“I had high blood pressure and diabetes, and the doctors told me my kidney function was down to just 30 percent. I went onto the cadaver transplant waiting list even before I started dialysis. Then I was on dialysis for four years, and while I’m thankful I was able to receive it, it was a miserable thing. I would take dialysis, go home and go straight to bed. By the next morning I would feel a little better, but guess what: The next day, you do it again.
“You hear of people who’ve taken it for years and do fairly well, but I don’t think I would have lasted many more years. After I got the transplant, I found out three people I took dialysis with had passed away.
“The woman who first offered to donate a kidney for me was actually a dialysis nurse. My wife, Mary, and I came to know her, and she just contacted us one day out of the blue wanting to know how I was and offering to donate her kidney. She felt motivated in her heart.
“It turned out she wasn’t a match for me, and her kidney went to a woman in Florida who had also been on the waiting list for a cadaver kidney. But because of her donation, I was able to go on the UAB list and received my kidney from a young woman named Nicole who had contacted UAB and wanted to donate her kidney to anybody. She and I were a match. So in a sense, I feel like I have two donors.
“After the procedure, except for the incision pain, I felt better immediately. I could just tell. I got to meet Nicole the next day, and it was just great. We’ve been out to eat since then several times, she’s been to our house, and once we went to church together. She’s like family. I am humbled by all the donors who have come to the program and said, ‘Even if it’s not a family member or a friend, I want to give.’ They are special.
“Today, I am more sensitive to certain things, and my immune system is not as strong as it once was. But I feel great. I have a small little garden. I haven’t had a garden in five years! I’ve even thought, ‘Who knows — maybe I’ll buy myself a new tractor.’ I have my life back.
“I hope we can help educate people about donation. It took something drastic for me to see what it means to be a living donor; but if I were a healthy person now, I would donate to anybody. This is the work of God here, all the way through it.”