My kidney journey started in my later teen years. It wasn't me personally, but my Mom. She had been diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney disease earlier, and in April of 1989 she had a cadaver transplant. Unfortunately she passed away in November of 1995 due to complications of the transplant. In about 2004-2005 my brother became very ill and was diagnosed with the same disease. He began dialysis immediately. Shortly after that I was tested for PKD because of our family history. Unfortunately, I also had the disease. I began seeing a nephrologist to monitor my blood work among many other things. In 2007 my brother received a living kidney donation from our cousin and I am happy to say, it is still working well for him! In December of 2021 I had surgery to insert a peritoneal dialysis catheter and about 6 - 8 months later I started the testing procedures for transplantation. I was still not on dialysis, but was flushing the catheter on my own from home. While all of this had been going on, my husband decided to begin the testing to see if he was a match for me. His only concern was that both of our daughters also suffer with this disease and how could he decide where his kidney would go. His conclusion was, that I need it now and hopefully the girls will never need one, or that it will be very far into the future and there maybe be other options available to them. My testing took about and year and his was about the same. Magically, he was a match for me. We did some final testing in the beginning of July 2023 & we had our surgery July 25. 2023. I was very fortunate that I never did end up on dialysis and received the transplant before it got to that point. I am happy to say we are both doing very well & that I am forever grateful for the amazing gift my husband gave to me & our family!
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