| (Editor's note: This part one of a two-part series)
After a few days away, it's safe to say Cody Koteras will be returning home to Richmond on Christmas Day with the most unusual and precious gift any Fort Bend County child will receive from his or her mother this Christmas: the gift of a kidney; the gift of life.
Just over a year ago, neither Cody nor his parents ever dreamed they would find themselves in Methodist Hospital this Christmas - Cody in one operating room and his mom, Cheryl, in another with dad Dennis pacing the floors between waiting rooms. And right beside him was Cody's sister, Tiffany, and his girlfriend of three years, Celisa Salazar.
“We call her ‘Celestial;' she's our angel,” Cheryl said of Celisa just days before the surgery.
It was Celisa, Cheryl explained, who convinced Cody to tell his mom of numerous symptoms he'd been having -symptoms that made the concerned mom insist he see a doctor.
“He had not been sick at all,” Cheryl said. “Severe leg cramps is what triggered all this.”
“About three months prior to finding out I had kidney failure, my legs would get real swollen from my calves down,” Cody recalled. “I didn't think anything of it. Then, about two weeks before I went to the doctor, I started smelling this chemical smell - kind of like Windex or ammonia.”
Cody attributed the leg cramps and swelling, along with extreme tiredness, to working long hours; but when he began being sick at his stomach, vomiting frequently and noticing the chemical smell, Celisa convinced him it was time to tell his parents. And it was a good thing she did.
Only 20 years old at the time, Cody was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease on Sept. 8, 2006 - a day he'll not likely forget. He had high blood pressure another symptom of kidney failure - and lab work showed him to be severely anemic; so much so, in fact, that he was admitted to the hospital the morning after seeing the doctor and given 5 pints of blood. Considering the body only holds 8 pints, it was easy to see why he was anemic.
After about a week in OakBend Medical Center in Richmond, Cody was given a choice of hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis.
“The doctor told me that if I wanted to have my life in my hands, peritoneal dialysis was the way to go,” he said.
Once that decision was made, he was admitted to Memorial Southwest Hospital in Houston, where a catheter was inserted and Cody received training for giving himself dialysis at home. Cheryl, meanwhile, learned how to give her son the weekly injections that would help keep him alive until a donor kidney could be found.
Every evening, Cody had to be hooked up to the dialysis machine by 11 p.m. at the latest in order to receive the 7 1/2 hours of treatment he needed so he could get to work on time the following morning. He also had to keep close records of his blood pressure, weight, temperature and pulse. But that will soon be a thing of the past.
Thursday evening, Cheryl was admitted to Methodist Hospital in Houston's Medical Center in preparation for a nephrectomy at 6:30 the following morning. Her son was admitted a couple of hours before the operation to remove Cheryl's right kidney, and the two were in neighboring operating rooms. Cody's surgical team had him ready and waiting when the organ was delivered; and just hours after both procedures began, the mother and son were recuperating nicely and their family was relieved.
“Cheryl is in a lot of pain,” Dennis reported at about noon, “but she's doing good. Cody is in recovery and we should be able to go in and see him soon.”
Dennis said while there is no family history of kidney failure.
Although doctors aren't sure what caused Cody's kidneys to fail, said Cheryl, it could have been a combination of things, including poor eating habits and little rest.
“I drank about 12 Dr. Peppers a day and ate junk and smoked. But when they told me about the kidney failure, I quit cold-turkey. I quit that minute,” Cody said.
He and his family insist there have other been blessings to come from the ordeal, as well. Among them, said Cody, is that his friends - and even co-workers at Cable Service Repair in Rosenberg - have heeded his advice to get regular check-ups.
“If I would have done that, there's a good chance none of this would have ever happened,” said the 22-year-old.
“It's hard - it's sad,” Celisa said, taking his hand. “I wish it was me instead of him.”
A radiology student at Wharton County Junior College, Celisa is as aware as Cody that he is extremely lucky the diagnosis was made when it was - and luckier still that his mom matched five of the six markers surgeons look for in a potential donor. Dennis only matched three of the markers.
“If I wasn't a match, my son would be waiting on a non-living organ donor,” Cheryl said. “And the longer he's on dialysis, the harder it is on his heart.”
Still, she explained, it is recommended that patients be on dialysis at least six months before being placed in a transplant waiting list. In the meantime, doctors told Cheryl she would have to lose 50 pounds in order to be healthy enough to give her son a kidney. She immediately began working hard at losing the weight, and as successful in a matter of months.
“My son saved me life, too, because I needed to lose the weight,” Cheryl said. Still, she admitted, “It was hard; if I hadn't had him as my focus, I couldn't have done it. I called it my ‘Cody Need a Kidney Plan.' I would tell myself, ‘Cody needs a kidney worse than I need a' - fill in the blank with chocolate or ice cream or whatever.”
Cheryl's' kidney should last her son 20 to 25 years. If science hasn't found a way to keep him from needing a new kidney by then, Tiffany will be tested to see if she is a match.
Tiffany and her son, 5-year-old Christian, live with the family and will help out with as much post-surgery care as possible; but the majority of the duties will fall to Dennis and Celisa, who both received training for the crucial recovery period.
“Me and this one have had emotional times together,” Cody said, taking Celisa's hand.
His dad concurred. “We had our cry when we first found out. It was a shock.”
Still, he admitted, the thought of both is wife and son undergoing major surgery simultaneously was nerve-wracking. The end result, though, all agreed, will be worth it, with Cody free from the dialysis machine and able to live a normal life, simply taking anti-rejection drugs and a couple of other medications as well.
Unlike hemodialysis, which removed blood form the body, cleanses and returns it, peritoneal dialysis put cleansing solution in Cody's abdominal cavity every night and extracted it as well.
The family said it's their faith and the prayers of countless friends that has gotten them through the past 14 months, and that will get them through their lives. For Cheryl, that faith has always been the basis for wanting to be an organ donor whether in life or in death.
“For years, I've been a Commit For Life donor,” she said of the Blood Center's quarterly blood donation program. “Sitting in that hospital when Cody was diagnosed, I realized, ‘This is why it's so important. If people didn't donate, my son couldn't survive. I wonder who gave that blood? Thank you, thank you, thank you.' Giving blood took on a whole new meaning.”
“This is the best gift you can give at Christmas or any time -the gift of life,” Cody said. “My kidneys were only functioning at 13 percent when I was diagnosed. My body was not capable of cleansing itself and I needed that blood.”
Cheryl said when she returned home from the hospital to get a shower when Cody was first diagnosed, Philippians 4:6-7 was the Scripture for the Day on the front page of the Fort Bend Herald. Before returning to the hospital that day, she read the Scripture, which she said became her favorite and helped her though the past year: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Cheryl said she carried the Scripture in her heart when going to the hospital to give her only son her kidney so he can live a normal life once again. And her son said there are no words to describe such love.
“It was so scary at first,” he said. “It felt like a dream. As soon as I heard, ‘kidney failure,' it hurt. I started thinking, ‘This is going to be a life-changing thing.' But I want people out there to know if it happens to them, your life's not over; it's just different. But - if it weren't for organ donors out there, people like me wouldn't have a chance.”
To learn about becoming an organ donor, visit Web site www.lifegift.org or talk to your physician.
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