You know how every kid has a hero, and most kids' heroes are like Superman or Hulk Hogan (well, back in the day when he was worth something)?
My hero is my sister. My sister, Susan, is the strongest young woman I know.
And unlike Superman, Susan can't just turn off what makes her heroic and play the role of her Clark Kent alter-ego whenever she pleases. She has to live as her hero-self all the time; it's part of the beautiful woman she is.
Susan has been living with renal failure since she was merely months old. And she first defied the odds by surviving through her early childhood without fully functioning kidneys.
When Susan was in the sixth grade, tragedy struck a family in Jacksonville when a drunk driver hit and killed a young man driving home from work. In record time, only nine days after being put on the transplant waiting list, our family received the call that Susan could be the recipient of a nearly perfect match kidney. The date was Friday, August 13th. This would be the moment that changed her life forever.
This would be the moment that changed all of our lives forever.
Her transplant went better than could have been expected and while in recovery, she met the recipient of the donor's other kidney, Don. He was a much older man with a wife and family. Don and susan formed a bond unmatchable by any other circumstances.
Later, after Susan's full recovery and a fresh new start at life, our family was sitting in the living room watching Jacksonville news. A spot for MADD came on and a woman, who introduced herself as the President of the Jacksonville MADD chapter said she herself experienced tragedy when her son was killed by a drunk driver on August 12th.
For a very brief moment, our hearts stopped beating.
A deafening silence washed the room as we all realized who was cautioning us about the dangers of drunk driving. A mother, crushed by the death of her son, but fighting to protect the lives of so many others, an advocate for those who can no longer speak out for themselves. And a guardian angel to our family, for honoring her son's wishes to donate his organs. We knew she was his mother.
After some time went by, my mom braved calling the Jacksonville chapter of MADD. She explained who she was, how she knew who she was, and that if Candice and her family wanted to reach our family, we would welcome them into our lives.
Time definitely went by without contact. And then the day came when Candice did call. And a connection between her, her husband Elliot, their younger son was instantly formed. We even spent a Thanksgiving with the Palmer family in Jacksonville.
Due to the confidentiality of organ donation, the hospital could not officially confirm that Candice's son was the donor that saved Susan's life. But we didn't need that; it was easy to see.
Years down the road found Susan in community college, she was assigned an oral presentation and her topic was organ donation. Her guests: Candice and Elliot Palmer and my family. It is so unheardof that donor and recipient families meet unexpectedly that the local newspaper even turned out. But before the newspaper could print the story claiming that the Palmers were the family of the donor of the transplanted kidney, they had to confirm it with the hospital.
And there was the official confirmation we never needed, but rested lighter after hearing.
Since then, and after over ten years, the kidney Susan received stopped functioning. She was put on Dialysis and endured several hours a week being hooked up to a machine in Shands. But she grew tremendously there.
She met many people who had never been given the chance she had. She met kids who had no idea what life was like not hooked up to a dialysis machine -- kids who would never know what life was like without dialysis. She met women and men who had seen beautiful lives and had amazing families and were, sadly, on their way out. And in some cases, she made life long friends. And experiencing all this, bonding with these individuals, changed her, yet again.
She received her second kidney transplant at an age where many people have yet to receive their first. "A perfect match," the doctors described it. But her body fought and rejected this kidney more than the first. And in the end, she had that transplant for a fraction of the time she had the first.
In these days, she finds herself again on dialysis. Again moved by the people she meets around her and spurred to live her life to it's fullest capacity, I think, to honor the people she has met who were never given the chances she has been blessed with and to also honor those who have given her these chances.
And she forges on. Each day she wakes up and swallows a small cup of pills to keep her body running at it's best. She has to take medicine to counteract medicine she has to take. Every other day she spends in dialysis, having a machine function for her failing kidneys. And on non-dialysis days she has to be cautious about how much liquid she drinks and how what foods she eats. Her health cannot not be on her mind, because her life depends on it.
Yet, Susan has found a way to pay back and pay forward some of the love she has received. Because in the meantime -- between transplants and health conditions -- Susan has been growing into an incredibly smart, well-traveled, goal-oriented, lover of the world and all the people in it. Her health conditions are not even a blip on the radar of the depths of Susan and who and what kind of woman she has become.
She went to college and graduated with an AA, and transfered to the University of Florida. She studied teaching for awhile, because she liked the thought of being able to mold young minds. Then she realized her heart was in caring for people. And she has since found what I believe to be her niche.
Susan is a Certified Nursing Assistant and in-home health care provider. Several days a week she spends in the company of some of Gainesville's elderly residents. And they love her and her tender heartedness. I truly believe she has found a place where she can care for people and pass forward the love that she has been receiving all these years.
Today is the day though, that I set out to write about to begin with. Today Susan has an evaluation. If you're friends with her on here, you know this already. If her evaluations go well today and Thursday, Susan will be added to the transplant list once again. The average wait time is 3 to 5 years. We're hoping for another miracle like the first time, but isn't that just a sad hope to have -- that another family somewhere loses a loved one so that we can save ours? It's quite a conflicting thought.
We've had family meetings about being tested as potential donors. At today's evaluation, Susan is going to give a list of names and contact informations to the doctors so they can contact those interested in being potential donors.
I cannot express how grateful I am to those of you who have offered to be tested. This is not something I would expect a person to take lightly, yet so many friends and even acquaintances have offered to help. My heart aches with love for each of you, as you have already changed our lives.
My hero is my sister. My sister, Susan, is the strongest young woman I know.
And unlike Superman, Susan can't just turn off what makes her heroic and play the role of her Clark Kent alter-ego whenever she pleases. She has to live as her hero-self all the time; it's part of the beautiful woman she is.
Susan has been living with renal failure since she was merely months old. And she first defied the odds by surviving through her early childhood without fully functioning kidneys.
When Susan was in the sixth grade, tragedy struck a family in Jacksonville when a drunk driver hit and killed a young man driving home from work. In record time, only nine days after being put on the transplant waiting list, our family received the call that Susan could be the recipient of a nearly perfect match kidney. The date was Friday, August 13th. This would be the moment that changed her life forever.
This would be the moment that changed all of our lives forever.
Her transplant went better than could have been expected and while in recovery, she met the recipient of the donor's other kidney, Don. He was a much older man with a wife and family. Don and susan formed a bond unmatchable by any other circumstances.
Later, after Susan's full recovery and a fresh new start at life, our family was sitting in the living room watching Jacksonville news. A spot for MADD came on and a woman, who introduced herself as the President of the Jacksonville MADD chapter said she herself experienced tragedy when her son was killed by a drunk driver on August 12th.
For a very brief moment, our hearts stopped beating.
A deafening silence washed the room as we all realized who was cautioning us about the dangers of drunk driving. A mother, crushed by the death of her son, but fighting to protect the lives of so many others, an advocate for those who can no longer speak out for themselves. And a guardian angel to our family, for honoring her son's wishes to donate his organs. We knew she was his mother.
After some time went by, my mom braved calling the Jacksonville chapter of MADD. She explained who she was, how she knew who she was, and that if Candice and her family wanted to reach our family, we would welcome them into our lives.
Time definitely went by without contact. And then the day came when Candice did call. And a connection between her, her husband Elliot, their younger son was instantly formed. We even spent a Thanksgiving with the Palmer family in Jacksonville.
Due to the confidentiality of organ donation, the hospital could not officially confirm that Candice's son was the donor that saved Susan's life. But we didn't need that; it was easy to see.
Years down the road found Susan in community college, she was assigned an oral presentation and her topic was organ donation. Her guests: Candice and Elliot Palmer and my family. It is so unheardof that donor and recipient families meet unexpectedly that the local newspaper even turned out. But before the newspaper could print the story claiming that the Palmers were the family of the donor of the transplanted kidney, they had to confirm it with the hospital.
And there was the official confirmation we never needed, but rested lighter after hearing.
Since then, and after over ten years, the kidney Susan received stopped functioning. She was put on Dialysis and endured several hours a week being hooked up to a machine in Shands. But she grew tremendously there.
She met many people who had never been given the chance she had. She met kids who had no idea what life was like not hooked up to a dialysis machine -- kids who would never know what life was like without dialysis. She met women and men who had seen beautiful lives and had amazing families and were, sadly, on their way out. And in some cases, she made life long friends. And experiencing all this, bonding with these individuals, changed her, yet again.
She received her second kidney transplant at an age where many people have yet to receive their first. "A perfect match," the doctors described it. But her body fought and rejected this kidney more than the first. And in the end, she had that transplant for a fraction of the time she had the first.
In these days, she finds herself again on dialysis. Again moved by the people she meets around her and spurred to live her life to it's fullest capacity, I think, to honor the people she has met who were never given the chances she has been blessed with and to also honor those who have given her these chances.
And she forges on. Each day she wakes up and swallows a small cup of pills to keep her body running at it's best. She has to take medicine to counteract medicine she has to take. Every other day she spends in dialysis, having a machine function for her failing kidneys. And on non-dialysis days she has to be cautious about how much liquid she drinks and how what foods she eats. Her health cannot not be on her mind, because her life depends on it.
Yet, Susan has found a way to pay back and pay forward some of the love she has received. Because in the meantime -- between transplants and health conditions -- Susan has been growing into an incredibly smart, well-traveled, goal-oriented, lover of the world and all the people in it. Her health conditions are not even a blip on the radar of the depths of Susan and who and what kind of woman she has become.
She went to college and graduated with an AA, and transfered to the University of Florida. She studied teaching for awhile, because she liked the thought of being able to mold young minds. Then she realized her heart was in caring for people. And she has since found what I believe to be her niche.
Susan is a Certified Nursing Assistant and in-home health care provider. Several days a week she spends in the company of some of Gainesville's elderly residents. And they love her and her tender heartedness. I truly believe she has found a place where she can care for people and pass forward the love that she has been receiving all these years.
Today is the day though, that I set out to write about to begin with. Today Susan has an evaluation. If you're friends with her on here, you know this already. If her evaluations go well today and Thursday, Susan will be added to the transplant list once again. The average wait time is 3 to 5 years. We're hoping for another miracle like the first time, but isn't that just a sad hope to have -- that another family somewhere loses a loved one so that we can save ours? It's quite a conflicting thought.
We've had family meetings about being tested as potential donors. At today's evaluation, Susan is going to give a list of names and contact informations to the doctors so they can contact those interested in being potential donors.
I cannot express how grateful I am to those of you who have offered to be tested. This is not something I would expect a person to take lightly, yet so many friends and even acquaintances have offered to help. My heart aches with love for each of you, as you have already changed our lives.
Comments
you both are amazing, strong women and i really admire you both!!!!
may god bless her....