Local artist is twice blessed

03/29/09 06:56 AM
Sunday Profile /Rodney Taylor
Local artist is twice blessed
By Louise Continelli NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Easter’s theme of salvation isn’t lost on Rodney Taylor of Buffalo, who was given new life with two kidney transplants.

Taylor, who has just opened an art studio in Buffalo’s Tri-Main Center, is well aware that there are 500 Western New Yorkers waiting for a kidney transplant.

The National Kidney Foundation of Western New York, which recently observed World Kidney Day, says about 170,000 Western New Yorkers suffer from chronic kidney disease. Also, one in eight is at risk and doesn’t know it. More than 1,600 people in Western New York receive dialysis treatments as often as three times a week.

While the wait for a kidney can be as long as six years, the typical wait in Buffalo is about two years.

In 2002, Taylor underwent his first kidney transplant. A year later, his body rejected that kidney— which had come from a cadaver donor. He underwent his second transplant in 2007.

But before the transplants, there was the dialysis—“spending three days a week, for four hours a day.”

The experience begins with a needle in the arm.

“All of your blood is removed from your body, and then processed through an artificial kidney, where it’s cleaned and then put back in,” he said. “It’s one of those experiences where unless you’re in it, you have no idea how awful it is.

“There’s pain, of course, the initial pain of the very long needle, learning to keep your arm in one position for the treatment. But there’s also pain in things you never think of, like cramping—unthinkable, unbearable cramps, in your legs, feet and toes,” he said.

Taylor, a father of four, says there were “many dialysis days when I only saw my kids for that morning hour before they got on the bus to school.”

“I thank God for dialysis, though. I was told by older patients that in the ’80s, dialysis was pretty medieval, and most patients didn’t have a very long life expectancy. So medical science has improved the quality of our lives immensely.”

After his first kidney rejected, he underwent a home procedure called peritoneal dialysis, in which the peritoneum membrane around the abdominal cavity acts as a substitute kidney.

“A catheter is surgically placed in your abdomen, and every six hours you connect a bag of liquid solution to the catheter. The solution then travels and naturally cleanses the toxins from your body. While the new clean fluid travels inside your body, the older fluid, from the earlier eight hour-session, is removed into another bag.”

Since his second transplant, “I feel great,” Taylor said.

“I’ve had no problems, I ride my bike, and run around with my kids.”

With his new exhibits opening in art galleries from Manhattan to Miami, Rodney Taylor’s new location for his art studio seems tailored just for him—at the corner of Buffalo’s Main Street—and Rodney Avenue.

Have an idea about a local person whose life would make a good profile or a neighborhood issue worth exploring?

e-mail lcontinelli@buffnews.com Or write to: Louise Continelli, The Buffalo News, P. O. Box 100, Buffalo, NY 14240

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