Stories

My Transplant Story

In 2004 I was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease called Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA). This is a rare condition that causes inflammation in blood cells. As a result of this disease my kidneys were badly damaged. I was put on the kidney transplant waiting list. My kidneys were still functioning well enough to avoid dialysis. In 2015 I was informed by my nephrologist that I was very close to being on dialysis. I was stunned as I was planning on moving to Chicago for graduate school. On Friday the 13th in May 2016 I received a phone call from a transplant coordinator at UCSF. She informed me of a kidney that became available through a man a few years younger than me who had died in a car accident. I was completely overwhelmed because I was not expecting a phone call at all. My mother was a potential donor and we were moving forward with her testing. I was told to get to UCSF as soon as I could. I went into the operating room after midnight.