Truly Priceless Gifts

This brief essay is an attempt to sum up the great need and appreciation for organs. I leave out many, many details to respect people's privacy (like my father's, for example), but omitting certain details makes the stories behind the people no less important.

I write this to honor all those people who have been organ donors (Dad), as well as to those who have gone through the process of trying to donate (Traci Smith, Jackson Maddox, Gerry Sloan). These are just the ones I know. My readers may know more. And I honor those donors and potential donors, as well.

For those of you planning on becoming organ donors, who have talked to your families, marked your drivers license, etc., I and the transplant community thank you, too.



By the time I was a pre-teen, I could scarcely look at myself in the mirror, the circles under my eyes were so dark. Yet routine doctor visits had revealed nothing other than "allergies." At 16, I could not remember from one day to the next how to get to the high school, but was embarrassed to say anything. Entering my senior year of high school, the gym instructor told me I would fail (and thus not graduate) if I did not participate. But I literally could not, there was so much acid buildup in my knees. Then I came down with the "flu" and severe back pain.

My mama flew into high gear, insisting the doctors do more than a routine checkup, realizing by this time that something was seriously wrong. They reluctantly did lab tests, and I had barely left the clinic, it seemed, before they frantically called for me to head right back. They said I would have been dead within the week.

As terrible as the news was, I actually felt relief that something was wrong with me - that I wasn't a hypochondriac; that there was a reason for my being puny and ugly and forgetful and weak. Aside from just being me.

My father stepped right up, insisting on giving me his kidney, and it kept me going for 14 years. The next two kidneys came from unrelated deceased donors. I have had 3 offers from unrelated living donors who ended up not being able to after going through the extensive testing. All of these people and their families are/were/have been amazingly generous, wonderful and thoughtful. What would I be without them? Indeed, what would any of us be without the self-sacrifice and true gifts of donors?