Juan Robles is waiting for his kidney to come. He was diagnosed almost a year ago after a routine doctor’s visit. Thankfully, his doctor realized he was in kidney failure and he was rushed in for emergency dialysis. He is now on peritoneal dialysis each night for 8 hours.
Juan says “You learn to appreciate time. I have to be in my room, hooked up nightly in order to get up for work on time.”
His wife Courtney is not a match but she’s still volunteering to be his donor through a paired donation chain. They had hope that his transplant was coming but one of the other donors backed out, leaving them back at square one.
Juan says what he’s looking forward to most post-transplant is “having a second chance and being able to live without restrictions on my time. I want to go visit friends and family and travel without dialysis equipment.”
Juan says before his diagnosis, he didn’t know kidneys did so much for the body. “You don’t realize how important they are until they’re gone.” He urges people to see their doctors regularly and to take action to protect their health.
For more information about living donation, kidney transplants or diagnosis, visit nkfi.org.