Local woman faces slim chance of getting second donated kidney

Local woman faces slim chance of getting second donated kidney

JUDIE PERKOWSKI/The Daily Jeffersonian
15 minutes ago

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Melissa Flowers waits patiently for second transplant.

Of the 78,948 people on a national waiting list for a kidney donation, Cambridge resident Melissa Flowers, afflicted with chronic kidney failure, knows she will be on the waiting list for a long time, and the chances of her receiving a donated kidney are very slim.

The 31-year-old Ms. Flowers said she was diagnosed with renal failure (kidney disease) in May 1996 and was immediately subjected to hemodialysis treatments. Doctors discovered her kidneys were severely underdeveloped.

One year later, in July 1997, she was the recipient of a kidney transplant. After 17 days in The Ohio State University Medical Center, she went home with anti-rejection medication and a list of "dos and don'ts."

"When I became an adult, my kidneys just quit working," said Flowers.

Everything seemed to be going well until March 2000 when her body began rejecting the transplanted kidney. She went back to OSU where they tried to stop her body's rejection of her "new" kidney. Two weeks later she returned to the rigor of the life-saving dialysis treatments. This time, instead of going to a treatment center, she was given instructions of how to administer peritoneal dialysis at home.

Peritoneal dialysis involves a flexible plastic tube inserted in your abdomen. It replaces the "blood cleaning" process performed by healthy kidneys. After four years of peritoneal dialysis, the lining in her stomach deteriorated.

"It was back to hemodialysis," said Flowers. "To have hemodialysis, you have to have first another procedure called a fistula placement. It's where doctors connect one of your arteries to one of your veins to allow your blood to flow naturally. My veins are narrow, so I had to have angioplasty. They had to place 'stents' in my arm to keep my arteries open so the fistula would work. I have three stents in my left arm and two in my upper body."

A stent is a slender tube inserted inside a blood vessel so your arteries do not collapse.

"I have hemodialysis three times a week at Davita Dialysis here in Cambridge. The treatments last about 3 1/2 hours," she said. "I have to watch everything I drink and eat and watch my potassium and phosphate intake. I can't eat tomatoes or any green vegetables because of their water content, and definitely no soda."

Flowers is on two waiting lists for a kidney, at OSU Medical Center and at Cleveland University Hospital. But because her antibodies are so high from so many blood transfusions and she has already had one transplant, she isn't optimistic about her chances of receiving yet another kidney. But, she still has hope. She is also on an extended donor list, which is a list of organ donors who are over the age of 50.

"You never know," she said. "I wish I could have that same feeling again, like I had when I received my first transplant ... I felt so good, better than I ever felt in my entire life."

"I just want to thank my family, the Buckeye East group and the staff at Davita Dialysis. If it wasn't for them, I couldn't get through this," she said.

"It is very hard to go through this. I wish more people would consider becoming organ donors," Flowers said.

Kidneys are part of what keeps us alive. They are relatively small, but process 100 percent of the body's blood supply about every five minutes. They also filter waste products and excess water from our blood, help maintain a balance of fluid in our bodies, help control blood pressure and, help to keep our hearts beating normally.

The two most common causes of chronic kidney disease in the U.S. are high blood pressure and diabetes. Whatever the cause of kidney failure, there is no cure, but dialysis can be a life-saving solution.

For information about organ donation or to become an organ donor, call Kathy L. Warhola, RN, regional representative for Lifeline of Ohio Organ Procurement, at 1-800-525-5667, ext. 344; cell phone, (740) 680-3190; e-mail: kwarhola@lifelineofohio.org; or fax, 439-1623.

(jperkowski@daily-jeff.com)
http://www.daily-jeff.com/news/article/4561931