Great gifts found in written word
Diana is 38 years old. She is the divorced mother of two young children and she is in full renal (kidney) failure. If she does not get a new kidney soon, she will not live to see her children grow up.
I talked to Diana at length recently to find out how this happened and how she could be helped. When Diana was 6 years old, she, along with a couple of her cousins, came down with the flu, and while her cousins recovered, Diana did not. After her bout with the flu and a hospital stay, Diana developed Type 1 diabetes. Her pancreas stopped producing insulin.
She has struggled her entire life with this disease which now necessitates six self-administered insulin shots a day. She has developed diabetic retinopathy, a condition where vision is affected by diabetes; peripheral neuropathy, which is nerve damage to the extremities and kidney failure.
Because her kidneys no longer work to excrete toxins and fluid from her body, she undergoes hemodialysis with a heart catheter three times a week, six hours each time. Before each scheduled dialysis, here is what Diana undergoes:
She is anemic and sleeps much of the time; potassium loss causes muscle weakness; imbalance of electrolytes causes a numbness and tingling in her arms, legs, hands and feet; she is nauseous much of the time; even though she often feels very thirsty, she must watch the amount of liquid she takes in because her body cannot expel it; her lungs feel strangled by the fluid that builds up and she cannot breath. That’s when the anxiety and hopelessness set in.
“Sometimes I just want it all to end,” Diana said, “but my kids keep me going. After dialysis I usually feel better for a day or so.” Diana, in a good week, might have two days where she is able to play with her children and do a little housework. Then the fluids build up again.
Trips to the emergency room are common in Diana’s world. But little is accomplished there. Because the local hospitals do not staff dialysis personnel on the weekends, she is often sent home, still drowning in her own fluid, with an anti-anxiety drug to calm her down.
Diana desperately needs a kidney transplant. She is blood type O positive, but unfortunately, other blood factors make her a match for only 7 percent of the population. That is why it is so important to get the word out, everywhere. Many, many people need to be tested to find a match for her.
Cadaver transplants are often done in these cases, and Diana is on a list for that as well. But a living donor is preferable. The rejection percentage is lower when a live donor kidney is used.
Organ donation has been around for a long time now. Driver’s licenses indicate if that person wants to be a donor in case of a catastrophic accident. There is a network nationwide that doctors can access to look for donors. It is also possible to specify to whom a donated organ will go.
Diana’s insurance pays 100 percent for her expenses for a transplant as well as that of a donor. What isn’t covered is the gas to the hospital in Pittsburgh, hotel bills for the driver on these trips or meals while there.
Various fundraisers have been held to help defray these costs. But what she really needs is people to step up and be tested. If you have ever thought of becoming an organ donor, please call UPMC, 1-877-640-6746 and ask for Angela Barber. She is the Living Transplant Coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh. Indicate that you’d like to be tested for kidney transplant for Diana O’Rouke.
You can also visit Diana’s Facebook page by searching for DianaStrong (no space). Diana’s children need her.
Almost anyone can be an organ donor, but it takes a special kind of angel to be a living organ donor.
Robyn Near is a Ripley resident whose column appears twice monthly. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com
Great gifts found in written word
The snow has been pounding down all day and it looks like a calendar shot. The wind creates little tornadoes of glitter across my yard.
Silence blankets nature’s beautiful noises, until a plow eventually scrapes through the quiet, a path to ensure that life can go on. White deserts and mirages of summer fill my thoughts; creatively this is perfect.
Writing has kept me busy for most of the chill. When writers block rears its ugly head, I fill my inspiration with good books of varying genres. Once inspired, I pour words out of my pen onto paper releasing mosaics of alphabetical masterpieces. The long nights spent in front of the fireplace with tea and my laptop encourages me to continue writing until my novel is finally finished.
Sometimes I get so involved with the climaxes as each plots thickens, that I forget the stresses of the real world. There is no such thing as bored when you are playing in your mind.
Writing down a beautiful experience is a way to not only relive it, but to entomb it onto paper and keep it forever. If you miss the beach and its salty breeze, or the way the sun ripples across the top of the warm water, write about it. If you miss your childhood memories of playing sneaks, a first kiss or sports in the summer heat, write about it. I have so many short stories that I’ve written for my children when they were small. I have some that they to helped me write, even though they more than likely don’t remember.
These are gifts I can give them when they’re older. Memories that you can’t watch, but you can only feel as you read along with a voice from long ago. I can’t encourage people enough to find local writing groups. Imagination is a beautiful thing. I feel as though you can never be truly lonely if you can figure out how to tell yourself stories. Or maybe that’s just the way I’ve convinced myself that, I’m not crazy, after being a stay-at-home mom for all these years.
Writing, music, and art, they’re all ways to create. To create a feeling, or a thought. Have you ever been driving down the road and had a song come on and it takes you back to high school? Suddenly you find yourself laughing, or crying, that’s what it feels like to write about something that you’re truly passionate about.
Criticism can be hard, however. Someone telling you that you’re not descriptive enough, or that they can’t “see” what they’re being shown in your carefully selected words. Just like with anything though, society creates its own boundaries and wants you to color inside of the lines. Personally, I think the most incredible works of art are the ones scribbled by a small child, or nature’s tiny little bird prints in the newly fallen snow. I like to think of myself as rebellious when I write.
All rules go out the window and heart takes over. To me spontaneous episodes of happiness or spur of the moment fun are the times we should cherish the most. I see memes on social media all the time like “live, love, laugh” or “It’s not about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.” I think they’re precious, but how often do we really do this?
The world is an amazing place if we can learn to let it live through us; if we can learn to relax and absorb what gifts it can give to our senses. I am a writer. This is how I express myself.
However, you express yourself, do it. Whether you crank up the radio at a red light and sing loud enough to stop traffic, or whether you sleep under the stars breathing in the earthy air. Just remember to feel.
It’s easy enough to find yourself building up that wall, and shutting out the chaos of the mainstream, especially in the winter months. Just remember to live. Life is too short to not try to feel everything.
Ivory Fishgold is a Sinclairville resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com