Tyler has known since he was around 12-13 years old he has had polycystic kidney disease. He had blood in his urine after a basketball game and further investigation led to the discovery. He’s never had problems with his kidneys really until the past two years. Polycystic kidney disease is an autosomal dominant disease meaning there’s a 50% chance of having it with any offspring. Tyler’s mom, Barb, went through a kidney transplant 12 years ago. Her daughter, Tyler’s sister, Tabra gave her a kidney and she never had to start dialysis. Tyler and I have always known he would likely need a transplant. We just didn’t anticipate it would happen while he’s still in his 30s! Two-three years ago, Tyler had labs drawn at the school lab fair and at that time the labs indicated his kidney function was starting to decline. He established with a nephrologist (kidney specialist) who has been monitoring his function closer over the past year. Subsequent labs have indicated his kidney function has continued to decrease, more rapidly in the past 6 months. His nephrologist is quite proactive and suggested referral for transplant this past Spring in order to avoid dialysis. Dialysis is an amazing medical tool to keep people alive and functioning when their kidneys don’t work well enough, but it is extremely time consuming-usually 15 hrs per week and physically taxing. We researched transplant programs and decided KUMed was the best choice for us due to location and reputation. The process of getting ready and completing the work up for transplant has been a bit overwhelming along with navigating through the Covid situation. After multiple labs,scans and appointments, Tyler was blessed to have a match in his first cousin, Derek. Derek and Emilee have sacrificed a lot of time this summer to go through the work up to get ready for transplant day. We can never thank Derek enough for this gift he is giving Tyler! We are so thankful for this whole process. It certainly beats being hooked up to a machine 15 hrs per week to survive!
