NB Female feels full of kidney donation to cousin in Ontario

Susana McKenzie-Sater has lost one of her kidneys, but says she feels more than ever.

The 29 -year -old St. John became an organ donor last month for her cousin at the woman Ontario, requiring kidney transplant.

40-year-old McKenzie Smith of Kitchener was genetically in the kidney failure of the end-phase of chronic kidney disease.

His kidney function had fallen by about four percent, and doctors predicted that he would be in the failure of the entire kidney within months.

“This doesn’t really feel like a disadvantage to me,” McKenzie-Sater said about his donated kidney. “It seems like a profit because I was really able to help the life of my cousin.”

Smith said that on August 13 has been demonstrated at the Transplant, London Health Science Center, which is a life-conversion.

Her new kidney immediately started working, she said, according to the level of creatinine in her blood work. Creatinine is an waste product that is used to measure how well the kidney is filtering the waste from the blood.

“For reference, a normal person’s creatinine usually occurs between 80 and 100” Smith said, Smith.

Hars was about 1,100 micromol per liter before surgery, but today it is 83.

Meanwhile, her kidney function increased to 80 per cent, Smith said.

“Just how I feel and the energy I have, and the clear-headed is just amazing. I haven’t felt so in years.

“This is the best I have ever felt. And I give that semolina.”

Life changing gift was almost blocked due to lack of doctor

Transplantation almost not happenedMcKenzie-Sater was one of the thousands of New Breanswicks without a family doctor or nurse practitioner, and the London Hospital told her that she could not donate-or even tested to confirm that he was a good candidate-without a primary-looking provider.

Potential living donors should have a complete medical examination so that they are healthy enough. They also require annual checkups to ensure that the remaining kidney is working correctly, as it has to work hard to make it for the kidneys removed.

According to Canadian Institute for Health Information, a kidney from a deceased donor in Canada is more than three years waiting for kidney. By the end of 2024, 2,922 people were on a waiting listEighty-two people died while waiting for that year.

Once McKenzie-Satear knew how important his cousin’s status is, he scrambled to find a doctor. Fortunately, a friend who is a doctor, a colleague found him ready to take him as a patient.

Extensive test to ensure a good match

McKenzie-Sater soon reduced blood and urine tests to confirm his kidney function. And in mid -May he traveled to London for testing, including kidney scan, electrocardiogram or EKG and a chest X-ray.

He also had to complete the genetic testing to ensure that he does not have the same defect as Smith, which runs in the family and gradually causes chronic kidney disease.

His maternal grandfather ended with a transplant from a car accident victim in the 1970s, while his aunt – Smith’s mother – and Smith’s sister had a living donor implants.

In early July, McKenzie-Sater finally learned that it was a good match and surgery was one. This was a relief.

“I didn’t want McKenzie to wait at any time because … if he did not get the kidney by the end of summer, he would have to go to dialysis,” a blood-filtering treatment that could be done in a medical center in a week, three hours a week, four hours each day, or daily overnight.

Month of waiting – and deteriorating – “very stressful,” Smith said. He tried his best to keep busy and “belief that things would come out as they mean,” but that too, it was relieved to hear that he made it through the screening process and would move forward.

Cover expenses to help $ 8,000 raised

McKenzie-Satear found a five-week waiting for surgery “a little nervous.” He is self-planned as a music teacher and a violinist, and many of his students take time out in summer, so he had time to think.

She said that she was not planning to share with the people that she was later going to donate a kidney, if something happened in the last minute, she said. But he created a gofundme page to help cover some costs.

Although there is one Reimbursement program for living organ donors In Ontario, the up-front cost was important, in about $ 6,000, he said.

For his surprise, he raised $ 8,000 and received several supporting comments. As he had noted in a post on the page, she will donate any surplus to the Kidney Foundation of Canada.

‘Anxiety-rage’ night before surgery

A day before the transplant, McKenzie-Satear moved to London with his partner Cameron McCalels to meet with the surgeon and get more tests.

That night was “certainly very anxiety-motivation”, she said, comparing how she feels before performing on the violin.

He had to stop eating at 8 pm, only drank water, and returned to the hospital with Smith at 5 am for a pre -operative care.

“It was good that we were right next to each other, so we could, like, chat, and it reminded me why I was there,” said McKenzie-Stor.

3-hour surgery an immediate success

Laparoscopic surgery, performed with three small incisions and a thin, light tube, lasted for three hours with a video camera.

When McKenzie-Sar woke up and her loved ones told that her kidney was already working for Smith, she was thrilled.

“It was something that I was a pioneer for it, that is what will happen if we go through all this and it does not work?”

‘Kidney Friends for Life’

McKenzie-Sate was able to see Smith the next day. Smith was in a separate hospital room, as he is now considered immunocomozed with immunospentic drugs that she takes her body to prevent the kidney from rejecting.

“It was really special” and “like emotional,” McCenzie-Sater recalled.

Smith was telling him, “I can’t believe it, like, you didn’t have to do so,” said McKenzie-Saters. “And I’m liked, but we are families’ and … felt it, for me, like doing the right thing.”

Smith described that moment as “really meaningful”.

Both women agree that experience has brought them closer. Smith recently sent a tot bag to McKenzie-Sater, adorned with a cartoon-sector kidney, which declares him “kidney friends for life”.

They are in contact regularly, are examined on each other and give messages about their progress.

“We are together on this journey,” Smith said.

Quick recovery is surprising

McKenzie-Sater said that the most difficult part for him was in the hospital. He was expected to stay for only two days, but a blood transfusion was needed and had to stay for five.

Otherwise, she is surprised how soon she is recovering, she said.

She had some pain in the first week, making it difficult for gold or her violin to play, but she became better every day and now “feels very normal,” her incisions already cured in a pink mark.

Only the real change, he said, it is that he needs to avoid additional salt and ibuprofen to drink a lot of water and protect his rest of his kidneys.

Anything is less likely to be wrong with that kidney, McKenzie-Sater said, pointing to a comprehensive test, he said. A nephrologist in London will monitor him every few months through a blood test.

Encourages others to donate

Smith’s recovery is also going well. He has not suffered much pain, she is adjusting her medicines and has started walking and riding a bike.

She still refers to her new kidney as a McKenzie-Kidney or “The Kidney”.

“I think I still have to take my head around that this is my kidney because for so long, you know, I was looking at it, I am receiving a semolina kidney,” he said. She hopes that time will be adjusted as the passage of time.

“I feel very grateful that I was given this opportunity and I think I want to take advantage of it the most. I feel like I want to make a difference. I think I want to join it. I think I can take things that I am putting … because I don’t just feel physically competent. And now I am really a great feeling.”

Smith hopes that others will consider becoming a live donor.

“I think there is a lot of wrong information about this process. … and I think it is very afraid because it is not well understood. And everyone would suggest someone that the organ can consider donation, it has to do its research.”

No ‘as scary as’

McKenzie-Sater agreed.

“This is not really scary as it seems,” he said.

“This is a very complete thing to do. It also turns you into a person.

“To be able to give someone such an organ, like, changed your life, it just appreciates your health and … you really feel good.”