Mourning and Elliott - NBA transplant recipients

What kind of career can you have after a kidney transplant?  Well, at least 2 NBA players went back to work.  

Former NBA player Sean Elliott played for the San Antonio Spurs for 11 seasons and one for the Detroit Pistons.  In 1999, he was diagnosed with focal glomeruloscleros, a rare kidney disease.  In August 2000, he received a kidney from his brother, Noel.  And went back to work a few months later.  Elliott retired in 2001.

NBA Star Alonzo Mourning also received a kidney transplant.  Mourning had a long NBA career, most of which was with the Miami Heat.  He was in the Dream Team II, 7 all star games, and was twice named NBA defensive player of the year.   His coach, Pat Riley, said of him, "Alonzo is a whirling dervish, a cyclone of a player. He embodies everything we want this team to be--passionate, committed, aggressive, tireless."

In 2000, Mourning was diagnosed with the same rare diseas: focal glomerulosclerosis, and in 2003 was told he would need a kidney transplant.   Three months later, Mourning received a kidney from a cousin he barely knew, Jason Cooper.   He re-joined the Miami Heat, won an NBA championship with them in 2006, and continued to be a star player until his retirement in 2009. 

Now Mourning runs Zo's Fund for Life, and several other charities aimed at fighting kidney disease and helping at-risk youth.

Both men are extraordinary people who had extraordinary careers.  Both men were lucky to have heroes.  Both men are an inspiration -- people who kept heart, kept the faith, and who overcame the odds.

Videos

I've been watching a some videos about kidney donation and the transplant process.

Here are a few of my favorites:

1) AARP: A Kidney Donation Changes One Man's Racial Perspectives 

1) UMMC - 3 kidney recipient/donor pairs discuss their experiences

2) Sisters - one sister donates to another, a woman donates to her co-worker

4) Another View - long but interesting show about kidney disease and kidney donation in the African American community.

    Watching these has almost the opposite effect of what I expected.  Far from being depressing or hopeless, I find these to be incredibly inspiring.  There is nothing like the power of the human spirit.

What is Sickle Cell ?

The underlying cause of Darryl's need for a kidney is his sickle cell disease.  What is sickle cell?  It's an inherited blood disease that can cause the red blood cells to lose oxygen.  During a "crisis," they harden and become sickle shaped instead of their normal, spongy donut (or bialy) shapes.  Our organs rely on oxygen being brought by the blood.   So this lack of oxygen is extremely painful, and can cause organ damage. 

Because it is found mostly in countries where malaria is common, it is seen to be a genetic mutation or adaptation to protect from malaria.  It is the most common genetic blood disease, affecting about 1 in every 500 African Americans.  But not only African Americans -people all over the world have sickle cell.

Here are some websites that explain sickle cell pretty well:

NIH Sickle Cell Anemia

Center for Disease Control


A few days ago, WNYC-FM ran a program by Radio Rookie Bree Person called Sickle and Me. She's a teenager who describes what it is like to live with sickle cell. 

Darryl is lucky in many ways.  Luckily, he hasn't had a major crisis since he started dialysis. He is very careful to eat well, get rest, and to stay warm.  And he relieves stress by writing and exercising.  He is living well.

A few great websites

I put a Facebook page up for Darryl's Kidney tonight.  But there are some other wonderful websites I'd love for you to know about.  Seems like a find a new one every day.

Tonight I found the Renal Support Network, which is kind of a community for people affected by kidney disease.

Another wonderful website specifically about kidney transplants is the KidneyLink.  It has a lot of great information for kidney donors and recipients about the whole transplant process.  I love the Living Kidney Donor Network, which also has a lot of information for both donors and recipients.  It was created by Harvey Mysel, who has had 2 transplants and who does a phenomenal job helping recipients let people know of their situation. We listened to his webinar earlier this week, full of statistics and ideas.

The National Kidney Registry is another amazing organization started out of necessity - by Garet Hil, whose 10 year old daughter needed a kidney.  Their work enables paired kidney donations and kidney chains, which has radically transformed the whole process.  Now, you don't have to be an exact match for the person you want to donate to.  If you are willing but don't have a compatible blood type, you can be matched with another pair so that it will work. 

But perhaps the most inspiring site that I have found is an interactive website from the NY Times called A Record Chain of Kidney Transplants.  One good Samaritan set off a chain that saved the lives of 30 people.  Truly amazing.

I'll post more great links as I find them.

A Little More About Darryl

First, here's a photo of him:

Handsome, if I do say so, myself!

Here is the bio up on his website:

Darryl Alladice is a performance poet and storyteller who grew up in Harlem and Brooklyn, New York. His work has been produced at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Schomburg Center, Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center, City College of New York, and various venues around the city. In 2010-2011,  he was the artistic director of the 1st Tuesday Series at Zora’s Art Space in Brooklyn, New York, and in 2011-2012, he curated the 3rd Tuesday series at the Dwyer Cultural Center in Harlem, New York.

Darryl's first book of Poetry, Jaundice, was published in 2009.  His second book, Measuring in Liters, will be released any day.  Watch this blog!

Let's start with the basics ...

The Kidneys.
 These two little organs are shaped like kidney beans, and they are located underneath your diaphragm toward your back, behind the stomach.  They are small - about 4 1/2 inches long x 2 1/2 inches wide and 1 inch thick.  But boy, are they powerful. The kidneys work day and night to remove waste from the bloodstream (which results in urine production), and to preserve an equilibrium of salt and electrolyte content in the blood.  We cannot survive without kidney function.

Dialysis.
Dialysis is really a miraculous procedure which cleans the blood and removes excess fluid.  There are 2 kinds, hemodialysis, which is described below, and peritoneal dialysis, which is often done at home.  

Like most dialysis patients, Darryl uses hemodialysis.   Two large needles are placed in the arm (usually) - one to take the blood out and one to bring it back in.   In between, the blood is filtered through a machine about the size of a bureau, called a dialyzer.

The process takes about 4 hours each time.  (note: some people dialize at home by hooking themselves up to a dialyzer for about 8 hours every night.  Others, using peritoneal dialysis, do it for 20-30 minutes at a time several times a day.) No mater how you cut it, dialysis takes a long time.  Darryl goes to a dialysis center located in our local hospital from 6 to 10 pm every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. 

Although it is life-sustaining, dialysis does not cure kidney disease.  Unless Darryl receives a transplant, he will be on dialysis for the rest of his life.

Another thing to know is that dialysis only provides a fraction - 10% - of normal kidney function.  A big machine, 3 days a week, cannot do what your kidneys do 24/7.  There ain't nothin' like the real thing, baby...