Taking on COVID-19 and a kidney transplant

Despite working for 50 hours a week at the sawmill, Nicholas suffered from zero symptoms and never saw signs of fatigue or weakness, indicating that he had kidney failure. Nicholas went to his doctors, but after suspecting he was not the right fit, decided to switch to a different doctor.

After visiting his new doctors and taking multiple new tests, his bloodwork indicated that he actually had an autoimmune disease called IgA nephrology where the IgA (a protein) deposits build up in the kidney and cause inflammation that damages kidney tissues.

The disease left Nicholas with only 23% kidney function and luckily he was able to catch it early on before he needed to go on dialysis. The doctors determined he would need a transplant but could not do the surgery until his renal function went down to under 20 percent. He was tested the year before and his wife tested last January to determine her suitability as a donor.

However, Nicholas had various obstacles in his way before he was able to get his transplant a few months ago.

He was scheduled for his Transplant with Mayo Clinic three times prior but could not make it because the donor fell through twice and then Patricia and Nicholas both fell seriously ill with COVID-19.

Both of them suffered from severe flu-like symptoms and Nicholas had a fever of 104 that didn’t break for several weeks, and lost 20 pounds following his recovery. Because COVID-19 is so new, the transplant team didn’t have a particular protocol for organ transplant and COVID.

Nicholas had to wait a few more months for his body to recover to get cleared from Mayo Clinic. When he arrived again to be screened for surgery, the doctors found his liver levels were elevated, an unforeseen side effect from COVID-19, due to the excessive amounts of Tylenol he consumer to break his fever.

But the fourth time’s a charm.

When the couple came to our house several months ago, Nicholas was cleared for surgery and that was all thanks to his wife.

Patricia did not want Nicholas to go through the strenuous process of dialysis, and the fear of not having a donor from their prior experience at Mayo led her to be tested to see if she could be a match for Nicholas.

“I was so upset when I found out Nick had kidney failure because I didn’t know what I was going to do. If something were to happen, I would lose him it’s not like he would lose me, so I was extremely stressed out, but he was very calm and rational,” Patricia says, when she thinks about the process, it brings tears to her eyes.

Even though she was a 100% perfect match for him, somehow she was not the ideal donor due to the arteries in her kidneys being far smaller than the transplant department at Mayo Clinic strived for.

Feeling defeated again, the doctors informed the couple, on the paired exchange donation program.

In this process, Patricia who had already been a match would give her kidney to a woman, and Nicholas would receive a better kidney from a male- the ideal situation.

Although for Patricia this could be seen as a less than perfect scenario as she wanted her kidney to go directly to Nicholas, she figured if going through this less than ideal route meant saving his life and he would get a kidney faster, she would go through with the process.

Soon after, Nicholas received his kidney and has had a smooth recovery from his operation. He says the best advice he can give those going through a similar situation is to stay at the Gabriel House.

“The environment is very homey and quiet, and allowed us to have a very peaceful and stress-free stay,” both Patricia and Nicholas said in unison.

They also said to take one day at a time, “Things don’t always work out the way you think or assume they are going to work. We expected to be in the hospital for 3 days but that turned into 12. We had to be patient. Stressing won’t change the present,” Patricia and Nick both learned.

While Nick has recovered from his transplant within a few weeks of his stay with us, Patricia returned a month or two ago, with Nicholas as her caregiver this time to undergo her Kidney donor surgery for the program. Patricia donated her kidney, and both of them are on their way to a smooth recovery and can put all this well behind them in time for Mother’s Day this year!