Mid-December is a great time for our family. Three years ago (on Dec. 19), my mom received a kidney from her friend Bradley. On Monday, her youngest brother Mark received a kidney from his wife Michelle. Both of them are sore but doing well. Mark's polycystic kidney disease was very advanced. Each of his kidneys weighed over 20 pounds and was the size of a football. He was in constant pain, unable to work or enjoy life at all. The surgery took over 9 hours, as Mark had both his native kidneys removed before receiving the donor organ from Michelle. But it's over now and everyone's on the mend. Just one more blessing for us to count this year.
Mark and Michelle the morning of the transplant.
December is our month! Our family is so incredibly blessed by God's mercy and grace. I thank Him for Bradley and Michelle, and for others who have given the gift of life to someone who was in need of an organ. To those of you who are donors, thank you. Your generosity will never be forgotten. To those of you who are able to donate and have or have not considered it, please do. You will change someone's life forever, and your life will be changed, too. It's a fact that a kidney donor's kidney function actually gets better after donating because the remaining kidney takes over and becomes stronger!
I'll get off my soapbox now. Just wanted to share that information. Thanks for reading.
Posted by: J | December 15, 2010 at 01:04 PM
This is amazing. Hope everyone heals up well.
Posted by: rkmama | December 15, 2010 at 01:08 PM
How great for them! Thanks for sharing their story.
Posted by: Dusty | December 15, 2010 at 04:40 PM