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Lyne's Story

When I was born, the doctors discovered I had malformations in my ureters called refluxes.
When I was 20, I was told I’d eventually need a kidney transplant. By following an appropriate diet, I managed to put off dialysis until my 23rd birthday. At that point, I had no choice—I had to have dialysis three times a week, which meant travelling from my home to Quebec City, a three-hour journey. I didn’t have a driver’s license, so I shared a taxi with five other people to get to the hospital.

At last, the phone rang and I found out I had a kidney waiting for me! Everything went well for 20 years, but then I started to get recurring urinary tract infections. I didn’t know what to do and neither did the doctors. They tried removing the kidneys I was born with because they thought that they were causing the problem, but it didn’t work. I was put on intravenous antibiotics; the treatment worked as long as I was on them, but once the treatment was over, the problems returned. My doctor tried to help me and heard about an operation being performed in Europe, but it wasn’t recognized in Quebec. Still, she found a way for me to get the operation. I don’t know why exactly, but after that daylong operation, a miracle occurred and I never got a UTI again. That miracle has lasted four years… and counting!

Unfortunately, another problem arose. My transplanted kidney wasn’t working well anymore and I needed a second transplant. My spouse Serge underwent tests to see if he could give me one of his kidneys. Everything went well at first and we were compatible, but the mix of our two blood types caused a reaction in mine and we stopped being compatible. He then decided to sign up for the pan-Canadian Living Donor Paired Exchange program, which matches living donors through an exchange of beneficiaries.

It’s kind of a way of paying it forward. It’s a chain where several mutually incompatible donors and recipients are registered on a list, and the donated kidneys are given to other people, usually in a crossed way. In other words, my spouse gave his kidney to a stranger, and that or another stranger’s donor gave me his or her kidney. Serge went to Ottawa to donate his kidney, and I received mine in Quebec City. The operation was a success. Problems came up in the first year, but they were nothing serious.

People should talk more often about this way of donating, because the waiting time for an organ from a deceased donor can be several years. I got mine in less than a year thanks to living donation. It’s a hugely generous gift, and no words can describe what Serge did for me. It’s the greatest act of love anyone could ever hope to receive.

Thank you, Serge, for doing that for me.