My daughter’s name is Michele (Mickey) She is 23 years old. Mickey has quite a story about her life.

We found out about her kidney disease at the age of six. She started dialysis at home when she was nine years old. She would be dialysised at night while she slept, “get unhooked” in the morning and go to school. Mickey had her first kidney transplant at the age of 11 that lasted 6 years. After that her body started to reject and she was on the dialysis once again at home.

In 2003, I found Mickey in her bedroom. She was moaning and her brother called 911. I examined her and she apparently had a stroke. A calcium deposit traveled up into her base of the brain forming a blood clot that caused this. The medical team found that inside her left atrium of her heart a cluster of calcium deposits formed a bridge from side to side of that chamber. It broke causing a deposit to travel. She had open-heart surgery 5 days after the stroke. They had to clean her heart and get rid of these deposits. Ten days after that her peritoneal dialysis catheter shifted, attaching itself to her colon. It caused a hole in her colon making her wastes go through her body almost killing her. She ended up having major abdominal surgery. She was in a coma for 1 ½ months. She woke up after that which the Doctors said was a miracle. We went home 2 weeks later with no limitations.

Michele was supposed to graduate that year but I kept her home for a year to recuperate.

Mickey went back to school and graduated in June, 2006 with honors. Michele wants to go to college to help other people like herself. She is blood type “A”. Mickey is 23 years old. She has two brothers, a sister-in-law and 3 nieces and 4 nephews which she helps baby-sit.

She loves life and especially loves her cocker spaniel Dakota. He lets me know if anything medically goes on with her. Michele does have surgeries once in awhile and goes to dialysis 3 times a week.