her about six weeks to recover and get back to work. In the meantime, her assistant will be in charge of the Camdenton Post Office.
Along with the kidney, Helton is giving up her softball league, which she only started playing again last year after taking a long hiatus. People with only one kidney are advised not to play rough contact sports, Helton said, and she sometimes gets run over playing softball.
The payoff is worth it, Helton said.
“Did I ever think I would donate my kidney? No,” Helton said. “But I am. And I’m going to keep doing a lot of the same stuff as before.”
Included on that list is Helton’s first trip down a snow-covered mountain on skis.
“That’s one thing I wasn’t going to miss out on,” Helton said.
Contact this reporter at the Lake Sun at 573-346-2132 or by e-mail at deanna.wheeler@lakesunonline.com
ON THE WEB
American Diabetes Association
National Kidney Foundation
National Transplant Society
Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation
Missouri Organ/Tissue Donation and Registry
*Info courtesy of
www.organdonor.govWaiting list candidates (as of 8/19/2009) - 103,095
Transplants (as of 8/14/2009) - 11,908
Donors (as of 8/14/2009) - 6,009
Be a Donor
1. Register with your state donor registry.
2. Designate your decision on your driver’s license. Do this when you obtain or renew your license.
3. Sign a donor card. Carry the donor card with you until you can designate your donation decision on your driver’s license or join a donor registry.
4. Talk to your family now about your donation decision. Help your family understand your wish to be an organ and tissue donor before a crisis occurs. Then they will be prepared to serve as your advocate for donation.
Donation Types
Living
Eye
Kidney
Liver
Tissue
Blood
Bone Marrow
Willed Body
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