“I had been on dialysis for two years. Back in 1988, my left kidney was removed. It had cancer. Removing the kidney got rid of the cancer.
“The day my granddaughter was born, in October 2011, I went to the doctor and he noticed something. After a CAT scan, they told me there was something in there. Sure enough, it was the same cancer I had in my first kidney 23 years earlier.
“They pulled the second one out in January 2012. And from then until the end of January 2014, I went without kidneys.
“I started on hemodialysis, and that wasn’t a lot of fun. I went to peritoneal dialysis, which was every day, five times a day, but it was much easier on me.
“I didn’t enjoy driving home at night; I’d go at night after work for dialysis treatments, and I’d be driving in a daze. I had trouble sleeping and actually had insomnia and headaches with hemodialysis, so peritoneal dialysis was a huge difference.
“But, you know, I thought I felt good before the surgery, but I feel so much better now. I guess I had gotten used to it after almost 18 to 24 months. This has been just fantastic. I feel great.”
John Romeo - 11
"I thought I felt good before the surgery, but I feel so much better now."