Transplant recipient, donor are doing well

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Transplant recipient, donor are doing well

Published: Tuesday, April 7, 2009

By William k. Alcorn

In about six months, Foster plans to have a big party with a kidney-shaped cake.

YOUNGSTOWN — LaTanya Foster, who received a kidney transplant March 16, spent the day Monday in Youngstown quietly celebrating her 35th birthday by getting her nails done and visiting family.

“I just wanted to be with my family and my friends. It’s nice to be home in my own space for a day,” said Foster, who today is to return to the family house at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where she received a new kidney from a living donor just two weeks ago.

Foster, of Youngstown, and her donor, Christy Crocker of Grove City, Pa., recovered quickly from the surgery and are doing well.

Foster said she was off pain medicine within five days after the surgery. Crocker went home March 18, just two days after the transplant, and was back on the job as a resident cottage counselor at George Junior Republic a week after that. By the end of March, she was walking a couple of miles a day.

Foster, a 1992 graduate of East High School, said she is “slowly but surely” getting her strength back. She expects to stay at least two more weeks in the UPMC family house before coming home for good.

She said she didn’t plan a big birthday party because she can’t be around a lot of people because of possible infection. However, in about six months she plans to have a big kidney party with a kidney-shaped cake and party favors.

“We’ve just been bathed in prayer. I must be a miracle,” said Crocker of the chance meeting that brought the women together.

“We’ve talked about what a blessing it is that came across each other. It was the work of God. We couldn’t have done this on our own,” Foster said.

“I am a walking, talking, breathing miracle,” said Foster, who until the transplant had not had a functioning kidney and had been on dialysis for five years.

“I just thank God for Christy. Truthfully, I had begun to wonder if I was ever going to get a kidney, and had about given up. It got really frustrating. But Christy, she always had this faith, and she increased my faith,” Foster said.

Crocker said she has no regrets about donating her kidney, and in fact urged others to consider doing the same thing. Recovery from the surgery is not such a big thing, and there are so many people who need organs, she said.

The experience, life saving for Foster, may turn out to have an unexpected bonus for Crocker.

She and her husband have been trying to have a baby for about eight years, and have been looking into adoption. But, during testing before the transplant, doctors found a tumor on her uterus that she said could have prevented her from becoming pregnant, and that removing it may make it possible for her to have children.

“I’m going for a check-up to find out for sure,” she said.

The transplant has also given Foster options she did not have before.

“There are so many things I want to do. I have to figure out where to start. I’m still young, now that I have this great kidney, I can do things and go places,” she said.

alcorn@vindy.com

http://www.vindy.com/news/2009/apr/07/transplant-recipient-donor-are-doing-well/