I believe that my life is an endless rollercoaster of health issues. Ever since I was in third grade my father has experienced various health issues that have caused many ups and downs in my life. 

This first occurred when I was in third grade walking home from the bus stop on a scorching hot summer day. I was hoping to go home, relax, and watch some TV which was my favorite thing to do at the time.

My mom called me into her room as soon as I walked into the front door and said, “Your dad has a rare kidney disease called IGA Nephropathy, his kidneys are failing, and we are going to have to try and find someone to give him another kidney.”

My young self not understanding what that meant responded, “Why can’t they just fix his kidney? What is going to happen?”

My mom then said, “He needs to have at least one kidney to survive and be healthy and doctors cannot fix a failing kidney. They must get a new one from someone else. We are just going to have to hope and pray someone will give your dad one of theirs or else he may not be living much longer.”

I did not fully understand what that meant, and I just said, “We will have to pray a lot for Dad to be okay.”  I was very scared because I love my father a lot and could not imagine life without him. I then went to my room upstairs crying all sad trying to soak in all the information.

The terrain was extremely rough.  The doctor told my mom that we needed to find someone who was similar age as my dad with the same blood type to donate a kidney to Dad.  Unfortunately, my mom had the wrong blood type and Dad’s siblings weren’t healthy enough or were too scared about the operation.  Mom wrote the story of her life on Matchingdonors.com to try and find someone to help my dad.

Within a month, my family got very lucky, even before my dad had to start kidney dialysis where he would have had to go to the hospital three days a week for four hours at a time to survive. An incredible woman named Cheryl, who was the same blood type as my dad, responded to the story and wanted to get tested to help my dad and the entire family.  This was exactly what we needed. It was a very happy time for my family with lots of excitement and joy.

A couple of weeks later, my parents were able to find a time for Cheryl to fly out from Texas to get tested.  The tests went well, and within 1 month, Cheryl, along with the Mayo Clinic doctors saved my dad. The whole surgery went well, and my dad ended up being healthy again.

This was the very first slope up on the roller coaster of health that took place within my family. It was exciting that my dad got a new kidney but what I didn’t realize until winter of that year was that my dad would forever have a week immune system. 

I had picked up the flu just as any young kid would within school.  My mom came up to my room to ask me how I felt and said, “You are going to have to be very careful around your dad and make sure you stay upstairs.”

I was very confused as my dad had always helped take care of me when I was sick, so I responded, “why do I have to stay upstairs?” 

My mom tried her very best to explain it to me even though it was not the easiest thing to explain to an eight-year-old, saying, “Your dad got a kidney transplant so now he gets sick a lot easier and can end up in the hospital with the flu even though you can get over it in a few days.”

           I then said, “Okay Mom.” I did not fully understand the situation but understood it well enough to where I can’t go by my dad if I’m feeling sick at all.

           I was able to get past this sickness perfectly fine with the help of my caring. It was a good thing that my dad did not catch this as that would have escalated the situation to another level and he surely would have had to go to the hospital again.

           Kidneys were not the only thing my dad experienced in the health realm, as he also experienced heart issues. When I was in fifth grade, I had the same type of situation happen to me again. My mom pulled me into her room to tell me that my dad's Mitral valve had to be replaced because it was very weak. Good thing I was better able to understand it this time as I was a bit older and better able to comprehend things.

           In that conversation, my mom said, “Your grandpa is going to fly out from New Jersey to help, but you are going to have to help him.”

           I was thinking to myself about all the time it would take away from my video games and angrily said, “With what.” I could tell from my mom’s facial expression I should not have responded like that.

           She then said, “You can help out with whatever your grandfather needs help with because I will be working, and your dad won’t be able to do anything for a month.”

           I was not very happy with this as it was not something I wanted to spend my time doing but I said, “Okay fine”, then went to my room all mad.

           This was a big drop on the roller coaster ride because my father had experienced another health issue in his life but, this quickly transitioned to an upward slope as my dad received a successful new mitral valve at Mayo Clinic a month and a half later. I had to do a bunch of household chores around the house like cleaning the dishes and sweeping the floor. I also had to learn how to do the laundry which was something I did not enjoy doing. This ended up being a good thing in a way because I learned all the different things my dad goes through daily taking care of us, while my mom works.

One might think of the patient, when they think of a roller coaster ride of health issues.  For me though, I have an unlimited pass on that same roller coaster of health issues as well.  Although my life, on a roller coaster of health issues, is not the most beneficial thing, it has taught me various life skills that will help me in the future.  I also learned that there truly are “angels” like the one named Cheryl that not only saved my dad’s life, but also the life of all of us in the family, including me.