This morning, just an hour ago, I spent a little time in the waiting room of a hospital near our home. While waiting to be called for a blood test, there were many people who were also waiting. A lady sitting next to me was wearing a mask. Her face was drawn, her hair swept and unkempt. She looks frail and had a plastic bag strapped to her right lower leg with urine flowing into the device. She looked across the room at a man in the distance and said: “hey aren’t you the guy who helped us the other day at the airport.” The man returned her question: “Yes that was me, how are you?”
As the conversation continued, all of us who were sitting nearby, understood that these two had been on waiting lists to receive a new kidney. We didn’t learn what had happened in their life that necessitated this new organs, only that they had been sick, for a very long time. The man who had helped the lady next to me had stated that this was his second kidney transplant. The first had lasted on a year before it failed. He had not been able to urinate for over six years, his bladder had shrunk to the size of a walnut. For six long years, he has endured terrible suffering and pain. Each week he was forced to endure kidney dialysis and after this most recent transplant, he must wear a painful catheter—24 hours a day. Continue reading “Be Thankful, Your Life Could Be a Lot Worse”
