Back in November 1982 when I was 26 years old, I had a throbbing headache that aspirin or Tylenol could not control. At that time I didn’t know that it was my blood pressure going up and causing so much pain. I finally called an ambulance. They told me I was lucky because I almost popped the blood vessels in my head. My blood pressure was sky high. I was so young and I didn’t understand why. While I was in the hospital the doctors made another discovery. The high blood pressure had damaged my kidneys. Hypertension they called it. They took a piece of my kidney, a biopsy they called it. They told me my kidneys were not functioning. I was seen at the (Downstate) University Hospital renal clinic. My doctor said I would need to be on a kidney machine. Dialysis she called it. I still couldn’t believe this was happening to me. I didn’t even know what dialysis was. My children were very young in age 8, 6, 4, and 3 years old and I started to feel that if I didn’t get on this kidney machine I could die. I loved my wife and children and I didn’t want to die. Up until that time I had resisted dialysis until I realized that I wasn’t thinking about my family by saying no to dialysis, but only myself. I finally agreed to start hemodialysis in March 1986. Every other day I had to do this just to stay alive. For the next 11 years of my life I went for my dialysis treatments every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I never felt sick. I always did the same things I did before I started dialysis. My chemistries were always good. I was just getting tired of dialysis. I needed a break. Over the years people kept telling me to put my name on the transplant list. For the first 5 years I said no because I felt I was doing well on dialysis and it wasn’t stopping me from doing anything. Another reason was that I was listening to other patients who had been on dialysis for up to 20 years who told me all types of stories about why they wouldn’t get a transplant. So I continued to say no to it. But I just didn’t like the way I looked. My skin was dark and ashy. My eyes were yellow brown and bloodshot. My body was so thin. I started to feel all types of aches and pains. My body was deteriorating. I finally had to make up my own mind and stop listening to other people. So after 10 years of being on dialysis I put my name on the transplant list at (Downstate) University Hospital in 1996. In April 1997 I received a call while I was asleep and the voice on the other end said “is this Rodney Nelson?” I said “yes”. The voice on the phone said, “this is (Downstate) University Hospital Transplant Unit. We have a kidney that’s coming in for you and its a match. Do you want it?” Even though I was half asleep my answer was yes right away. It was the quickest decision I ever made. It was Friday morning, my day for dialysis...my last treatment day. When I went into the unit I only told a few people but the news spread all around the treatment center as patients, staff doctors, nurses and technicians all congratulated me and wished me luck. After that last treatment I called my mother and told her. She and my daughter met me at the hospital and helped me fill out papers for the surgery. Saturday morning around 6:00 am I went into surgery to get a new kidney. I woke up in recovery still feeling like I always felt but only this time I was passing urine. Something I had not done in 10 years, after 11 years on dialysis. The nurses showed me how to take my medications for the kidney and told me to drink lots and lots of fluids, something I couldn’t do on dialysis. Now here it is 16 months later and my new kidney is doing fine. I look and feel better and I am taking even better care of myself because believe me I do not want to go back to being on dialysis. Once you cross over you don’t want to go back. The lesson I learned from this experience is that things sometimes happen that we don’t have any control over and when making choices or decisions you have to make up your own mind. Don’t listen to anyone else because it’s all up to you. You have to take a chance especially once you get fed up with something. I tried dialysis for 11 years of my life, so now let me try a transplant. So I encourage anyone reading this article who is on dialysis to take a chance on a transplant. It can change your life. It changed mine. I’m 41 years old and I can travel anywhere now without having to make dialysis arrangements. Wherever I go, I’m free as a bird. All I do is pack my medication and go. So like I said, if you’re not on the transplant list, put your name on the list because when they do call you and say they have a match, the next question they are going to ask you is “do you want it?”, and you can either say yes or no. It just that simple. Then you’ll have a brand new life.