Black History Month and the Present

Happy to share this important blog post from Gail Rae-Garwood, a fellow advocate, in honor of Black History Month. Given that African Americans are so disproportionately affected by chronic kidney disease, the low representation among nephrologists is all the more unfortunate. In August, we celebrate Minority Awareness Month, and March is National Kidney Month, but kidney disease is a reality for millions of African Americans all year long.

SlowItDownCKD

I’ll bet you thought I’d forgotten all about Black History Month. Not at all, dear readers, not at all. It’s just that since this is a yearly occurrence and I’ve been blogging about kidney disease for 14 years, it becomes harder and harder to uncover Black nephrologists I haven’t written about before. Of course, including current Black nephrologists changes the picture somewhat. This year, I turned to Blackamericanweb for some help and found it,

“Dr. Velma Scantlebury [Gail here: sometimes she is referred to as Scantlebury-White.] is the first African American female transplant surgeon in America. She is currently the associate director of the Kidney Transplant Program at Christiana Care in Delaware. [Gail here again: actually, she retired last year.] With more than 200 live donor kidney transplants under her career, she holds extensive research credit in African American kidney donation led by Northwestern Medicine Transplantation Surgeon Dinee C. Simpson, MD, Dr. Scantlebury…

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Living Donors Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro?

Yes, you read that right.

In a recent magazine interview, I was explaining that I still lead a healthy active life, at 73, about 15 years postdonation. I was never an athlete, but I knew plenty of donors who ran marathons, I said. Being a donor typically rules out only activities like contact sports–and, say, mountain climbing, I joked.

Well, I’m happy to report that the joke was on me.

Twenty-two members of Kidney Donor Athletes from across the United States (and one from Canada), plan to do just that next month (March 2022). They’re training now to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak! I’m told you don’t need technical mountain-climbing skills per se for this one. However, you certainly need to be in excellent physical shape for any expedition that starts at the equator and gets colder and colder till it reaches the arctic zone at the top.

I was excited to see that one of the donor climbers, Matthew Harmody, hails from my state, North Carolina. In fact, he donated at the same transplant center as I did: the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Matt and I have something else in common: we both donated when we were in our late 50s. (More than a third of living donors are over 50.) Admittedly, that’s where the commonalities end. Unlike me, Matt is clearly no wimp.

Now 60, Matt, an emergency physician from Southern Pines, NC, was an endurance athlete (think ultra-marathons and 100K trail races) long before his 2017 donation. Also, he was a nondirected donor–he gave to someone he has yet to meet. (I gave my kidney to my adult son.)

Matt’s donation was in memory of his father, who had kidney failure and would not accept a donation from a family member (that’s not an uncommon parental instinct). “I felt that if I couldn’t help my father, I could at least make a difference in someone’s life with a non-directed kidney donation,” Matt explained.

Kidney Donor Athletes founder Tracey Hulick was also an ultra-athlete/nondirected donor in 2017. She formed the nonprofit in 2018 to encourage living donation and of course to inspire other athletes.

But why the dramatic One Kidney Climb?

“KDA is using this climb to bring awareness to living donation, demonstrate what is possible post-donation, and to launch initiatives which inspire, support and educate people about the experience of living donation,” according to the website. The March scheduling is significant: the group plans to reach the summit on March 10, World Kidney Day. (BTW, March is National Kidney Month in the United States.)

Come to think of it, Matt and I do have a few more things in common:

1-We’re both in excellent health, have good kidney function, and don’t see a nephrologist.

2-For pain relief, we opt for acetominophen (aka Tylenol) instead of ibuprophen (or other NSAIDS, which are all hard on the kidneys).

3-Most of all, we’re both champions for living donation.

For related posts, resources, and information on my new book, The Insider’s Guide to Living Kidney Donation, be sure to explore the rest of my website.

Kidney Donation: True or False

It occurred to me once again the other day that if we ever hope to increase awareness and encourage living donation, we still need to clear up a few misconceptions and teach the basics. Did you know the answers to these true or false questions?

1—You have to be a blood relative to donate your kidney to someone.

2—You can’t lead a normal, healthy life with just one kidney.

3—Kidney donors can’t ever drink alcohol.

4—Living donors have to take medication for the rest of their lives.

5—Living donors need to see a nephrologist (kidney specialist) regularly.

Answers:

1. False. Though blood relatives have a higher chance of being a good tissue match, unrelated donors are a fast-growing group. And even if you are not a blood-type match, you can donate on behalf of someone in a paired donation–basically a swap.

2. False. Thousands of people are born with just one kidney and are perfectly healthy. When you lose a kidney, the other kidney takes on some of the function of the one that was removed. The result is sufficient to lead a normal life.

3. False. Alcohol is processed through the liver, not the kidneys. Living donors have no particular alcohol-related restrictions other than moderation and being hydrated.

4. False. Living donors who are otherwise healthy have no kidney-specific medications.

5. False. Healthy living donors have no need for specialized kidney care and are simply advised to see their primary care provider to monitor their kidney function and blood pressure annually.

Yup, all false. No doubt there are many more misconceptions about kidney donation. Check out the growing list of FAQs, and if you don’t see an answer to something you’ve heard, please let me know. It too may be a myth.

For related posts, resources, and information on my new book, The Insider’s Guide to Living Kidney Donation, be sure to explore the rest of my website.