I knew this little girl through family. I used to teach in Clarke County and I met some of her family teaching there. I worked with her aunt and I met her through that family. Her and her daughter used to play together. Reese is the little girl’s name. And so when I would hang out with the family that I taught with, we would have play dates at the pool, and that’s where I first met Reese.

I first came to know that Reese was going to need a kidney when her aunt posted an update on Facebook, saying that they had found out Reese was in kidney failure and they knew she was going to need a kidney in the near future. And so they were starting the process to look for kidney donors earlier so that they would be ready when they needed it. My first thought when I saw the post on Facebook was just that I wanted to see if I could become a match.

The first step was just getting your blood tested and seeing if you were the right blood type. So it didn’t even really cross my mind at the time of anything that would come in the future with donating a kidney. I just knew that I wanted to jump right in and see if I could match my blood type at least. And I really didn’t have any other thoughts other than that at the time.

After I first matched, or did the blood match, it started to become more real what would be involved. After matching with the blood they asked me to come back. And every time they asked me to come back there were more tests to do and it was more involved. And the test got, in my mind, more complicated, and that’s when it really sort of hit of all that this could be involved. But I never seconded guessed it, it just seemed to be something that I really wanted to do. So I just kept going forward.

Once I decided to first, or do the first step with testing the blood, my first call was to my mother. Which is usually the first person I call when I need to make a decision about what to buy at Walmart to if I’m gonna donate a kidney or not. And she just say okay. She kinda knows that once I put my mind to something that I’m probably gonna go through with it. Friends all jumped on board. Some other family members where a little apprehensive, but I think it was more just being scared of what could come. But for the most part, everyone was right there by my side and very supportive of what I was gonna do. I informed the family that I was getting tested because I’m friends with them. So I just let them know, hey this is something I wanna do. And they kinda helped me out with what I needed to do for the first step.

Later on down the road, when they found out I was going to be the match, I don’t remember how I told them honestly. We all kinda of, when they knew I was getting tested, we all kinda of kept in touch to follow the process. And they would wanna know, you know, where I was and what the doctors were telling me. So I think just between communication back and forth we just kind of just figured it out that I was gonna be the one to be the best match.

The doctors at the hospital tell you not to communicate with the families. They just try to avoid that, if there’s any weird things going on, like forcing you to donate. But since we were already friends, we just kept in touch and kept each other up to date.

The hardest part about the whole process was probably the recovery. When I was being informed about what was going to happen, the doctors said that I’d be in and out of the hospital in probably two days and go home and kinda be good to go for the most part. But I ended up staying in the hospital for four days. And even after I went home it was still a lot of pain, a lot of discomfort. And it probably took a few weeks to almost a month before things started to feel slightly better. So the recovery process was probably the hardest part.

My advice to someone that might potentially be in this position, as far as possibly donating anything to anyone, whether it’s blood or an organ, is just to get tested. The testing is the easy part, the donating is the hard part. You’re not in it until you actually give it up. You can always change your mind if it’s too scary.

But the best part is the donating the part and making that first step. Because you never know whose life you’re gonna save and how much you can help someone just by giving a little bit of something.

I do still keep in touch with Reese and her family. I see them not as often as I would probably like to, as she lives up in Pennsylvania, so it about an hour away. But at least every month, maybe every other month we try to get together and do something and keep in touch. So that’s probably the best part of all of it, is seeing where she was and where she is now, because of one small thing that I did to help her. It is different to look at her now then it was to look at her before. I do feel like there is part of me that is always with her. And there is part of me that is always with her. But it went from a group of people that were just friends, to gaining a whole second family just through this little process.

Reese reacted very well to the transplant. I remember doctors saying that it almost immediately started to do what it needed to, to help Reese get better. In the hospital, I remember that I was struggling to even look at food let alone eat food. And I get text from Reese’s family that she’s ordering pizza and Chick-fil-A down the hallway in her room. So there was a little bit of jealousy when we were in the hospital. But that was, in the back of mind it was great to know that it was almost an instant effect. That it just started to work right away and help her get better.

For anyone thinking about becoming an organ donor, the thought of giving up an organ may be scary, but the benefit of doing it and seeing how much it can help one person who needs that organ, takes away all that fear and outweighs all the doubts that you could ever have. So if you have the chance to become and organ donor or even just to sign up, do it.