Portmann kidney transplant

My husband John suffers from polycystic kidney disease (PKD).  He inherited the disease from his mother who died from it when she denied dialysis treatment.  I met John over 20 years ago, back in our younger, wilder years.  Neither of us were mature enough or ready to honor one another but God had planted a heart connection at the time neither of us were aware of.  For those who know John’s testimony it took many years for him to recover from past traumas of his childhood and the road was very dark and bumpy to say the least. Through divine intervention John found recovery and strength through the Seattle Union Gospel Mission and with their grace and love helped heal him to wellness.  About 8 years ago John and I got reconnected through the magic of social media.  The change in him was profound and we both knew immediately that we were destined to be partners for life, we just needed a little growth and maturity and to  allow God to mold us to be ideal mates for each other.  We had been married for about a year when I began to notice changes in John’s usually upbeat and silly personality.  We entered a very dark period as his health declined and his kidneys began to fail.  Knowing very little about PKD I thought his behavior and personality change was due to his old past re-haunting him and leading him astray.  We almost ended our marriage because things were so rocky between us.  It wasn’t until John’s body started to give out that I realized there was more going on.  He was sick, losing weight, having problems with sleeping, severe headaches, mood swings just to name a few.  His primary doctor recommended a kidney specialist that wouldn’t be able to see us for a few weeks.  At that point we both realized he was in serious trouble so off to urgent care we went and that began his journey with PKD.  I almost lost my husband.  His kidneys were failing to the point of disrupting all his other organs.  High blood pressure was giving him pounding headaches and his doctors said he was lucky he hadn’t had a stroke.  John was admitted into the hospital for many days where they started him on dialysis and he has been on dialysis since.  Initially I had inquired about being a possible kidney donor but his nephrologist said the odds were highly unlikely that we would be a match.  It’s funny how true the saying “we make plans and God laughs” was proven.  John was put on a transplant list and continued his routine of dialysis for 4 hours every other night.  For those who are unfamiliar with dialysis, it is not a cure, it just keeps the body alive. It is very hard on the body and draining.  Even though it cleans toxins from Johns blood, he still suffers from sickness and is often very fatigued.  I am often amazed at how even though many days John is at the mercy of the affects of PKD he still wakes up each morning, grateful, singing and goes to work Monday through Friday.  On the weekends in the winter you can find him working snowboard demos with Northwest Roadreps and Arbor Snowboards and shredding the mountains of the PNW like a man half his age. Rarely do I see him depressed or giving up because of his disease.  Due to persistence I was finally able to convince John’s nephrologist to test me as a possible kidney donor. We were overwhelmed with joy to discover that we are the same blood type, that our cross match test (his blood didn’t reject my blood) was successful, and after a few months of medical work up we have discovered I am a healthy and ideal candidate to be John’s donor! June 8, 2020 we are set for surgery and are looking forward to starting a new chapter of our life together.  One free of dialysis, sickness and everything else related to John’s polycystic kidneys.  The surgeons will remove both of his kidneys because they are so enlarged with cysts and continue to grow, and will replace them with my left kidney (we humans only need one kidney to be healthy).  Although we are tremendously excited and grateful during this time...transplants and hospital stays are not cheap. We are asking for a your consideration of a donation to help us clear our medical bills so we can get on with more important things in life, like LIVING.  We thank you for your time and if you’ve ever considered being a kidney donor yourself and changing someone’s life you can find more information at www.swedishlivingdonor.org. Thank you for your time!