Call Sign October 2006 - Page 12 - JAY GOMEZ HAS KIDNEY TRANSPLANT

In the January 2004 issue of Call Sign, we wrote about the hardship that Dial-a-Cab dispatcher Jay Gomez lived under due to the kidney failure he suffered in 1978. He was told that by the time he reached 14, his kidneys would probably pack up altogether, but because he looked after himself and avoided ‘vices’ such as smoking, drinking and drugs etc he managed to delay the inevitability of total kidney failure until he reached 25. At that time, Jay told Call Sign that he could feel signs that his kidneys were beginning to fail and not clearing toxins from his body and he began to feel very weak as his red blood cell count dipped. It’s the red cells that carry oxygen to the body. He also began to feel light-headed more often and had to start injecting himself with Epoetin as a boost to his red blood cell count. As he was already an Insulin-dependant Diabetic, although life wasn’t too easy he at least was used to injecting himself. He also had to go into hospital for dialysis - a process where the patient is linked to a machine that manually filters waste products from the blood. The average human kidneys normally have around 1500 litres of blood passing through them on a daily basis and until such time as a replacement kidney can be found and transplanted, then the patient has to go on dialysis daily. That’s what Jay did and eventually had a dialyses machine fitted into his home, going on it for 8 hours every night while asleep. He linked to it via a tube fitted into his stomach that attached him to the machine at night. Thanks to mum Val (Driver Services) and all the Gomez family, Jay coped. He also told Call Sign: "I am so grateful at how brilliant Dial-a-Cab have been to me whilst I’ve been off sick. I knew they were good employers, I just never realised quite how good." Jay was left waiting for a transplant. Val offered one of her kidneys as did brother Chad – who also works at DaC. But Jay didn’t want to risk their health. "The risks are small," said Jay at the time, "but I’d rather wait. I	JAY GOMEZ HAS KIDNEY TRANSPLANT
	Jay Gomez - back to normality after successful kidney transplant love my mum and brother and won’t take any chances with their health." So Jay was left waiting for a transplant… Then on June 10 this year, the call that Jay had been praying for came – a potential kidney donor. It was 3am – you don’t get convenient calls when every second is vital. Brother Chad picked him up and off they rushed to the hospital. They arrived at 4.30 and Jay immediately had some blood taken for cross and tissue matches. He was told that he should be going down to theatre (if results came back well) at around lunch time. It was 14 hours later. All the test results matched well with the kidney and Jay was on his way to the theatre. He had remained very calm throughout the day while awaiting the results, but became upset as he was being wheeled along the hospital corridores. It was understandable, because waiting for news is not the same as getting it and being on the verge of the biggest ordeal of your life. He had waited over 4 years for this moment but was now feeling scared and overwhelmed. His mum and dad walked alongside him holding his hands whilst brother and sister waited at the lift. All looked anxious… The next day, Chad went to see his brother. "He was sleepy," he remembered, "and not really with it. I sat next to him and held his hand. He had lines coming out from everywhere. We were then just waiting to see if the kidney had started to kick in. We were told that it normally took around	48 hours, but Jay had a build up of fluid around the organ that doctors said they would drain and wasn’t anything to worry about. But there was no sign of the donated kidney starting to work." According to the medical team working with Jay, his transplant had gone well. Plumbing wise saw no problems, but two biopsies suggested that the kidney was still sleeping. However, the next biopsy changed the terminology from sleeping to dozing according to doctors, with creatanine levels (waste excreted as urine) having gone down from over 800 when going into failure, to the 400s. Also, depending on blood results, there was a good chance that Jay could miss the following days dialysis. But after three long weeks, although doctors remained confident, the family began to worry. After all, they had originally been told to expect signs of improvement after 3 days! But at no time did they give up hope. Call Sign Editor, Alan Fisher spoke to Val and Chad whenever he saw them and told Call Sign: "You could see a strain beginning to show. It was the unexpected length of waiting time and while you knew they’d never give up hope until told the transplant had failed, you could tell they were getting concerned." But after that 3-week mark passed, suddenly signs of life in the new kidney were seen and Jay managed 4 days without dialysis. That signalled a rapid improvement. Now Jay has gone over three months without dialysis and doctors are confident that he will not need to go back on again! He still has some ups and downs and the freedom of not needing to dialysise is still a bit of a novelty! He also pees a lot - which for Jay is a blinding result! Being without a functioning kidney affected Jay greatly, but not once did he complain. But now he is going to be able to start catching up on those lost years and will soon resume his dispatchers job with Dial-a-Cab. All the staff will be thrilled to see him…

Call Sign Home Page

Page 14