Please save my life – Second Kidney Transplant

I want to start my story by looking back on my life when I was a little kid. The times when you have nothing to think about, the ones you just play, laugh and have no problem, the times you just want to be happy. But with each passing day you will gradually realize that everything is changing, with each passing hour and day you will experience things you never could have imagined. Our life was simple then. I grew up on a farm when I was very young. Awareness of poor living. My father was just a factory worker and my mother was a plain housewife. I even remember back then, when there was a strong typhoon my father would hang on our roof so that it would not be blown away by the strong wind. But despite the hardships in life, my parents raised me to be hard-working in school, I was taught to be responsible by my parents. I studied hard since I was a child, first honor from grade 1 to 6, graduated valedictorian. Being a scholar, I was able to get into a private school to hold high school.

Because of high grades rating in high school, I was able to apply as a scholar of our town in a private school. I was just starting my chosen course and it was only in the first semester that one of the saddest blows of my life came. One day after Christmas of year 1999, my dearest mother left us. She succumbed with breast cancer. It was my semestral break then, we were in the hospital for few weeks, trying to fight our mother's life. Since I was second to the eldest among the five siblings, I accompanied my mother up to her last breath in her death bed. I witnessed her ordeals to the point that her various organs gave up because of strong chemotherapy drugs. She even had a kidney failure back then and she had to have a treatment called hemodialysis, that's when I first saw and learned that it was difficult to undergo hemodialysis, it was like a life sentence, there was no turning back. They will put a tube in your neck, draw the blood to clean thru the machine and return it for 4 hours round and round twice or thrice weekly.

Fast forward, I finished college and passed the licensure exam in Mechanical Engineering. I promised to myself then, that I will not let the pains of the past be the hindrance of my success. I immediately found a job in a multinational manufacturing company. I also combined having a part time job as a teacher. Teaches at night and on weekends. Still not satisfied, I even studied for a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering at a famous university as a scholar. I said before, despite the past, destiny was too kind to me, all my dreams I have gradually achieved. But in an instant, the most painful part of my life came. Everything happened in reversed, my dreams were shattered instantaneously. It was most painful nightmare in my life, at first it was only detected that my blood pressure was elevated during regular annual physical examination. It was monitored but did not change, the company doctor was worried so I was referred to be examined by a specialist and there they found out that I was suffering from a chronic kidney disease and it was the end stage, my kidneys are all failing and will never recover. The only way to survive was to undergo lifetime hemodialysis that I am very familiar with as it was the same treatment we’ve experienced with my mother.

Fast forward again, this is where the nightmare of my life began. I have to do dialysis twice a week, take and inject expensive medicines regularly. Our family was in full debt, we almost begged our relatives. The time came when even our relatives could not really help. I told myself, I will not stop working, nor will I stop teaching, nor will I stop studying. Because it will save me from passing these ordeals. There was even a time that I was having difficulty of breathing while in the middle of a work, while teaching my students. But few months later then, I was able to overcome the costly treatment. I used my salaries from work, my scholarship allowances, my part time job income just to survive and have the treatments. Six months after I was diagnosed of the said disease, with the help of my former company, coworkers, classmates, friends, students, anonymous donors, I was able to have a successful kidney transplant. Everything went back to normal. I was able to do everything again normally and even joined a new company where I can work in an office set-up only. But the nightmare of my life never ends, my transplanted kidney only lasted for only 5 years. Doctor said, because the kidney came from a cadaver (non-living), non-related donor. It was again my immune system rejecting the new kidney. Doctors tried to salvage it but it in the end it fails. But I told myself, I will never give up, I will fight for my life, for my family. I still want to see my siblings, my nieces and nephews growing up. I will try a second kidney transplant. This time, my youngest brother wants to donate, we are matched. But the second transplant living donor costs millions. I can't do that yet. I need a huge amount of money. The time came when we tried to sell the inherited farmlands of my father, but it did not push through. It only caused quarrels among our relatives due to dispute in separations of mother land title. As a result, my second kidney transplant plan has not continued until now. I endured dialysis and it has been seven years. I have been fighting my disease for 13 years already. Although I have a stable job, my income is insufficient to support my costly treatment and medications. In fact, I am still the bread winner of the family. And in the recent unexpected turn of events, the pandemic came. I’ve lost my part time job and it means no more additional income. My siblings lost their jobs as well. There is no more help available. The government insurance that extend our lives is now being bombarded by several issues, agencies that were once approached to survive my ordeals are no longer able to provide assistance due to the many issues that are currently occurring. But here I am, still hoping that the time will come when everything will be fine as well.

I have fought through kidney failure for the past 13 years already and I feel that I am not done with my fight yet. I have too much to live for. I am still young but heartbreakingly I am now dying. Being on dialysis twice a week is not a good way to live. It is painful and as the weeks and months rolled by, it drained me physically, emotionally and financially. Most people don’t know I’ve had a previous ‘cadaveric kidney transplant’, they just see me as a normal person without knowing that I am now actually struggling for my health. Currently, my younger brother is planning to donate his one kidney to me and be my suitable match. But due to financial constraints, this life saving dream seems impossible to happen. My doctor is convinced that this second living donor transplant is my only chance for living a longer healthier life. I know this is a piece about life as a kidney patient and this is the only chance for me to live the fullest life I can.

Humbly, if it's not too much to ask, I am asking if you can assist me in any form of support for my dialysis and transplant. My family and I have no more means to bear my second transplant dream. This is truly a life and death matter and everyday holds the possibility of a miracle. On behalf of my family and myself, I thank you for whatever consideration you can extend to me. Mercifully, I ask for your help, please save my life, please extend my life. My family and I will appreciate any support you can give. "Thank you" do not seem adequate words, but they’re only the best I have so far.

The end of my story.

Fighting!

Christian Panganiban

Dialysis Patient