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?

What makes a man

You can't help but like this site. I can't help but keep posting articles from this site. Instead of my own, no less! A shame...

What Makes A Man... A Man? Is the name of the article, and I found it a good read.

Since I already posted 2 other articles on my other blog, I figured I should give it a rest and move on over here. Except, uhm, I also posted one from them here, too. So 2 from them on both blogs, in one evening. Ah what can I say, they're great.

Just follow them yourself. AND me, of course!

Bonsoir.

Depression

Many people have suffered depression, whether mildly or severely. Sometimes it is short-lived, or circumstantial. Other times, it is more severe, and there nothing on which you can put your finger on to say "this is the reason for it."

I have suffered with depression. I think mine was circumstantial. I couldn't control my thoughts, my moods, anything. Before I knew it I was over the edge. My family member's depression did not help.

But mine may not have been circumstantial, because that was a few years ago and over the past year I have been complaining to my doctor about moody-ness again. I explained that I am/was not depressed, just _itchy. She said to go ahead and start with such and such a pill anyway.

And that always makes me think that (as great as my doctor is) we as a society are just too "pill-happy." But, because I have other health issues and cannot take herbal remedies and whatnot, I took her advice anyway. I was talking things out on my (then) one-year-old so what choice did I have? I am now weaning myself back off of it again.

As someone who has been there, I can say that the author of this article has it right. As much as people want to help - and people like me, who are DO-ERS really find the advice in this article difficult - it is just what the 'doctor' ordered.

If you know someone who is suffering from depression, take a moment to read the article below. Or share it with someone who does. It will help both the person suffering from depression AND the ones suffering through it with him/her.

How to Love Someone with Depression

© Christina D. George and In the beginning, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Christina D. George and In the beginning with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Famous Kidney Transplant Recipients List

It is interesting to me to see that there are others out there like me - even the rich and famous. What is puzzling to me, though, is that we (the 'commoners') don't hear more about it. I would think it would be prime opportunity to support organ donation. But I have heard of rumours that somehow, people with $$$$ don't have to wait as long. So why would they see the need? If that's true....

Kidney Transplant Patients: Famous Kidney Transplant Recipients List

A true story from a living organ donor

Project MUSE - Living Organ Donation

Wow this is a must-read. I have never talked to or read anything from any other organ donor. The only one I know is my Dad and he doesn't talk about it.

It's enlightening. And there are so many more after this that I haven't even skimmed through yet... I am sure they are not all positive. But this one does touch on the many of the arguments that I have heard, and even talks about people in the family of the one needing a transplant not being willing to even get tested...

Free shirt or ball cap no obligation!

Become a voice for organ donation by signing up for your free t-shirt or cap at
www.donatelifevoices.org

Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine

Moms Click Here!

NWAMotherlode -- Where Moms Click

KidsMealDeals.com could help you out if you're not in this area. And the rest of this site probably has some good info on it, too, for you guys out there who aren't here. :)

Happy hunting!

When poor health leads to greater problems

Sometimes poor health - being overweight, or not eating right, for example, can lead to further problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and eventually even kidney disease and failure. Resulting in the need for a kidney transplant. Surprising? It happens a lot.

Now, I realize not everyone's health problems are a result of their own doing. Some are born with it (like me).

However, some diseases can be stopped, and here is just one story of one man doing just that:

Martinsville man with kidney disease in remission after running »

Fruits & Veggies = better kidney function

It always comes back to nature's foods, doesn't it... And why not, right?

I mean, if we eat what nature has provided instead of all this processed crap that our bodies have learned to crave - that we have TAUGHT them to crave - naturally (yes, pun intended!) we would be healthier.

A few choice excerpts:

"...may be as helpful as some medications..."

"...in patients with late stage chronic kidney disease as effectively as the typical treatment..."

"...a favorable response by reduction of..."  (emphasis added)

caveat: "...diet filled with fruits and vegetables may not be a plausible solution for everyone with chronic kidney disease..." 

Forgive me for posting a link to an article that seems to actually be an advertisement - but WOW. It looks legit: apparently Ivanhoe.com's source is the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, February 2013.

10 Ways To Improve Kidney Function Without Leaving Home

10 Ways To Improve Kidney Function Without Leaving Home

This is great. I do have a standard disclaimer. I mean, I didn't write it I don't purport that anything said on the that site works. But having had 3 xplts I can say that I like it. :)

Hope for Rorie: Clear Lake girl, 3, needs a hero

Hope for Rorie: Clear Lake girl, 3, needs a hero

Ramblings

Wow I have been off of here for quite some time. And can I just say: I hate passwords! Those dirty little secret words that we're not supposed to ever let leak out and then we go and sometimes write them down on secret little notes never to be shared with anyone but only to be kept hidden away SO well that when we go to retrieve them well... they are never to be found again.

<sigh>

And so we begin anew.

In the meantime having even forgotten we had begun a Blogger.com site and so started a http://christinageorgedotme.wordpress.com/ site because it is, after all, the supposed latest and greatest, and why not, after all, in my market, go for what 'sells'? Ah, but what really sells? It is really all in the eyes of the Great Beholder: Yes, the One-That-Holds-The-Resume.

Alas, that One is ever-changing and unknowing, unless you are fortunate enough to actually personally know that One (ie; that First Beholder) but then wouldn't that be termed something like... uhm... ah well let's not retreat to those corners because lucky are those people and wouldn't I like to be one of them!

Okay so I may now say that I have successfully begun anew. :-) Even though it has been some frustrated ramblings through this new beginning!

Raising my virtual glass to virtual you in hopes of getting further along in this new journey of blogging than I did the first time!

By the way, if you peruse my new site (which I linked above) you will see that I might have more of a purpose this time. A purpose for you, the reader. For you to not just read my occasional ramblings/ponderings/philosophical and rhetorical questions (but please respond if you want!), but also gain information on various things such as product/travel/book reviews, little tyke and organ information, etc.

My background is library science/archives. If you know me, you know it encompasses a lot more than that! Let me know what you are interested in and I'll do a bit of research and see what I can find out for you. It's what I do. It's who I am.


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© Christina D. George and In the beginning, 2012-13. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Christina D. George and In the beginning with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.