Chris Schroeder has been extraordinarily unlucky – and extraordinarily lucky. 58岁的核桃溪, 加州, resident grew up in a family where the specter of polycystic kidney disease, a disorder in which cysts form on the kidneys and eventually stop them from functioning, 出现大.
他的母亲在60多岁时接受了肾脏移植手术, 她的父亲死于遗传病，享年56岁. 所以从小开始, Schroeder was on the lookout for signs that he too would face similar challenges.
那时他才40出头, 他的肾功能在下降, but doctors 虽然t he'd be able to go another three decades before needing a transplant. Unfortunately, around the time he was 50 things took a turn for the worse. In 2007, he underwent his first 肾移植, thanks to an unlikely donor – his wife, Sonia.
While it's not unusual for loved ones to offer to be organ donors, the chances of his wife being a suitable match for Schroeder were slimmer than usual because Sonia is of Mexican descent and from a completely different gene pool than his. Schroeder tried talking his wife out of taking the tests, but she insisted. And against extremely steep odds, the couple turned out to be a match.
在移植后的五年内, 虽然, 一种罕见的疾病导致新肾衰竭. 再一次。, a member of Schroeder's family stepped forward to help – this time his 19-year-old son, 以斯拉记, Diablo Valley学院的学生. Under the supervision of UCSF Medical Center transplant surgeon Dr. Nancy 亚瑟, the father and son underwent simultaneous surgeries on December 18, 2014, at the 加州大学旧金山分校康妮弗兰克移植中心.
你第一次移植后发生了什么?
有一段时间一切都很好, 但在五年左右, it became clear that something was causing this transplanted kidney to fail too. They did tons of testing at UCSF and eventually discovered that it was something called C1q nephropathy, 一种罕见的疾病恰好攻击了他的新肾脏. It was a totally spontaneous thing – it wasn't something present in my "native" kidneys.
所以我做了透析, which was grueling – I had to be hooked up to a machine for eight hours each night while it cleansed my blood using a reverse osmosis process called peritoneal dialysis, 通过植入我腹部的导管. 早上的时候我感觉很好，但是到了睡觉的时候我就觉得很难受了. 那时，我的肾功能低于10%, so I was also eligible to go back on the waiting list for another 肾移植.
以斯拉怎么会成为捐赠者的?
他先试探性地向他妈妈提了这个问题. 然后我们全家一起讨论这件事. 一开始我哭了. 我百感交集. Of course, I was immensely proud of him for offering to be a donor. But at the same time I was conflicted because it's one thing when your wife, 谁是50岁?, wants to do it for you – but another thing when your teenager wants to do this for you. 这是一个艰难的决定. 你想要，但那是你儿子. 非常激动.
In terms of his health, we'd been monitoring his kidneys his whole life. The doctors would check him for cysts via ultrasound every five years, 他一直都是清白的. But that didn't mean he was totally in the clear because there are three genes that can cause the symptoms, 但可能要到晚年才会表现出来. 他决定去检查一下, 过了很长时间, 紧张的等待, it came back that he does not have the genetic markers for polycystic kidney disease. As a family we discussed the report and I asked 以斯拉记 what he wanted to do. 他担心会有多疼, but said that he had 虽然t about it and wanted to go ahead with the donation.
你做手术时感觉如何?
我很紧张, 但就像我第一次移植一样, 我知道加州大学旧金山分校的十大赌博平台排行榜知道他们在做什么. They pioneered the program over 30 years ago and UCSF is the number one live donor 肾移植 hospital in the world. 我的意思是，他们一年要做600多例肾脏移植手术. Kidney transplants, while not a minor procedure, aren't experimental, either.
复苏情况如何??
我的恢复并非一帆风顺. I left the hospital on Christmas Eve (以斯拉记 was discharged two days earlier). 但是两天后, 这是止痛药的副作用, 我的大肠停止工作了, and so I went back in for another four days so they could get it under control. I came home on New Year's Eve, but three days later the same symptoms came back. This time it was a kink in my small intestine – and even more painful.
在我住进十大赌博平台排行榜的第五天之后，一切又恢复正常了. They really wanted to avoid having to open me up again to do intestinal surgery, especially because my transplant surgery this second time had required a much bigger opening. 通常他们只做一个很小的, 骨盆一侧有一个4英寸宽的开口, 还因为他们要切除我肿大的, 当我得到以斯拉的肾脏时, 他们不得不把我从骨盆开到胸骨. My native kidneys were so gross – each weighed about three pounds and was covered with cysts.
值得庆幸的是, everything with my intestines began to run smoothly after that point and I didn't need any more surgery.
以斯拉感觉如何?
对以斯拉, 这比他想象的要难, 实际上——部分原因是他太年轻了, fit person and they had to cut through all that super-strong pelvic muscle. 我想他对这种不舒服感到惊讶. I don't have as much muscle in that area so that wasn't as much of an issue for me or for my wife when she went through it. The surgery coincided with his winter school break so he was able to recover during that time and after about a month he was back playing basketball again.
你的预后如何??
The fact that the kidney came from someone who is physically very close in body size and a 50 percent genetic match for me is great, 我的十大赌博平台排行榜说. 到目前为止，一切都很顺利. I'll have a biopsy every six months this first year 然后 as needed for maintenance. So long as I take care of myself overall with diet and exercise and don't do anything foolish, 这个肾很有可能陪伴我的余生.
总的来说，我对这一切感到惊讶和感激. 因为我妻子能先给我一个器官, 然后, 接受以斯拉这么年轻的人的器官移植, 这种情况并不常见. 他愿意为我做这件事，这真是不可思议. I am so grateful that my wife and son were willing to go through all of that to give me something so precious.
