Transplantation

A kidney transplant is a surgical procedure that places a healthy kidney from a live or deceased donor into a person whose kidneys no longer function properly.

The kidneys are two bean-shaped organs located on either side of the spine just below the rib cage. Each one is about the size of a fist. Their main function is to filter and remove excess waste, minerals and fluid from the blood by producing urine.

When your kidneys lose this filtering ability, harmful levels of fluid and waste accumulate in your body, which can raise your blood pressure and result in kidney failure — End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). ESRD occurs when the kidneys have lost about 90 percent of their ability to function normally.

Common causes of ESRD include:

• Diabetes.

• Uncontrolled (chronic) high blood pressure.

• Chronic glomerulonephritis. This is inflammation and eventual scarring of the tiny filters (glomeruli) within your kidneys. (This was my diagnosis at 13.)

• Polycystic kidney disease.

*People with ESRD have waste removed from their bloodstream via a machine (dialysis) or a kidney transplant to stay alive.*

I have had two kidney transplants. One from my mother at age 19 in 1988 in Toronto, Canada, and the other from my husband, Kevin, at age 42 in 2011 in Los Angeles, California. Please consider living donation. You can read about living donation in the USA and Canada here: