The Day My Life Changed

My parents received the call for my kidney in the early hours of the morning of my 12th birthday, but I was asleep and on dialysis. I remember that morning, my parents, and my cousin who was staying with us came into my room and I was still on dialysis. My mum turned to me and asked if I could have anything in the world for my birthday what would it be? I remember thinking a kidney, but I wondered if I should say that because I didn’t know if that was going to be possible after already waiting nearly 7 years, but I ended up saying it after waiting for a second. My mum started crying and I was told “well you’re going to get your kidney.”

We waited for the dialysis to finish and went to the hospital. When I arrived, I was put straight on dialysis, and I went through the usual multitude of tests to see if the kidney was a match. We found out around 11pm that it was a match, I went to theatre after midnight, and I didn’t come out until after 10am the next morning. At that point we didn’t know but the surgeon wasn’t happy with what he called ‘the plumbing’ and ended up redoing it all, so I was in theatre for over 10 hours. We found this out when I had moved to adults at the City Hospital, the surgeon said to my dad that he remembered me and having to do that.

After my transplant, I recovered quickly. There is a joke we have about the ICU nurses not knowing about ordering food because patients don’t normally require this. On the third day after my transplant, I wanted food. I got food from the canteen but ended up eating a McDonald’s happy meal because I didn’t like it. I was only in ICU for a couple of days more and then was moved to a side room in the main ward. Normally, they kept children in for around a month to recover before isolation afterwards because of the immunosuppressive medication. One of the consultants made a joke that I was trying to break the record of getting out the quickest and ended up being discharged after 2 weeks. I was then in isolation for 3 months at home, which had it’s difficulties but in a way has prepared me for the shielding that has been needed during the pandemic.

The biggest difference I noticed was the amount of energy I had post-transplant and I didn’t know what to do with it all. I felt like a new person in comparison to who I was before. My medicines were reduced and changed, I didn’t need dialysis anymore and I didn’t have to inject myself with growth hormone every night. I did start to grow but I never had a growth spurt, and I am still quite short, this was something I have struggled with since my transplant, but I have had to accept who I am. My feet did grow though from a child’s size 12.5 to an adult size 2. The freedom post-transplant is indescribable, I can’t put into words how it changed my life for the better. It is my second chance at life, and I am very blessed to have had my transplant to work for over 13 years and still continue to do so!

My transplant has allowed me to do so much that I was never able to do. I have travelled all over the world since, from Canada to Vienna to Disneyland, which was on my bucket list. To be able to live in halls at university and complete my degree to be able to start a career. The list goes on and on and I am forever grateful.

I hope that hearing about how my transplant has helped me to restart my life, experience so many different things and allowed me to live my life, will encourage you to sign up to the organ donation register at https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/register-your-decision/ and if you’d like to ask me any questions about my transplant or share a part of your story complete the contact form or send me a DM, I’d love to hear from you!