Anyone who’s heard Amanda talk about her love for Barry Manilow has probably also heard her mention her childhood best friend, Melanie. Earlier this year, Melanie’s world was turned upside down when her daughter, Jess, was suddenly diagnosed with renal failure. Jess is now on the waiting list for a kidney transplant — and Melanie is her donor.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jersey and Amanda jam Nation.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Double A Chattery drops today. This is the podcast that
you do your side hustle, you do with your friend
and Edna McGregor. I don't have any beef with this
because Aninna McGregor is a substantial woman.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Do you have any beef Wellington with this?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
She has more credentials than this whole room put together. True,
and today's Double a Chattery podcast is something that revolves
around your good friend Melanie and her daughter.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
That's right now. Melanie and I have known each other
since we were sixteen years old. We fell in love
with Barry Manilow together. We both agreed we could share him,
and we still think that that could be a pact.
So we've gone to the We've gone to the States
together to see him perform. Our friendship has superseded Barry
by gazillion years, and so we still joined at the
(00:47):
hip for two of us. I was talking to her
over New Year. Everything was fine. She's got a daughter,
Jess who's thirty one, another one who's twenty eight. Amy.
We're chatting how the girls. Everyone's fine. Then two days later,
Melanie's life and Jess's life particular spun on ahead of
a pin Jess went to work, was having a normal day,
and then this happened.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Absolutely. I went to work that day, but before I
went to work, I went and did a routine blood test.
Went to work, did a full late hours, got a
call from the medical center at like three pm being like,
you need to get to an emergency immediately. You're in
renal failure. You're severely anemic. What hospital are you going to?
Speaker 1 (01:25):
It was.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I was just incomplete shock, didn't know how to process
the information. Called mom and dad straight away and I
was like, surely this isn't right. Sent them the bloods
and Dad was like, looking a little colorful, Let's just
go to an emergency and see what's happening. And then
it was zero to one thousand within the space of
about three hours. Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
And if she hadn't had a blood test that day,
as she said she would have, I think the expression
is stroked out. She would have had a stroke and
passed away within days. And she's been living overseas, she's
been doing all of this. She had just moved home
to save some money to buy a place. This thirty
one year old independent girl. Suddenly she knows that this
renal failure equals dialysis equals transplant. She knew, and in
(02:13):
the space of a week she was on dialysis. And
for Melanie, who is as Melanie says, she's a fixer
and Jess is too. They're these a type women, and
I'm the same. That's why I find out IVF so hard.
If you can't control stuff, can't control the timing of things,
it drives you crazy. And so I asked mel how
(02:33):
she felt in the midst of all of this.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
I think it's the fight or flight mode, you know,
that you go into. And so we just sort of said, well, okay,
whenever there's a I mean, you know me, I'm a fixer,
you are, so if something goes wrong, we just fix
it and you move on, right, So I just went
into I'm in fixed mode.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And what could you fix nothing?
Speaker 3 (02:56):
So that was.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
I thought, I'll get a packet of band aids, confronting bit.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
And so this is the thing Melanie from day one said,
I will be your donor. Imagine this, this is the
mother daughter relationship. She said, let me be your donor.
And she said, oh, let's have an operation tomorrow. She said,
six months ago, let's have the operation to this week,
ready to go.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Get the kitchen beach here.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
I'll cut it out myself. But it's taken this long
to do all the tissue typing, to do the matching,
and the thousand hurdles of are you're going to be
a good match? Are you not? And if you're not,
then Jess stays longer on dialysis, which has implications of
its own. Well, it seems that Melanie will be the donor.
She will be her daughter's donor. They're having an operation
next month. Melanie will donate her kidney to her daughter Jess.
(03:42):
And from there, let's hope this is a giant upswing
that they their lives begin again. But at the moment
they're just in this this stranglehold of waiting and anxiety
and reading jess as results every day to see what
her bloods are doing. It's all over the shop, a
brilliant management team. But this is as Jess said, she
(04:05):
was asymptomatic, and this is the message that she wants
people to have.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
I think, just stay on top of your heuse, just
be in check with yourself. If you're not feeling great,
go to the doctors or just get in the habit
like you do your skin check once a year, do
a blood test once a year. Every six months. You
do the same for the duntis, do the same for
the rest of your body. Just look after yourself like
it's not This disease isn't going to discriminate you.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
And as Jess said, you know, she put she was
feeling light headed, put it down to having a heavy
period and being busy having a life. Women in particular
do this. We amalgamate what we put up with a
whole lot of symptoms.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Now Blake's Dowards do as well. That's what guys do.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah, how about none of us do it? So anyway,
they Melanie and Jess spoke so openly and honestly about
what's going on with them, and we will talk to
them again after the operation. But if you'd like to
hear them chat, that's where you can find it.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Go to double a Chattery dot com. That's got all
the info there.
Jersey and Amanda jam Nation.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Double A Chattery drops today. This is the podcast that
you do your side hustle, you do with your friend
and Edna McGregor. I don't have any beef with this
because Aninna McGregor is a substantial woman.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Do you have any beef Wellington with this?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
She has more credentials than this whole room put together. True,
and today's Double a Chattery podcast is something that revolves
around your good friend Melanie and her daughter.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
That's right now. Melanie and I have known each other
since we were sixteen years old. We fell in love
with Barry Manilow together. We both agreed we could share him,
and we still think that that could be a pact.
So we've gone to the We've gone to the States
together to see him perform. Our friendship has superseded Barry
by gazillion years, and so we still joined at the
(00:47):
hip for two of us. I was talking to her
over New Year. Everything was fine. She's got a daughter,
Jess who's thirty one, another one who's twenty eight. Amy.
We're chatting how the girls. Everyone's fine. Then two days later,
Melanie's life and Jess's life particular spun on ahead of
a pin Jess went to work, was having a normal day,
and then this happened.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Absolutely. I went to work that day, but before I
went to work, I went and did a routine blood test.
Went to work, did a full late hours, got a
call from the medical center at like three pm being like,
you need to get to an emergency immediately. You're in
renal failure. You're severely anemic. What hospital are you going to?
Speaker 1 (01:25):
It was.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I was just incomplete shock, didn't know how to process
the information. Called mom and dad straight away and I
was like, surely this isn't right. Sent them the bloods
and Dad was like, looking a little colorful, Let's just
go to an emergency and see what's happening. And then
it was zero to one thousand within the space of
about three hours. Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
And if she hadn't had a blood test that day,
as she said she would have, I think the expression
is stroked out. She would have had a stroke and
passed away within days. And she's been living overseas, she's
been doing all of this. She had just moved home
to save some money to buy a place. This thirty
one year old independent girl. Suddenly she knows that this
renal failure equals dialysis equals transplant. She knew, and in
(02:13):
the space of a week she was on dialysis. And
for Melanie, who is as Melanie says, she's a fixer
and Jess is too. They're these a type women, and
I'm the same. That's why I find out IVF so hard.
If you can't control stuff, can't control the timing of things,
it drives you crazy. And so I asked mel how
(02:33):
she felt in the midst of all of this.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
I think it's the fight or flight mode, you know,
that you go into. And so we just sort of said, well, okay,
whenever there's a I mean, you know me, I'm a fixer,
you are, so if something goes wrong, we just fix
it and you move on, right, So I just went
into I'm in fixed mode.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And what could you fix nothing?
Speaker 3 (02:56):
So that was.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
I thought, I'll get a packet of band aids, confronting bit.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
And so this is the thing Melanie from day one said,
I will be your donor. Imagine this, this is the
mother daughter relationship. She said, let me be your donor.
And she said, oh, let's have an operation tomorrow. She said,
six months ago, let's have the operation to this week,
ready to go.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Get the kitchen beach here.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
I'll cut it out myself. But it's taken this long
to do all the tissue typing, to do the matching,
and the thousand hurdles of are you're going to be
a good match? Are you not? And if you're not,
then Jess stays longer on dialysis, which has implications of
its own. Well, it seems that Melanie will be the donor.
She will be her daughter's donor. They're having an operation
next month. Melanie will donate her kidney to her daughter Jess.
(03:42):
And from there, let's hope this is a giant upswing
that they their lives begin again. But at the moment
they're just in this this stranglehold of waiting and anxiety
and reading jess as results every day to see what
her bloods are doing. It's all over the shop, a
brilliant management team. But this is as Jess said, she
(04:05):
was asymptomatic, and this is the message that she wants
people to have.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
I think, just stay on top of your heuse, just
be in check with yourself. If you're not feeling great,
go to the doctors or just get in the habit
like you do your skin check once a year, do
a blood test once a year. Every six months. You
do the same for the duntis, do the same for
the rest of your body. Just look after yourself like
it's not This disease isn't going to discriminate you.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
And as Jess said, you know, she put she was
feeling light headed, put it down to having a heavy
period and being busy having a life. Women in particular
do this. We amalgamate what we put up with a
whole lot of symptoms.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Now Blake's Dowards do as well. That's what guys do.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah, how about none of us do it? So anyway,
they Melanie and Jess spoke so openly and honestly about
what's going on with them, and we will talk to
them again after the operation. But if you'd like to
hear them chat, that's where you can find it.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Go to double a Chattery dot com. That's got all
the info there.
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