Failing kidneys worked as matchmakers

Failing kidneys worked as matchmakers

By: Patti Conley -
Beaver County Times

Sunday October 11, 2009 10:49 PM

CENTER TWP. — The best laid plans of Jessica Rae Hughes and Aaron James Kammer went wonderfully awry.

God saw to it.

On Saturday, Jessica will be the blushing bride and Aaron the grateful groom when the two marry at Four Mile Presbyterian Church in Brighton Township

That’s if the former Center Township resident can assure herself that all wedding details will fall into place like the autumn leaves that ought to be in full splendor outside of their reception at Bradys Run Lodge in Brighton Township.

It was Day 10 in the wedding countdown on Wednesday evening. The couple was seated on the sofa in the home of her parents, Greg and Judy Hughes of Center. Close family friends Jim and Peggy Michalenko arrived.

Jessica was frazzled. Organization is the 27-year-old nurse’s forte. The Shaler Township resident plans by the minute, by the day, by the lifetime.

It’s one reason why Aaron asked her to be his wife in January. That and her big, brown expressive eyes.

Aaron was calm. The 33-year-old insurance agent from Franklin Park has learned how to live life one hour at a time, especially until his impending wedding day.

He’s knows where he has to be and when and insists that he’ll have time to eat the pig roast he wanted on the dinner menu and talk to their 250 wedding guests.

The Michalenkos of Brighton Township will be among those guests. And whether he’s eaten or not, the 6-foot, 2-inch groom will ask the quiet, petite blonde Peggy to dance to the song “A Heavenly Day.”

Jessica calls it the “kidney dance.” It’s their public thank-you to a very private lady.

Seven months ago, Peggy, a 49-year-old mother of three, gladly and graciously gave Aaron one of her kidneys. Jim understood why his wife of 27 years needed to offer and undergo the high-risk surgery.

“If Aaron was our son, we would be praying that somebody would step forward,” he told Peggy.

On March 11, after a battery of physical and psychological tests proved that Peggy was as perfect a match as any blood relative would be, doctors at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute at UPMC Montefiore in Pittsburgh’s Oakland section removed one of Peggy’s plump 4½-inch kidney and transplanted it into the right front of Aaron’s body.

It was Aaron’s third kidney transplant in 12 years. The first two from deceased donors failed.

This kidney, which Aaron aptly nicknamed “Li’l Peggy,” is the first from a live donor.

Kidneys transplanted from live donors have better function and last longer; at least 16 or 17 years, sometimes longer, compared to about 11 years from deceased donors, said Dr. Henkie Tan, the institute’s living donor transplant program director and the surgeon who removed Peggy’s kidney.

Thus, Tan said, Aaron should be able to lead a better quality life and live longer, which is far better than the “crappy quality lifestyle” being tethered to a dialysis machine offers.

And the biggest bonus, Tan pointed out, “Aaron has the best person taking care of him, a nurse who knows everything about him.”

That would be Jessica, the institute’s post-operative coordinator, who Aaron met in January 2008 when he was a three-night-a-week dialysis patient at an Oakland clinic and she was his nurse.

She was as adamant about her professionalism as he was persistent. She resisted his friendliness, hoping that during his 3½ hour dialysis sessions he’d sit quietly in his recliner and watch back-to-back-to-back episodes of his favorite TV show, the CBS military cop show “NCIS.”
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NCIS officer Ziva David’s brown eyes did not divert Aaron’s attention.

“He drove me nuts,” Jessica said, “It’s like that little kid you’re chasing around the playground.”

Aaron teased. Jessica blushed. The attraction was undeniable. They kept their distance, but by late April 2008 Jessica knew she’d need to find another position. In July, she landed her dream job at the transplant institute.

Meanwhile, the 2000 graduate of Beaver County Christian School slowly introduced Aaron into what matters most in her world: her family and the members of Chapel Presbyterian Church in Brighton Township, including the Michalenkos and the Rev. Steve Marker, the pastor.

The church family welcomed Aaron and quietly word spread that he’d been on dialysis since January 2007 and was one of about 80,000 people waiting for a kidney from a deceased or living donor.

In summer of 2008, Peggy and Jessica talked about Aaron during a church mission trip to Nicaragua. On a fall Sunday, Jessica mentioned to Peggy that Aaron was hoping for a living donor.

“What do you have to do to be a living donor?” Peggy asked. Have matching blood types, Jessica said.

“I’m O-negative,” Peggy blurted. So is Aaron.

She took a blood test and casually mentioned it to Jim. The testing process continued. Peggy updated her husband and family. They supported her wishes. In January, tests showed that Peggy’s kidney was a perfect match.

Doctors detailed the donor’s risks to the Michalenkos: Her remaining kidney would only have 85 percent of its maximum function, ample to provide good health, and she’d have a four-to-six-week recovery period.

“They told Peggy that she had absolutely nothing to benefit from this at all,” Jessica said.

This would be Peggy’s first major operation. Aaron and Jessica knew that Peggy could say “no” at any time. Her only request: Schedule it so she’d be well at their son James’ wedding on June 26.

Doctors obliged. The transplant in March went well for both patients.

With support from her family and meals prepared by church members, Peggy was back at her part-time credit union job 3½ weeks later. She said she feels as well living with one kidney as she did with two. She danced at her son’s wedding. So did Jessica and Aaron.

As for Aaron, “Li’l Peggy” pinked up and went to work in Aaron within minutes. Since then, he takes one anti-rejection drug twice a day and is content following his bride’s post-transplant hovering.

Both he and Jessica know another kidney transplant looms in the future. Aaron’s spent half of his 33 years dealing with failed kidneys. “I don’t see the point of being upset about something that I have no control over,” he said.

Jessica was aware of what was and what might happen when she fell in love with him. “We’re prepared,” Jessica said.

And, they realize how life’s blessings can come from its greatest trials.

If Aaron’s second kidney hadn’t failed, he wouldn’t have been on dialysis so he wouldn’t have met Jessica. He wouldn’t have joined Chapel Presbyterian Church, and he wouldn’t have met the Michalenkos. And Jessica’s father, Greg, an ordained minister, and the Rev. Marker wouldn’t be officiating at the ceremony Saturday afternoon.

The great planner Jessica could not have organized this.

“It definitely was in God’s plan,” Peggy said.

Patti Conley can be reached online at pconley@timesonline.com.

http://www.timesonline.com/bct_news/news_details/article/1373/2009/october/11/failing-kidneys-worked-as-matchmakers.html