My cup runneth over with gratitude today as my sister and I celebrate the 20th anniversary of our successful surgeries on October 19, 2004. One of my kidneys was removed to be placed in her abdomen to give her life, untethered to the dialysis machine keeping her alive.
Dialysis, though, is a miracle of modern science, too. Our grandmother died before dialysis, just as it was being invented by Dr. Willem Kollf far away in the Netherlands. Sadly, doctors in Chicago had nothing to save her when her kidneys failed. Our mother was a teenager when our grandmother died. Five of my grandmother’s six children inherited the genetic disease, Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD), that took the life of our grandmother. Years later dialysis saved our mother’s life and kept her alive for almost ten years until she was bless to receive a kidney transplant from a deceased donor.
I am filled with joy and humility at the miracle of transplantation. How does the tiny Divine spark that we call life remain in the kidney and then do its magic and keep another person alive and free of dialysis? I marvel at the miracle of modern science. I kneel in gratitude to our Creator for the gift that life is.
I was so frightened twenty years ago about the surgery. Never having had anesthesia, I was afraid I might die. I felt so alone. This was before social media. I was (and am) The Reluctant Donor. But, I went through with it and success!
Oh, how happy I am to have witnessed my sister bloom with health! To see her dance at her daughters weddings, to be there for the birth of her grandchildren, to compete with our other sister at the Transplant Games and win a medal and to know how happy her life has been since that incredible day twenty years ago.
There is risk involved in being a donor. There are not always happy outcomes, and I mourn for those who have not had the same joyous results as we have. Life is truly a mystery. More and more I believe that God’s plans for us are hard to understand and I sometimes have to struggle to trust in the Lord. But He tells us we won’t understand everything while we are here. Today, though, I won’t think – I’ll just rejoice!