Matthew

They did mention to me that the kidney might not work straight away, but they said if it doesn’t, there’s no need to worry, because they said in some cases it can take up to 10 days for the kidneys to start working. In my case it took 5 days for the kidney to actually start working. But during those 5 days I was very worried, even though the doctors were telling me not to worry, because it can take 10 days, but I couldn’t really help worrying. I’ve always really been a worrying kind of person. But on the 5th day – it was actually the 6th of August, when the kidneys started to work, so I was very, very happy that day. And, if I can just go back – the day before, on the 5th of August, my Mum said to me, ‘Son, please, I want you to drink – just drink as much as possible, and I have a feeling that tomorrow’s going to be your day.’ The reason she was saying that is because I was struggling to drink. The doctors was telling me to drink 1.5 litres of fluid a day, but I was just about getting 1 litre a day, because remember when you’re on dialysis you don’t drink much; and then also after my kidney transplant it wasn’t exactly easy to drink and to eat food.

But, yeah, the doctors kept telling me to drink; I was struggling – so when my mum said that, I says to myself, ‘OK then, let me just take her advice – I’m going to drink as much as I can before I go to sleep, and then I’m going to fall asleep.’ So I ended up drinking about maybe 300 ml, and then I fell asleep. And the next thing that I remember, the nurse woke me up, at around half past midnight, because that’s the time when they always come to look at your catheter box to see if there’s any urine. So, when the nurse came at that time, I said, ‘Is there any urine in there?’ And I was just expecting her to say no, because the previous four days, all the nurses had said no. And she said, ‘Yes, there’s plenty.’ I’ll never forget that moment, because when she said yes, I leaned forward so I could actually see it, and I was just so amazed – I was just overwhelmed with so much joy, it’s unbelievable.

And then, when my mum came to see me the next day – so this was now the 6th of August – it was actually my mum that reminded me that a year ago prior to that day, that was the date that my Nan died. My Nan died on the 6th of August, and I had my kidney transplant on the 1st of August. My Nan was actually the only person in the family that I would speak to about dialysis and I would know that they understand what I’m talking about, because she was also going through it. So when I had my transplant at first I thought to myself ‘Nan, I know you’re in heaven, because you was a very good person.’ So I was thinking to myself, did she have anything to do with me getting this kidney transplant?

And then, when it started working on the 6th of August, which is the day that she died, one year ago, and it was also roughly the same time, because, at the time the doctors called us in maybe at about 1 am to say, ‘Oh, your grandma’s taken a turn, you need to come in’. And by the time we went in – we got there at about maybe 2 am, and by that time they said straight away that she had passed away. So, I’m predicting that she did die at around 1 am, or maybe half 12, something like that – and that’s literally the same time that the nurse said to me, ‘Oh yes, there’s plenty of urine in there.’ So for me, it’s like too much of a coincidence. I strongly believe that like that spirit of my Nan met with the spirit of this person who died – like I don't know who the person was, I don’t even know if it was a boy or a girl – but I do feel like their spirits met, and through the help of God I was able to get this kidney, so I’m very happy about that.