GIVE LIFE BY DONATING A KIDNEY

Quavon and I married September 2017, we have 3 beautiful children ages 10, 9, and 2. We both enjoy spending time with family, date nights, traveling, theme parks, and spontaneous adventures to simply enjoy life.
What I admire most about my husband is that he loves his family unconditionally, he has a heart of gold.....a heart for people, he loves God and even when the going gets tough, he knows through prayer is where he will find his best guidance.

On December 23, 2018, our lives changed. We learned that the health problems my husband was facing, would be long term. As he was a young 27yo man at the time, he experienced his new career as a truck driver at jeopardy. He suddenly had to come out of work and begin dialysis treatments in center 3x per week. The reports of how drained the Dialysis machine made him feel, as if life was being pulled from his body during his sessions.....for him to have to come home and not have the energy to do the things he loved, or even play with our then 4 month old;
Starting Peritoneal dialysis in February 2020, has been a better option. He receives a supply shipment of about 40 boxes per month, He has to set up a machine each night for an 11hr dialysis session while he sleeps. He has since been able to go back to work and has a bit more energy.
Now at 30yo, being on dialysis generally has taken away so much of his freedom and ability to live a normal life as we know it:
His work day is restricted to about an 11hr max including travel to and from work.
Although he loves date nights, he has to consider the agenda for the next day, because the later he gets on dialysis, the later the session will end.
Some days, he just feels ill due to the many medications prescribed, but he does his best to push through each work day.
Vacations for him, means he has to order supplies ahead of time to have them delivered to the destination, and bring his 24 lb. dialysis machine along for the trip.

Can you imagine how depressing it could be to have so many things restricted as the result of a hereditary condition that began affecting you as teenager? Quavon’s Kidney failure is the result of hypertension (High blood pressure), due to a genetic disposition he inherited, his hypertension caused him to have kidney failure at such a young age.

Receiving a living-kidney transplant would mean so much to Quavon. He would then be able to have his life back with freedom. His life span will be extended so that he will some day see our children become adults, and potentially see our grandchildren. He can take a vacation without having to accommodate dialysis into the plan. He can work without restricted hours.
He can decrease the number of medications he takes daily by 60%.

As a healthcare worker, it’s different when you are the patient or family of the patient.....there is the sense of helplessness when you want to make it all better, yet you don’t have the ability to.
I hope that by getting my husband’s story out, to those that are familiar and unfamiliar with kidney failure, there will be some hearts touched, and some lives blessed by someone willing and able to GIVE LIFE to someone in need.
In order to give a kidney, you do not have to be an exact match. There is a cross match system that can be used if you are not an exact match.
*Be in overall good health
Any blood type.
*BMI must be less than 35.
*The procedure is laparoscopic (small incisions).
*Recovery 2-4 weeks.
*All labs and procedure is fully funded by the recipient’s insurance. no out of pocket cost or insurance responsibility for the donor.

Although most people are born with 2 kidneys. Only 1 kidney is required to live a safe and healthy life.
Please contact:
Amy Woodard, RN
UNC living donor transplant coordinator
Amy.Woodard@unchealth.unc.edu
984-974-7568

OR
Sarah Bersik, RN
VCU Health
Sarah.Bersik@vcuhealth.org