A start of a new chapter

[okarol]

A start of a new chapter

Jennifer Wadsworth / Tracy Press / Saturday, 16 February 2008
 
A kidney condition takes over Derek Lubag’s life, but his friends pledge to help him — even if it means donating one of their kidneys to save his life.

Sapped of energy, moody and frail enough to pass out, the now-28-year-old Tracy resident spent the following 2½ years undergoing triweekly dialysis to stay alive. He quit his management job, resigned himself to bed-rest and quickly got used to swallowing 30-plus pills per day just to function.

Life took a turn for the tough.

But when one of his closest friends offered to donate one of his kidneys, Lubag’s prospects for good health started to look up again. A new kidney means no more four-hour appointments at the dialysis clinic; no more being tethered to a triweekly pole.

“From the get-go, his friends were there for him,” said Lubag’s mom, Nancy Aquino. “I was still trying to deal with the dialysis and just getting used to Derek being sick, and here are his friends already thinking about the transplant.”

By the month’s end, Lubag’s body will filter toxins through a good-as-new kidney — one that, until then, belongs to his lifelong friend, Frankie Celentano.

The day they heard of their friend’s condition, Celentano and Lubag’s other best pal, Amy Gowan, made a deal: One of them would donate.

Medi-Cal covers the cost of surgery, dialysis ($24,000 a month) and prescription drugs ($1,600 a month). But the transplant will leave 27-year-old Celentano out of work for at least six weeks, and with rent to pay, that sacrifice is monumental, Lubag said. So family and friends have banded together to organize a Feb. 24 fundraiser in Tracy to free up Celentano to recover peacefully with his friend.

They call themselves “the trio,” Lubag, Gowan and Celentano. So the decision to share a part of themselves to keep Lubag alive was the easiest in the world, Celentano said.

“It gives me a second chance at life, I feel,” Lubag said from his home Saturday, just weeks from the surgery. “Renal disease and all the struggles that come with it, it just makes me really appreciate life.”

Before a months-long sick-bout that gave doctors enough proof to diagnose Lubag, the 20-something “was a bundle of energy,” his mother said.
Lubag laughed when he heard that.

“It’s true — I was go, go, go!” he said. “I would be out and about, having fun and just living life.”

But during a trip to Disneyland with Gowan and Celentano, his energy left him. Nearly seven years earlier, doctors first alerted him to his kidney problem, which hadn’t developed into full-blown renal disease. But after years of living it up, eating whatever he wanted and working full time, Lumbag’s body shut down.

“When all I wanted to do was sleep and I got lazy and sluggish, I knew something was seriously wrong,” he said.Lumbag’s doctors warned him that there is a 38 percent chance Lumbag’s body will reject his friend’s kidney.

“All we can do is hope,” his mother said, shrugging her shoulders. “All I know is that this could be the end of a lot of stress for us.”

After he recovers from surgery, Lumbag plans to do many of the same things he did before he became an invalid — play sports and take longer, more frequent vacations. He said he’d also like to try his hand at vocational school.

“I’m not sure what I’d study, but I feel like after this surgery I’ll have started a new chapter in life,” he said. “Learning something new would be a good way to start things all over again.”

 

At a glance
WHAT: The Gift of a New Beginning fundraiser for kidney donor Frankie Celentano

WHEN: 4 to 10 p.m. Feb. 24

WHERE: Oxus Kabob House, 430 W. Grant Line Road

COST: $25 for dinner and entertainment

INFO: 969-2839 or 814-7475; or fdkidneyfund.blogspot.com

DONATE: F&D Kidney Fund, Community Banks of Northern California, Account No. 2309394109, C/O Nancy Aquino, 793 S. Tracy Blvd., No. 138, Tracy 95376

http://tracypress.com/content/view/13613/2242/