Maintaining Optimal Health – Nadia Juric (center), kidney transplant recipient, visits with two members of her post- transplant health care team, Patty Burricelli, Certified Medical Assistant (left), and Laura Coyle, R.N., B.S.N., Post-Transplant Coordinator, during a recent checkup at the Martin G. Jacobs, M.D., Transplant Institute at Saint Barnabas Medical Center.
Except for having a living donor, there is nothing people on the organ transplant waiting list can do to shorten their wait for a compatible organ. However, there are significant steps transplant candidates can take to be sure that they are in peak condition for transplant surgery when that important call comes.
Diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease many years ago, Nadia Juric, 59, of Cliffside, N.J., says she read whatever she could about the best ways to care for herself throughout the five years she waited for a transplant. Mrs. Juric was particularly careful to keep herself in good health. “I never abused my body,” she says. “But I was even more cautious with my health after starting peritoneal dialysis. My doctors were surprised that in five years of dialysis, I never had one infection,” she boasts.
Mrs. Juric worked hard to get enough protein in her diet and stayed physically active. Even when laid up in bed with a broken leg, she continued working her upper body. She was also faithful about performing her peritoneal dialysis.
To pass the time, she cultivated a hobby that kept her moving and calmed her mind. “Mostly I tried not to worry or think about the waiting,” Mrs. Juric remembers. Instead, she spent hours in her garden nurturing vegetables, herbs and flowers. When advancing physical limitations made bending difficult, her husband built raised planters on the family’s balcony so she could continue gardening. “When one plant came out, I put in another immediately.”
A compatible organ became available in December 2002 and all the energy she had spent preparing herself paid off. Less than two months after her transplant surgery, Mrs. Juric reports that she is healing well. “It feels wonderful to be off dialysis. I am free to go to the window and enjoy the view to my garden.”
Mrs. Juric considers herself among the lucky ones to have received a kidney transplant. The joy she derives from her renewed energy, however, is tempered by concern for others who remain on dialysis, particularly members of her family. “Three of my cousins are on dialysis and several of their children also have polycystic kidneys,” she says with concern. She also fears that this inherited progressive disease may eventually affect her son and daughter. If so, Mrs. Juric hopes that donated kidneys will be available to them – just like the one that she received.
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