Mum of three given the gift of health and life after undergoing kidney transplant

“I had just gotten so used to being sick, I didn’t know what being healthy felt like anymore”. Mum of three Kandice Fielding-Huth was in a bad way and on dialysis for hours a day until a friend gave her the ultimate gift.

“I had just gotten so used to being sick, I didn’t know what being healthy felt like anymore.”

That was how mum of three Kandice Fielding-Huth described life before receiving a new kidney after being on dialysis for two years.

Kandice was diagnosed with stage four kidney disease and lost 80 per cent of her kidney function.

“Just over three years ago I had these vague symptoms and I ended up in emergency where I had a grand mal seizure, a really big seizure, and when I came to I found out that I had lost 80 per cent of my kidney function,” she said.

“It was about another 12 months after that the last bit of my kidney failed and I needed dialysis to survive, and I did that four days a week for four hours at a time and I did that for nearly two years.”

Initially doing her dialysis in hospital, for the last six months before her transplant Kandice was able to do her dialysis at home.

“When I first became ill I was in a very bad way, I had four per cent kidney function,” she said.

“I didn’t feel like I was living when I was on dialysis, I felt like I was in limbo. I called the dialysis machine my life support machine because without it I wouldn’t be here today.

“I had so many complications having no kidney function anaemia, chronic migraines, I couldn’t eat certain foods, I was not healthy at all, I was dying and I was being kept alive by that machine.

“I couldn’t care for my kids the way I wanted to, it was very difficult.”

While going through dialysis Kandice received the life changing gift of a new kidney from a live donor, who was friend close to her family.

She said if a live donor didn’t come forward she would possibly still be waiting for a kidney.

“Luckily we were a match and the same blood type which was very fortunate,” she said.

“It was a little bit of disbelief at first because I just thought ‘is this really happening?’ I had just gotten so used to being sick, I didn’t know what being healthy felt like anymore.

“I was surviving and to think about the opportunity to live a normal life was so overwhelming and emotional.

“I don’t think it actually hit me until I had my transplant, even though I was so excited and thrilled the reality didn’t come until I had the kidney put in and it was working and I was living life again.”

Kandice said the first few weeks after her transplant felt like a high.

“Everything was working and normalising in my body, I was regaining colour in my skin, it was just the most amazing journey to go on and I can’t even put into words how amazing those first few weeks were to discover ‘hey this is what healthy feels like again’,” she said.

“I feel like how I did before all of this happened, I feel like I’ve gained my life back and my quality of life back.”

She said her donor was also doing well and would be forever thankful for her gift.

“I think I message him every day to remind him of how much I am thankful for my life,” she said.

“I don’t think there’s a day that goes by where I don’t send a little message to him and I think I’m going to be eternally grateful.”

Kandice said she believed becoming an organ donor was something people really had to consider.

“No one in my family has a history of kidney disease, it can happen to anyone at any age,” she said.

“I think it’s very important (to consider becoming a donor) because if you were in the position I was in you would want someone to be a donor or consider being a donor for your loved one.”

DONATE LIFE WEEK

With this week being Donate Life Week 100,000 people across the country are being encouraged to register to become an organ donor.

Bundaberg Hospital organ donation specialist nurse Karen Jenner said organ donation was extremely rare.

“There are only about two per cent of people who die in hospital that actually are medical suitable and die in a way they can donate organs,” she said.

“In the last 12 months we’ve had two organ donors which is quite a lot for Bundaberg.

An extra 100,000 people are being encouraged to register to become an organ donor.

“All organs are needed there’s 1800 people on the waiting list for different organs such as heart, lungs, kidneys, livers, pancreases and intestines.

“The most organs which are transplanted are kidneys and at the moment there are 12,000 people who are on dialysis and some of those will progress to needing kidney transplants.”

Ms Jenner said nine out of ten families say yes to organ donation if they know the wishes of their loved ones.

“That drops to four out of ten if they don’t know,” she said.

“A lot of times it’s tragic circumstances where organ donation is a possibility so you’ve got families going through an extremely stressful time and then having to consider organ donation on top of that.

“What we encourage is if organ donation is something you’d consider hop on the register and say yes to donations so if they time does arise we can tell your family that you’ve said yes and they don’t have to make that decision for you.

“A lot of people think they’re already registered donors because it used to be on your licence but we’ve moved away from that state system now to a national system.

“It only takes 60 seconds to register and all you need is your Medicare card.”

If you would like to become an organ donor you can register and find out more at donatelife.gov.au.