Mind over Matter

[okarol]

Mind over Matter

Tuesday, 17 July 2007

THE INTERVIEW
Neill O'Niell
The mayo News

DARREN Cawley lives life knowing that without three dialysis sessions per week he would die. But to look at, or listen to, the jovial 29-year-old you’d never know his life was so precariously balanced. He is one of those rare people who appears not to have a care in the world and is endlessly happy in all he does.
This unquenchable zest for living wasn’t always in Darren’s demeanour. In 1999 his kidneys failed, plunging him, at the age of 20, into the depths of uncertainty about not just his future but his life. Since then he has had to adjust to the implications and restrictions of kidney failure, has been through the joy of a successful transplant and the heartbreak of having that reversed. Now, as he awaits a second transplant, dialysis is his preserver.
His life may revolve around his condition but it is certainly not dominated by it. By his own admission, life has become an amazing adventure over the past eight years and, in a strange way, kidney failure is the best thing that has ever happened to him. It has brought the sports fanatic across the globe, representing Ireland at the World Transplant Games, something he has done with great success, and bestowed honours like Mayo Person of the Year and Sports Star of the Year on him. More than anything, however, it has opened his eyes to the value of life.
It all started for Darren in the second year of his sports degree course in Luton University. After weeks of complaining of headaches and blurred vision, his girlfriend at the time insisted he had to go see the doctor.
“I went to see the college doctor,” he recalls, “and she assumed that I was pulling a fast one so I could get off doing my exams which were coming up. I couldn’t read properly, my eyesight was gone very bad so she sent me to an optician and said I was fine otherwise. The optician gave me a note to go to Casualty but I said that I couldn’t go because I had a Gaelic match that evening. I was still playing GAA, soccer, rugby and doing boxing. He insisted I go to the hospital, saying it was very important. So I went to Casualty and there were about 30 people in front of me. I assumed I’d be there all day and still didn’t know what all the fuss was but then, after two minutes, I got straight in the door so the alarm bells started ringing.
“The doctor was checking my eyes out and saying that the blood vessels were all burst but he didn’t know why. Then, while he was putting drops in my eyes, I started throwing up so they decided to keep me for the night. My blood pressure was 190 over 120 – very very high – so they took blood from me and realised that my kidneys were in a bad way. At that stage I had rang my mother and told her I was in hospital but it was something minor and not to worry about it. Then the doctor came round and said ‘are your parents on the way’ and I said ‘no, I rang them and told them I was fine’. He said I had to have them at my bedside immediately as I was at very high risk of having a stroke. That’s when it hit me.”
After tests confirmed he had kidney failure, Darren remembers asking the doctor if he was going to die. “I was ignorant as to what dialysis was, I was in a bad way mentally at the time. I parted with my girlfriend, thought I could never play sports again, thought college was finished. I had a ‘life is over’ attitude.”
As it gradually dawned on him that life is what you make it, Darren decided to finish his sports degree. For a young man who had excelled in rugby, GAA, soccer, handball and boxing all his life, it was devastating to be chopped down in his prime. Then, out of nowhere, came the innate determination that characterises him today.
After completing university, he returned to Westport in 2000 and just six months later was in Beaumont Hospital getting a kidney transplant. He recovered remarkably well and two weeks later was at home getting back to normal. With the help of up to 30 tablets a day, from anti-rejection drugs to steroids, he was soon playing non-contact sports again.
He began working in sport with the Special Olympics and in leisure centres and when the Irish Kidney Association decided to send a team to the World Transplant Games in Kobe, Japan, he jumped at the chance. In his first ever competitive race he won bronze in the 400m and repeated this in the 200m, though the biggest thrill of all was the opportunity to represent his country.
“I felt I had gone back to normality. My thinking was that my body had set me enough challenges so it was time I set my body some challenges,” said Darren of his success at the Games. The elation wasn’t to last, however, and soon after returning home he picked up a virus in his kidney and his condition quickly deteriorated.
With rising blood pressure, Darren was told he would have to get a transplant nephrectomy (removal) that September. In the meantime he had his heart set on competing in another Transplant Games tournament that was coming up in Hungary. Darren felt fit enough to go to Budapest and, despite a failing kidney, won a gold medal in the 400m and two silver medals in the 100m and 200m at the event. Less than two months after this ultimate peak, he was back on the operating table in Beaumont having his kidney removed – something he describes as devastating.
Today Darren is one of 500 people on the waiting list for a kidney transplant in Ireland. He leads as normal a life as possible, though inevitably there are some restrictions. He has to be careful what he eats. Potatoes must be boiled twice and a simple banana could kill him due to his body’s inability to break down potassium. Travelling is practically out of the question due to difficulties involved in organising dialysis abroad and this is something Darren feels is a major drawback of his condition. Socialising is not a problem for him but, because of the volume of liquid involved, the pints he once enjoyed are out of the question. Darren’s body retains all the liquid he consumes and without moderation on a night out he can end up placing severe pressure on his heart and chest. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings he attends the dialysis ward in Mayo General Hospital for four hours to have all the blood in his body drained, cleaned and put back. He would die without this treatment.
Despite all this, he is an eternal optimist. “It’s a strange thing to say but I get through a lot of books now and read some psychology/self-help books and I don’t feel one bit sorry for myself. I got to go to Japan, Hungary and Slovenia representing Ireland – something I’d never have got to do. I got Mayo Person of the Year, Sports Star of the Year, I’ve met ambassadors, presidents, mayors and won other awards. I have a renewed appreciation and vigour for life and appreciate it a lot more,” he said.
Darren has also been helping others. “We have weekends away with the sports and social club in the Kidney Association and that was a massive help for some of the people who saw that some of us were so active and healthy despite kidney failure. Some thought ‘this is it’, they were wallowing in self-pity and just sitting around doing nothing and then they see me working, playing sport, going away and doing stuff they thought wasn’t possible and it was great for them.”
You would never believe Darren Cawley is ill. People often ask him how is his sick brother, not realising that he is an only son. “You’d never know by looking at me, and I feel great,” he said. “My outlook is that I won’t have problems and can live a pretty fulfilling and indefinite life on dialysis.”
He is also ambitious and spends his time on dialysis studying and reading up on business. “My ambition and zest for life have increased 20 times and I would never have had this ambition without kidney failure because I was very quiet and shy when I was young,” he admits.
“The doctors often tell me to slow down, but I like to go by the signals my body is sending me. Every month they take blood from me and every month there is nobody in the hospital who is better or healthier than me when the results come back. I’m keeping myself very healthy and when the time comes to get a transplant I will be in top shape for it. I’m giving myself every chance of succeeding.”
If adversity breeds triumph, Darren Cawley is a true champion.

http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1987&Itemid=38

[Sluff]

Maybe I'm wrong but do you find this article uplifting and motivating or upsetting?

What I mean is I'm glad for Darren but when non-dialysis people read this article it appears to make dialysis sound like a walk in the park. I don't know might just be my strange way of looking at things.

[George Jung]

Who exactly are non-dialysis people sluff, I mean you do not do dialysis do you?  I did not think the article focused on dialysis but rather an individual who refuses to be down on his luck.  It left me with a feeling that was motivating.  I am somewhat active (have been skateboarding and working up a fine sweat several days a week) and a story like that only re-enforces my ambition.

[Sluff]

I'm glad it is motivating for you George but maybe I didn't express what I meant. I am not on dialysis you are right but i surely understand what dialysis patients go through on a daily basis however I think people who don't understand people with ESRD, Dialysis would read something like this and not understand the struggles that go along with this disease. Personally I think Darren happens to be one of the lucky ones who have the energy.

I haven't gotten to that stage of my disease yet but can tell you I don't have the energy to do the things Darren is doing.

Don't take it wrong. I am happy for Darren.

[angela515]

The first time I went on dialysis in 1999, I went on hemo. I didn't lose any energy, or anything... I felt good as always except 3 days a week I was going to a clinic for 3 hours. I was only on it 7 months before my mom donated so maybe it would of changed for me... but just saying, not everyone feels the same on it...

[George Jung]

I understand.  However, the purpose of the article is to showcase a patient that has a chronic condition with the odds stacked against them and remarkably still they live.  Equally important that people understand what it is for a dialysis patient not all articles are going to be written from that point of view.  I agree the more awareness there is about organ donation and the impact it has on people of all ages, the better chance to give someone a new lease on life.  There is nothing I personally want more than that.