Patience is a virtue. I was on the kidney transplant waiting list a number of years before I finally got my transplant - all of those years spent on dialysis 4 hours a day 3 times a week.
I regularly light a candle in my Basilica for all the many thousands of kidney patients who are on dialysis, or who I know have failing transplants,
…and always one for the young man who died as a result of an auto accident and whose family agreed to organ donation. I have one of his kidneys now. Five people benefited from that act of extreme kindness under very difficult circumstances. Can you imagine being the next of kin having to make a decision like that when the transplant coordinator asks?
Dialysis can be difficult sometimes, but it keeps us alive and it’s liveable if we can’t get a transplant right away. We need to be thankful for that. Once a person gets used to it, it’s mostly very boring and time-consuming. I always found it a great opportunity to offer it up, as they say, and the time on dialysis itself perfect for some prayerful meditation. A transplant is not necessarily a panacea either, but it certainly is better as a treatment. I wish nobody had to wait for one.
