Chris Schroeder has been extraordinarily unlucky – and extraordinarily lucky. 拥有58年历史的核桃溪, 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多岁时做了肾移植手术, 她的父亲在56岁时死于遗传性疾病. 所以从很小的时候, Schroeder was on the lookout for signs that he too would face similar challenges.
在他40岁出头的时候, 他的肾功能正在下降, 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.
虽然亲人愿意捐献器官并不罕见, 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.
在移植手术的五年内, 虽然, 一种罕见的情况导致新肾脏衰竭. 再一次, a member of Schroeder's family stepped forward to help – this time his 19-year-old son, 以斯拉记, 他是迪亚波罗谷学院的一名学生. 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Connie Frank移植中心.
你做第一次移植手术后发生了什么?
有段时间一切都很好, 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, 一种罕见的疾病正好在攻击新的肾脏. 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. 早上我感觉很好，但到了睡觉的时候，我感觉很糟糕. 那时我的肾功能已经降到10%以下, so I was also eligible to go back on the waiting list for another 肾移植.
以斯拉是怎么成为捐赠者的?
他先试探地向他妈妈提起了这件事. 然后我们一家人一起讨论这件事. 最初的时候我哭了. 我心里百感交集. 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, 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. 这非常感人.
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, 他总是很自由，很清醒. 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达出来. 他决定去做检查, 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.
你去做手术感觉如何?
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利来登录知道他们在做什么. 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，我想他们一年要做600多个肾移植手术. Kidney transplants, while not a minor procedure, aren't experimental, either.
恢复的怎么样?
我的康复过程并非一帆风顺. I left the hospital on Christmas Eve (以斯拉记 was discharged two days earlier). 但是两天后, 作为止痛药的副作用, 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.
我住院第五天之后，他们又开始行动了. 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, 在你骨盆一侧有一个4英寸宽的开口, 但因为他们也要移除我的非常大的, 当我得到以斯拉的肾时, 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, 事实上，部分原因是他太年轻了, fit person and they had to cut through all that super-strong pelvic muscle. 我想他对这种不适感到惊讶. 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, 我的利来登录说. 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, 这颗肾很有可能会撑过我的余生.
总的来说，我只是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, 从以斯拉这么年轻的人身上接受移植, 这并不常见. 他想为我做这件事，这是不可思议的. I am so grateful that my wife and son were willing to go through all of that to give me something so precious.
