“For nearly two years, I had to go to dialysis every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for four hours each time. Then I would have to come home and sleep, sometimes for up to three hours after each treatment. By the time I would wake up, the majority of the day was gone.
“Dialysis consumed a lot of time in my life that I now have free again thanks to the UAB Kidney Chain and my donor, Vickie Cockerham. My life has started all over again, and I have Vickie, my grandson, Lavuntae Lashley, who donated his kidney so I could get one, and all the wonderful people at UAB Hospital to thank for that.
“I wish I had all the right words to describe the warm, beautiful feeling I got at the hospital; but I don’t. Everybody I met seemed like they loved the Lord, which made me feel good. When I walked down the hall, everybody smiled and said ‘hello’ to me. They made me feel like I was definitely in the right place.
“The nurses and doctors were all so wonderful. Everybody tried to make sure I was comfortable and pleased with what they had done. My feelings mattered to them. It was almost unimaginable. It was like I was in a fairy tale world, but it was truly happening. It was great all the way through.
“Now I have a new life and a chance to go do things that I couldn’t do before, and I am grateful to God and His goodness for that. It is so powerful to realize that He made us and put all these different organs in our bodies. Then He gave man the knowledge and the skill to do this great thing and use some of those parts to help others have life and keep going. We have all been blessed.
“One of the things I can do now that I really couldn’t before I had my transplant is drink a lot of water. Before the transplant, I could only drink about 32 ounces of water a day; but now I am drinking two or three times that, and it sure tastes good. I have to be honest and say I didn’t really like water before, but I’m loving it now.”