Second life

Published on Sunday 2 September 2007 00:06

KATHLEEN BLYMAN was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease when she was 26 and spent eight years on dialysis. The 49-year-old from Kelty, Fife, received a transplant early last year. Here she describes what a difference the operation has made to her life.

LIFE was very up and down before I had the transplant. I was quite seriously ill for a couple of years and I had to be hospitalised for a while. You get tired and the symptoms vary, but I dealt with it reasonably well. I was quite resilient to everything because I knew what to expect. What I had is a genetic disease and I'd seen it in my family history: my mother suffered for years and died when she was only 50.

I have two daughters - Kerry-Anne, who is 29, and Colleen, who is 25 - and my being ill did affect family life, but my husband William and I tried hard to keep things as normal as possible.

I was on and off the transplant list for two or three years. But when the call came I wasn't really expecting it. In fact, just that night we'd been discussing it, and I'd said, "That will never happen." And when the call did come I reacted very differently to the way I thought I would. To be honest, I imagined I would turn round and say no. I thought I'd be too frightened when the moment came.

I'd had a good response to dialysis for the first two years so I was too well to have a transplant at that stage. But eventually I knew that my options were running out. I was having a lot of difficulty. To quote one of the doctors, it was getting quite serious; my access for dialysis was worsening, which meant they couldn't get any blood.

This was early last year. I was called between 10pm and 11pm, got into theatre between 5am and 6am and I was sitting up in my bed by noon. It was a very quick recovery. I was back home in 11 days.

Having the transplant has made a vast difference to my life. It's lovely to be able to do things I'd always wanted to do. I've moved house to be near my grandchildren - one of them is three and the other is six - and I do a lot of things now that I never did before. I have more hobbies - I take singing lessons. I lost a lot of confidence when I was ill and this has been a way of building it back up again.

I can go on holiday now too - it's great to have the freedom of knowing I don't have to take dialysis equipment with me. I can go virtually anywhere now. When I was on dialysis at the beginning I was on an overnight machine and I was on another one four times a day at one point so I had to take all that equipment with me. On one trip to Germany I remember I had to take 24 boxes containing four bags, each bag weighing over 2kg. I'm planning a cruise to the Baltics and Scandinavia this year, which is something I wouldn't even have thought about before. And one of my daughters lives in New Zealand so that's my next trip.

I still get tired and I still overdo it, but I volunteer with Kidney Research UK because I'm very interested in making people aware of kidney diseases.

My grandchildren think it's great I can do more with them. Before the operation I couldn't have kept them overnight, but I do that now. They still tire me out - but they tire everybody out, don't they?

The person who donated their kidney is never far from my mind. All I can say is thanks - they've given me a new lease of life. I know someone had to lose a loved one and I never stop thinking about them. On the anniversary of my transplant I celebrated my new life and thought about them. But I'm thankful to everyone involved - the doctors, the nurses, all the medical staff.

I go back to the hospital every two months for a check-up and I'm taking things a day at a time. I don't think much about the past or the future, I just concentrate on the present.

As told to RUTH WALKER

• If you are interested in finding out more about the work of Kidney Research UK, contact 0845 070 7601 or visit www.nkrf.org.uk