You can't take it with you.

I'm working on my talk for Donor Alliance, for which I'm a new volunteer. This Thursday I'm to present the talk to Jennifer Lange, the coordinator, for review. I'm going to print it here, for practice. Feel free to give me feedback. Here goes:

Hi, I'm Linda Collison, I'm a volunteer for Donor Alliance, Colorado's organ procurement organization. I'm here to share my personal story about how a transplanted kidney changed my life.

Memorial Day Weekend, 2006. On Friday, Bob, my 58 year old husband, has a check-up, a physical exam, in Denver. (His first complete exam in years.) Lately he hasn't been feeling well but his symptoms are kind of vague. He blames the fatigue, occasional nausea, and the chronic bad taste in his mouth to some dental problems he's been having. After the exam we go up to the mountains to Steamboat Springs for the weekend.

Saturday night the phone rings, kind of late. Bob picks up and by the look on his face, and I know it's bad news. His hand is shaking.

"Can you talk to my wife," Bob says. "She's a nurse." He hands me the phone.

Yes, I'm a registered nurse, retired, with many years experience in critical care and emergency medicine. I used to speak with doctors all the time, late at night. But this time the patient is my husband.

I take the phone. The doctor on call tells me, "Ma'am, your husband is in kidney failure. His lab values are critical. You need to take him to the nearest hospital immediately."

The bottom drops out of my stomach as she tells me what his lab results are. Bob is a train wreck. I had no idea he was so sick. If it hadn't been for the lab tests...

All my past experiences working nights in the ICU and ER come flooding back. Only this time I'm not the RN, I'm the wife, and I feel as afraid and as helpless as every wife of every patient I've ever cared for.


It turns out Bob's kidney failure was due to an unfortunate combination of benign prostatic hypertrophy and bladder stones. The combination prevented him from emptying his bladder completely. Over many months, possibly years, his bladder gradually distended and the urine backed up into his kidneys. Although the problem was fixed surgically with a TURP and a laser to dissolve the bladder stones, the damage to Bob's kidneys was irreparable. We were told he would need a transplant, and so Bob joined the more than 76,000 other people in this country, waiting for a kidney. The wait was estimated to be at least three years, here in Colorado.

I asked if I could be a living donor so he wouldn't have to wait, and because our blood types are the same, I could -- if I was healthy enough. But I had recently gone on a medication for my blood pressure which made me ineligible to be a living donor. But I was convinced that my recent blood pressure problems were due to Bob's problems! Duh! What wife wouldn't have high blood pressure? So I went on a mission to lower my blood pressure and get off the medication, so that I could be a living donor.

So I lost weight, did yoga, meditation, biofeedback, the whole nine yards. It took me nearly a year to pass the blood pressure test off medication, but I did it. And I passed all the other tests they threw at me. I could have joined the marines I was so (frigging) healthy!

Meanwhile, Bob went to dialysis three times a week. For 53 weeks and six days (not like we're counting!) Dialysis kept him alive, but it's very hard on the body, and it only filters about 10 percent as effectively as a kidney. And dialysis can't do any of the other marvelous things a real kidney does, such as play a role in making red blood cells and regulate the phosphorus-to-calcium ratio, which keeps the bones from deteriorating.

During that year Bob was on dialysis we learned more about the dire need for kidneys and other organs. Like livers, pancreas, lungs, and hearts. I began to think harder about what I can leave behind when I leave this world.

One organ donor can save the lives of up to eight people, and one tissue donor can help up to 100 others. Amazing! What a legacy one person can leave!

But it wasn't until April 24, 2008, the day Bob got his new kidney (my left one!) that I saw first hand what a difference a transplant makes. Bob's new kidney started doing its job, making urine, even before the incision was closed! (Atta girl!) And my remaining kidney started taking over, doing the job that two kidneys had shared for 55 years. It's a beautiful thing.

The difference the transplant made in our lives is phenomenal. Bob has his health and energy back. For us it's a miracle, a miracle I will know and appreciate every day for the rest of my life. I'm so thankful I was healthy enough to give a kidney, and I'm thankful to have my husband back.

Not everyone is healthy enough to be a living donor, but if we were all registered organ donors, if we all chose to pass on our much-needed organs and tissues after we die, so many more people like Bob could be helped.

You can't take it with you, but you can give it away.

www.donatelife.net Just by going to that website and registering to be an organ donor, and talking about your wishes with your family and friends, you can be the difference, you can give the gift of life and health. I thank you for your compassion and generosity.

Thank you for hearing my story.