Daniella Duke

LIVING Kidney DONOR NEEDED

Hi Friends! It is once again time to talk kidneys. I am forever grateful for the deceased donor kidney transplant (nicknamed: PK or pandemic kidney) I received in 2021 and was so excited for a future of good health. Due to multiple infections, the transplant is now failing, and I am once again actively searching for a living kidney donor.

These past four years were so precious when I think of all the time I was given to be with family and friends, make new friends, go for walks and hikes and ocean swims, learn Pilates and find my core😊, volunteer at my local library and learn how to be a mender of books, be on a National Kidney Foundation podcast about kidney transplants, play golf and Mahjong and go paddleboarding, watch my children grow up to become amazing and kind and thoughtful adults, appreciate my home and my caring and loving husband, and have the freedom to just go out for a cup of coffee! And most grateful NOT to be on dialysis when my first transplant (nicknamed Little Anni after my sister who donated) stopped working in 2021, after 21 years of a long and appreciated kidney transplant life.

I feel like I have been given so much extra life, with these two transplants, and wherever this new journey leads me, I am all in: hopeful and excited to continue to experience the simple and wonderful moments that life has to offer.

Right now, my two treatment options are dialysis or another transplant. Dialysis is very difficult, draining, makes you feel sick and weak, basically pulls you out of life while trying to keep you alive. Survival on dialysis is difficult and limited as the stresses of dialysis wear down all of you organs. The other option, a living kidney donor, would give me the best chance for a healthy and active life.

Did you know you that because we have two kidneys, we only need one kidney to live a normal, healthy, long life? In fact, living kidney donors tend to have a longer life expectancy than the average person. Thus the slogan: Share your Spare! Deciding to be a living kidney donor is a big decision. Living donors are very very special people who understand that being a donor is one human saving the life of another human - an empowering and life changing experience for one person to have that kind of an impact on another person.
If you think you may want to be my donor, or just want to find out more information about being a living donor, call my Transplant Center: Yale Transplant Living Donor Line: 866-925-3897

Websites like the ones below can answer many questions you might have about being a living kidney donor:

https://www.kidney.org/kidney-topics/becoming-living-donor

https://www.nkdo.org/faqs/

https://www.pennmedicine.org/for-patients-and-visitors/find-a-program-or-service/transplant-institute/living-donor-kidney-transplant

https://www.kidneyregistry.com/for-donors/i-want-to-learn-more-about-living-kidney-donation/kidney-donation-facts/

Or you could consider sharing my story on any social media platforms you have, with your friends and family, on group text chats you are a part of, with your friends at church or temple or pickleball or bocce or soccer or book club or work or having a beer or at a wine tasting or with your neighbor...or wherever there are people! And maybe I will get lucky and find my living kidney donor. Thank you for reading my story.

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