Oceanside woman giving thanks for health, despite kidney disease

Oceanside woman giving thanks for health, despite kidney disease
Family has been seeking living donor for four years

By: MARGA KELLOGG - Staff Writer
North County Times
November 21, 2007

OCEANSIDE -- Katrina Hunter spends her days getting three of her five children to school, and napping. She doesn't have the energy to do much more.

The 38-year-old mother of five is waiting for a kidney transplant after being diagnosed with end stage renal disease four years ago. Her nights are spent lying on her side for 10 hours with a dialysis tube inserted into her abdomen. She wakes up several nights a week when the machine, which acts as her kidneys, clogs up as it filters poisons from her body.

The condition was brought on by toxemia during her last two pregnancies, she said as she sat on the couch in her Oceanside living room this week. The toxemia caused high blood pressure, which led to renal failure. Her kidneys now function at about 10 percent.

As her family hopes and prays that a donor will come forward, they give thanks today for what they have, Hunter said.

"I don't think a lot of people realize how important being a living donor is," said Hunter, who is designated as an organ donor on her driver's license. "Even if I didn't need a transplant I'd feel that way."

Hoping for a miracle

Hunter is among nearly 16,000 people on the kidney transplant waiting list in California, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, and has been on the UCLA transplant list for four years.

While Hunter's disease is not fatal as long as she continues dialysis, complications from the illness can be deadly, said Sharon Rolfing, a dialysis nurse who has worked with Hunter for the last year at Renal Advantage Inc. of Oceanside.

Hunter has had peritonitis, an inflammation of the abdominal membrane, three times, as well as three blood transfusions and congestive heart failure as a result of the kidney disease.

"She's a very independent person," Rolfing said of Hunter. "That's the advantage of being at home on dialysis. Freedom of life."

That freedom allows Hunter to spend time with her children, Brandon, 21, Romie, 18, Kristyna, 16, Kristofer, 12 and Kionna, 10.

"We all collectively as one try to keep the load off her with chores and to keep her stress level down," said Romie, who recently graduated from Carlsbad High School. "She's been on the list for a long time. Every year we start to worry more. We really want someone who is healthy to give her a kidney," he said.

Family pictures hang on the wall and sit on the fireplace mantle -- on the coffee table are pictures of her grandson.

Hunter described her husband, William, who commutes to Dana Point to his job with the U.S. Postal Service, as a "trooper" who carries two 6,000-liter dialysis bags to her from the garage every night and takes time off from work to get her to doctor's appointments.

She said the family will cook together today, and as they sit down for dinner will celebrate what health she has, and the support that surrounds her.

Looking for alternatives

Hunter's hopes for a transplant were raised several years ago when a friend from Santa Cruz, Margo Mateas, was tested to see if she would be compatible as a donor. Hunter's blood type is A positive, so she needs a donor with type A or O blood.

"I was really excited," Hunter said.

Mateas found she was a match, but had to drop 40 pounds before she could become a donor. At this point she's lost 25.

"Katrina's an amazing person," said Mateas. "She hides her pain and does things that other people could never do in the state she's in, so it's easy for people to think her situation is less critical than it is."

Mateas said it is still her intention to donate a kidney, but because of the time it's taking to lose the weight, she's hoping somebody can come forward sooner.

"She's (Hunter) the glue that keeps that family together, and to think of losing her is unfathomable," Mateas said.

The process

According to the National Kidney Foundation uncontrolled high blood pressure, such as that resulting from Hunter's toxemia, is the second-leading cause of kidney failure in the United States and one of the most common problems that can seriously harm the kidneys.

As well, more than 475,000 Americans have irreversible kidney failure, or end-stage renal disease.

Kidney transplantation is possible because each functions independently, so donating one does not alter one's ability to lead a healthy life.

Rolfing said a lot of people are afraid of donating a kidney because they're concerned they can't work after the surgery. But the process has become much less invasive, information from the University of California Department of Surgery shows, because of advanced techniques involving laparoscopic kidney removal.

The technique results in less pain, a reduction in hospitalization from five days to one or two days, and a return to normal activity in about a week for the donor.

Laparoscopic surgery "allows the donor to get back to work, and there aren't scarring issues," Rolfing said.

For Hunter's part, she said she's just praying someone steps forward.

"I've decided I'm not going to get excited again until UCLA calls and says we have a kidney for you," she said. "I understand it's a big decision to donate an organ. It's not like borrowing a cup of sugar. But you can change somebody's life."

-- Contact staff writer Marga Kellogg at (760) 901-4067 or mkellogg@nctimes.com.

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