“I’m Jackie and I have had a kidney transplant for 17 years. My date of transplant was May 4, 1992. At that tine I was 6 weeks away from my 40th birthday. Now I am almost 57.

My mother had some rubella when she was pregnant with me. It was a mild case that lasted only a day, but it was enough to give me some hearing loss, and some other issues. One of those issues was lack of full kidney function. So I was born with partial deafness (leaf ear deaf, right ear has about 50% hearing which I wear a hearing aid for) and also less than 60% function in only one kidney (as far as I know I never had 2 kidneys).

The deafness was discovered early, of course, but the kidney problem was not discovered until my son was born. While he was a baby, I developed kidney infection most likely introduced through the catheter used in the c-section. My doctor later sent me for X-rays on my kidneys and only one was found that had about 30% function. The pregnancy and birth put a strain on my only kidney. I was sent to a renal specialist who thought I would need dialysis in 5 – 10 years. It was at about 7 years that end-stage renal failure developed. So in Sept/91 I was put on dialysis. At that time my son was 7 years old.

On May 3, 1992 the doctor called me and said there was a kidney available but at that time I was back-up. I did the blood work for that “possible” transplant, but did not let myself get excited. I had been back-up once before. A few hours later, the doctor called to say that one person in line to get this kidney was not going to be a candidate, and I was next in line. We went to the hospital, knowing that my blood work had not been fully processed and I may very well be sent home. I was getting prepped for surgery in hopes that my blood work would be good. It was late evening. Just before midnight the call came in that the transplant could go ahead. So officially, my transplant was May 4/92.

The transplant was totally successful. I never did have rejection issues, and my kidney function is phenomenal. I have to take anti-rejection drugs, but that is so much easier than dialysis.

I am looking forward to my 20th anniversary, and many more after that.