kidneyadvocate
Selfless Living Kidney Donor Needed
27 posts
My husband needs a kidney transplant, and we are actively seeking a selfless living kidney donor. To test for eligibility to be a living donor for Mike Nicholas please call Kathy (Transplant Coordinator) at 608-262-1997. For more information on living donation please call our kidney phone at 309-363-5892. You may follow our story closer on Facebook under Our 2nd Kidney Transplant Journey.  I will be shariing information on kidney health, kidney disease, the national need for donors, information on living donation, and my husbands needs on here as well. Please help by following and sharing our story, and considering being a living kidney donor. Thank you!
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kidneyadvocate · 6 years ago
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Another ER visit today. Turns out just a stomach bug, but with renal failure and anti-rejection meds everything is amplified for Mike. Small things for most become potentially life threatening in our house. Hopefully we will receive our ultimate gift this holiday, and have less scares.
If you would like to test for eligibility to be a living kidney donor for Mike Nicholas please visit
and fill out an inquiry, please remember to enter his name as your potential recipient.
Thank you for your consideration, shares, and blessings.💚 💙
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kidneyadvocate · 6 years ago
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Something new, and not kidney related. Got a cervical epidural, and trigger point steroid injections, today to relieve neck pain. Can't lift more than a cup of coffee for 24 hours. Can't drive for another 4 hours. But within about 3 days should have a significant reduction in neck pain. Plan to return for low back and elbow as well, he can only do one area at a time even if I say I can handle it. The goal is to be able to have the pain controlled well enough to comfortably do yoga and light workouts again. Both of which should slow the plethora of degenerative issues causing the pain. Essentially avoiding surgeries as long as possible. Doctor VanStraton said when it comes to that I go to a university setting because there are too many problems in one area for one specialist (family and othropedic docs agree). The worst pain of today's procedure was from laying on my stomach, which I haven't been able to do comfortably for several years. I had very minor pain from the needles and such. There was bad pain twice for about two seconds each, and I think it was from pushing the fluids and not from sticks. Whole thing took about ten minutes. Which is a lot better than I expected. Docs only concern is that it may not work. If it does I can have them up to 5 times (in this area) a year as it starts to wear off, and most people go three months on one treatment. Right now just the scalp area is sore, like after a deep tissue massage. So far I would absolutely recommend this to people suffering chronic back pain. Will give an update should my opinion change. Side note, hairspray has nothing on chlorhexidine...
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kidneyadvocate · 6 years ago
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Hemodialysis
It is used for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). It removes metabolic wastes and excess body water.
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Dialyzers are composed of a capsule which hollow parallel membrane plates suspended in dialysate. The plates function as a semipermeable membrane across which blood and dialysate flow. By crossing this membrane, solutes and water move between a patient’s body and the dialyzer.
DIALYZERS
Hollow-fiber: These are the most common dialyzers. A porous, capillary-like fibers carrying blood serve as the dialyzer membrane.
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Parallel-plate: No longer in common use. These are flat sheets of membrane material arranged in parallel. Blood and dialysate follow in parallel.
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The hemodialysis machine must include a blood pump to move blood between patient and the dialyzer, a delivery system to transport dialysis solution, and monitoring devices such as pressure monitors.
Synthetic tubing designated as the “arterial” line carries blood from the arteriovenous access to the dialyze. And a “venous” line simultaneously carries dialyzed blood back to the patient.
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kidneyadvocate · 6 years ago
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kidneyadvocate · 6 years ago
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kidneyadvocate · 6 years ago
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kidneyadvocate · 6 years ago
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kidneyadvocate · 6 years ago
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Find Mike A Kidney!
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Please consider becoming a life saving living donor for my husband.
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kidneyadvocate · 6 years ago
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kidneyadvocate · 6 years ago
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kidneyadvocate · 6 years ago
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Please share.
Yesterday Mike worked 9+ hours (not counting the two hours of driving) then had 4 hours and fifteen minutes of dialysis. Came home and went straight to bed, which is normal three days a week. Also normal on these nights he feels absolutely miserable, exhausted, and with always increasingly painful cramps. Cramps mostly in his legs and toes. What's new is that last night's cramps lasted until lunch time today. All night long he writhed in pain, what little sleep he had he cried out ever so softly during. His toes haven't stopped hurting for days. He left for work this morning around 6:30 anyways.
We are both convinced that he would be even worse if he didn't have a job that demanded his attention so much. Something to distract.
If one of us can't sleep, neither can the other. I suppose I could have gone to the couch, but I chose to stay by him. To stay there praying repeatedly to take his pain, but not his life. Praying for a donor soon. Wishing that he could just hand his pain to me instead. Even if just for a few minutes to give him a break. But there is no break for kidney failure. No cure. Only treatment. Dialysis is the painful life alterering treatment. Transplant is the relieving life saving treatment.
Mike is still years down on the registry list to receive a cadaver kidney. After all the wait a cadaver kidney averages only 5 to 10 years of a normal life before having to start the process all over again. A living donor kidney has a significantly greater life span, and much less of a chance at the recipient's body rejecting the kidney. Living donation is Mike's, our family's, best option, along with the 96,000+ other families with stories like ours.
For more information on living kidney donation please call our kidney phone at 309-363-5892. You can talk to Mike's mom, and first donor, about her experience being a living donor.
To test for eligibility to be a living kidney donor for Mike Nicholas please visit
This is also a credible site to find a wealth of information about living kidney donation and kidney health.
To register as an organ/tissue/eye donor (upon your expiration) please visit
Please make sure that your loved ones are aware of your decisions, so that in a time of grief they do not have to make that decision for you.
Thank you for your consideration, shares, advocacy, and blessings. 💚 💙
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kidneyadvocate · 6 years ago
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Please share to spread awareness for everyone effected by kidney failure, and help advocate for our family. Thank you for your consideration, shares, advocacy, and blessings. 💚 💙
To start testing for eligibility to be Mike Nicholas's life saving living kidney donor please visit:
This is also a place to find a wealth of credible information for those concidering living donation.
To register to be an organ/eye/tissue donor (upon your expiration) please visit:
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kidneyadvocate · 6 years ago
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Please share.
New light was shed from one of our transplant coordinators today. RH factor does not matter in kidney transplants. So Mike can receive O Positive as well as O Negative. We were also informed that we should focus more on finding someone healthy enough to be approved, rather than a perfect match. Kathy has had several offers for us, but very few that were healthy enough (and none of the few have returned her calls to confirm wanting to donate). If we have a donor that doesn't match Mike, that person and Mike are entered into the exchange program. The short version on what the exchange program is: Your selfless act would be saving multiple lives rather than Mike's alone.
Kathy also expressed that she prefers online inquiries as to phone calls, because online includes some medical questions that help her prepare for the conversation. It also lowers chances of missed communication. The website also provides a wealth of information that can help a person prepare for what they are considering doing. She responded to my request to be a donor within 2 days (I did have to retrieve my denial from junk mail).
www.uwhealth.org/transplant/living-kidney-donor-inquiry/40425
Side note, we realize that we aren't asking you to make cookies for a bake sale. We are asking you to undergo extensive testing, major laparoscopic surgery, and time off of work. So if you start the process, and change your mind please know that it is alright. We would not be upset with you, and we always prefer the truth.
Thank you for your consideration, shares, advocacy, and blessings. 💚 💙
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kidneyadvocate · 6 years ago
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Please go to registerme.org to be an organ/eye/tissue donor upon your expiration. Please also make sure your family is aware of your choices, so they never have to make that choice for you when they are grieving.
I promise the choice to be a donor does not effect your medical or emergency care. I have worked in a hospital lab, and been part of a trauma team, for 16 years. Not once have I heard someone ask if the patient is an organ donor while we are trying to save them. And my husband's life depends on receiving a kidney transplant. All life is sacred.
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kidneyadvocate · 6 years ago
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kidneyadvocate · 6 years ago
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kidneyadvocate · 6 years ago
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