Faces of the Games
JEANNETTE KADIN, 44
Stony Point, NY
More than 20 years after Jeanette Kadin suffered from constant childhood sore throats and tonsillitis, she learned they had been symptoms of kidney disease. This realization occurred after the birth of her second child, Andrea, whose constant sore throats and fevers were similar to Jeanette’s childhood illnesses. Following the removal of Andrea’s tonsils, the illnesses continued. Perplexed doctors finally diagnosed renal reflux when Andrea was five years old, two years following her tonsillectomy. Low dose medication for several years after the diagnosis treated this illness and Andrea is now free of the condition.
Things didn’t turn out as well for Jeanette. She knew following the birth of her first child, Samantha, at the age of 25, that kidney disease sometime during her childhood had left her with only 60 percent of her kidney function. But it wasn’t until her second daughter’s sore throats and tonsillitis were traced to kidney disease that Jeanette realized that these same illnesses had masked the source of her problem, a kidney infection.
Nineteen years after first learning about her condition, Jeanette’s kidneys are failing and she needs a transplant in order to survive. Six family members have offered to become donors including her mother, two sisters, husband, older daughter and brother-in-law. Following testing, all were solid matches and Jeanette was left with the daunting task of deciding who to pick. Her brother-in-law, Michael, turned out to be the closest match of all the others. In the inexplicable way that people just “know things,” Michael was sure in the weeks leading up to the testing that he would be the best candidate. Jeanette and Michael plan to undergo the surgery this winter.
If all goes well, both Jeanette and her donor, along with all her family members, hope to attend the National Kidney Foundation 2006 U.S.Transplant Games this June in Louisville.
