October 13, 2024 • 23 mins
We’re proud to share a handful of recent interviews from our guests. The Grind is dedicated to exceptional conversation, and will always go above and beyond to make sure you have a platform to tell your story. If you’ve had experience you want to share with with us, please get in touch - we’d love to hear it.
Host: DJ Retro
Instagram: @DJRETRO1990
Instagram: @THEGRINDLV
One Kidney Club Las Vegas: @ONEKIDNEYCLUBLVN (Founder Mrs. Parriett)
Website: www.thegrind.online (AD Space Available)
Guest: Michelle Petty (Kidney Donor)
Instagram: @_michellepetty
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-grind-podcast-w-host-dj-retro--3511504/support.
Host: DJ Retro
Instagram: @DJRETRO1990
Instagram: @THEGRINDLV
One Kidney Club Las Vegas: @ONEKIDNEYCLUBLVN (Founder Mrs. Parriett)
Website: www.thegrind.online (AD Space Available)
Guest: Michelle Petty (Kidney Donor)
Instagram: @_michellepetty
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-grind-podcast-w-host-dj-retro--3511504/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here we are another episode of The Grind. Thanks for
joining us, King, I mean host James Periers on. This
podcast is gonna take us on the trip, trips and
places and moments of my life where I discovered hip hop.
We artists do sound. Y'all ready to go here, Let's hit.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
It life line.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
I got your perier love love checking.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
To this perier press play the Grind starts. The rhyme start.
We come together like car parts to make your move.
Y'all are like, don't help you out on this little
rule the purpose to enlighten you. But all we do
flog exposure and if you selp can't get Jim post
to poster, we poster help each other out. Go down
before this closure, get tune into the Grind. It's time
(00:57):
we take it over. It's this life on your line weight.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Hello, my grind is how you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
This?
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Is DJ Retro here with another week of the podcast,
the flagship podcast called The Grind. This week we have
two very special guests. All our guests are special, so
we always going to address it in that manner. The
first guest that we have, which is going to be
co hosting with me tonight, is the beautiful and I'm
(01:23):
not even gonna say her name. I'm just gonna say
she's the founder of the One Kidney Club Las Vegas.
And the other guests share something in common with my
co host. Hmmm, So what I'll further, Ado, I'm going
to introduce to you the founder of the One Kidney
Club Las Vegas. Would you like to introduce yourself?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Oh, hello, hello everyone. My name is Valadi Terry. I
am the condru of One Kidney Club, Las Vegas, Nevada.
And tonight on the call, we have our very first
member that joined since we started the One Kidney Club,
Las Vegas, Nevada, and that is Mishe Petty.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
And I'm so glad you're here tonight.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Yes, Oh, I'm so glad to be here. I'm so
so happy to be here and to talk with you
both and to be in the One Kidney Club Las Vegas.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yes, yes, we welcome you, and thanks for joining us.
The one thing that I wanted to share with our
guests in which He's to so elegantly share in common
is kidney toe Nation. So both of you have help
save two lives and we are really appreciative of that,
and we'd like to make sure we have and give
(02:35):
you a platform to share your story. So once again,
miss Patty, so you're here this evening as our very
first member, her very first member of the One Kidney
Clove Las Vegas.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Yes, yes, yes, and.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
We definitely want to we want to share that and
express that to you. But you are here tonight to
share your story with our listeners, and we're going to
give you that platform. So I'm gonna stop talking right now,
I'll pass it off and you can go right into it.
So thank you well.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
First of all, thank you so much for having me on.
Something that I think is such a great thing about
kidney donors in general is that we love sharing our
stories and we love sharing advocacy for a living kidney donation.
So I really thank you for having me on. But yes,
I donated my left kidney in a non directed donation
back in twenty twenty, so it just passed the four
(03:26):
year mark. And I donated down in San Diego at
the UCSD campus.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Wonderful.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Wow, that's a beautiful campus down there. Actually, I used
to live in San Diego and we frequent San Diego
a lot, and I was unaware that they actually had
a kidney Donor Center down there a transfer.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Yeah, yeah, I was too. You know, when I first
started this process, I was shocked to learn that there
wasn't really somewhere in Las Vegas that I could do it,
at least at that time, and they recommended you know, UCLA, UCSD,
And like you, I love Sandy Ig. So I was
so soaked to be able to go down there, and
even if it was for surgery, you know, just to
be in that glrgeous San Diego air.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah. So my first question to you, and I always wonder,
even when Valerie donated to her father her kidney and
she was in the process of making the decision, what
brought you to the point where the first thing is
that you said, Hey, I would like to donate a
kidney to someone out there, And do you know who
(04:32):
your donor was, or was someone in your family? How
did you come to the decision to donate?
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Sure, yeah, so I did donate non directed. So I
don't know who my kid you went to, And to
this day I don't know anything about them. I couldn't
even tell you their age or their gender or anything
like that. And it's kind of funny because I was
scrolling Reddit one day and I saw this ask me
anything post from somebody who did the same thing, somebody
(05:00):
who had donated their kidney to a complete stranger, and
I was so intrigued. I read through it and I
kind of like read everything that you know, he had
gone through and everything that he experienced. And I never
really had thought about kidney donation before, especially in the
terms of non directed I always thought to donate a kinney,
(05:22):
you had to know somebody that needed one, or to
have a family member. I didn't realize that you could
just donate and they would find the recipient for you.
And so that's why I also think add to see
is so important, because I was never known this was
an option for me if I hadn't read this stranger's
post on the internet. So that's kind of kind of
(05:43):
a story of how I came to it. I you know,
once I read his post, I couldn't stop thinking about it.
I couldn't get it out of my mind. So I said, Okay,
let me go ahead, I'll sign up for an in
posession or you know, I'll look into it more. And
the deeper I got into the process, the more and
more I wanted.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
To do it. So that's intrigued. So you read a post,
you read, you read a story someone said that they
needed they needed assistance, they needed some help, and just
from that it just stayed on your mind to say, Wow,
this is just gnawing at me. I really want to
help this person. And yeah, that's actually.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
They actually on This person had donated their kidney to
a stranger and they were like talking about their area.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Wow. Yeah, the story gets a little.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Different, right, So they had donated their kidney and they
were kind of just talking about their experience and I
was like, oh my god, I kind of want to
see if I can do that too, and so it
just but you're right, like without post, it just kind
of sparked something in me to to to want to
help somebody who. I mean, there are so many people
on the transplant list and so many people will never
get their kidney.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
That's right, Michelle, And we're working hard here at the
One Kidney Club to bring those numbers down. We have
a very new audience here, and some of our audience
may not know what non direct donor means, or known
as altruistic donation. Would you like to explain that?
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Absolutely? Yeah, So non directed I think is kind of
what they started calling it more it was called altruistic
when I went through either way, it essentially means you
are doing it in to a non specific recipient. You
are not you have really no control over where your
kidney is going. You are essentially going to a transplant
center and saying, hey, I'd like to donate my kidney,
(07:34):
give it to whoever needs it the most, whoever's next
in line, or whoever I can match with. You're basically
just giving your kidney to the universe, and the universe
who's gonna find somebody for it?
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Mm hmmmm. And with non direct, non direct donation, that
sometimes starts a chain of transplants because you donate it
to one person that really is another person to donate
it and it just keeps going. So one one non
direct donation can save up to eight lives. And I
just think that that is so fascinating and amazing.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
You are so right, And mine, I think, was a
six person long chain, which is just incredible to hear about.
You know, you can have that much impact.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
She started a six chain donation, so from her altruistic donation,
she saves six lives, Like that is so amazing. Michelle,
you are a rock star.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
Oh, I appreciate that. I thank you. I'm just I
honestly just feel so fortunate that I was in a
position of, you know, physically to be able to do so.
You know, I've heard a lot of people say that
they would love to do so, but they you know,
maybe they're other to me isn't very strong and they've
got out of health issues. So the fact that I
was put on this earth healthy enough to do this
is something I'm grateful for in itself.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
So can you give a little give us a little
background about the process. What did you first have to do?
What were your qualifications? Is there any steps that you
personally had to go through through during this process to
make sure that you are ready? And is there anything
that you are in or had it Well, I wouldn't
say a discussion with the donor because you're you're, you know,
(09:12):
you're you're already in, right, So what is your process
to get ready for this procedure?
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Sure? So, I think it was probably around November of
twenty nineteen when I first filled out a little info
questionnaire on I think it was Kidney dot org or
the National Kidney Registry. One of those two and from
there I was contacted and I did kind of an
initial phone screening. They basically asked very you know, surface
(09:39):
level questions, how old are you with your lifestyle, like
do you have a family history of this? Do you
have the history of this and that? And they're usually
looking for things like do you have a history of
kitty disease in your family? Do you get kitty stones?
Often like you know, are you a smoker or are
you things like that. They kind of just want to
get a good idea if they want to bring you
in for more testing. And in addition, they ask more
(10:00):
about your mental state kind of and your reasoning for
wanting to do this. They want to make sure you're
not under any sort of pressure from anybody to do this.
They really want to make sure it's your own choice.
So after that initial phone questionnaire, I had to do
a twenty four hour year analysis and sure value you
(10:20):
remember the lovely year analysis where I essentially had to
record or I had to collect my year and for
twenty four hours and take it to a testing center
so they can measure, you know, the protein levels and
kind of be what my kidneys are churning out and
that's a good indicator of kidney health at least at
this stage. And in that I also did a blood
(10:43):
draw with that too, So those two things are sent
over to the transplant hunter so in my case, UCRC,
and they review them and if they I'm not sure
what they look for exactly, I know they look for
the cret end levels and whatnot. So if they're happy
with those numbers, they then called me in for a
full day of testing at UCSD. So I literally got
(11:06):
on a plane at about five o'clock in the morning
here in Las Vegas, flew to San Diego. I did
in EKG a CT scan, a full blood draw, and
another year analysis, and I had a meeting with the
entire chance plant team as well as a psychologist, So
all of those appointments in one day. Got back on
(11:27):
a plane at about nine pm and flew home. And
then that was January twenty twenty. So I think we
all know what happened after that. The world kind of
shut down. So I was approved and I found out
that I was a prood for donation about a week
after that, and then not too long after, everything started
getting really disty with COVID, so they shut down all,
(11:50):
they called it an elective surgery, even though in my
opinion it's non elective surgery. Somebody needs this, So they
shut down those surgeries for a little while, and I
didn't end up getting the call to kind of say hey,
we're back on until June. So in June of twenty twenty,
they sent out a couple of people to my house
do more blood draws, and you just send it off
(12:11):
to the National Kidney Registry so they can find me
a match. So a lot of blood draws. I have
never seen so much of my own blood at once.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
It was a lot.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
So once they did that, they activated me in the
National Kinney Registry and I had a match about a
week after that, and then we set the surgery date
and I went down to San Diego on July first.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
To donate. Anytime during a process where you just like
what am I doing? Like you know there you always
had that like you do is I mean it's a
new world. You kind of nervous, you might be scared.
I mean how did you feel about it? Did you
question yourself like why am I even doing this?
Speaker 4 (12:56):
I did it Sometimes I was like, you know, is
this the choice? Like you know at that time, I
was only twenty seven, I think, so I was like, man,
I've got a long life to live with this one kidney.
But you know, I just really kept thinking about the
reason why I started and the reason why I wanted
to do this, and every doubt went away quickly, like
I really had no There was no time where I
(13:18):
was like, oh, I might want to back out. I
was pretty dumb whole from the beginning.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Okay, yeah, because you know, anybody that wants to give
up a body part, most of that's just natural.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
I would think that they but yeah, brain, it's like no,
we kind of need that.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
But you know, kidney donation or any donation of any kind,
I really feel that you're a you're on a mission,
You're on a you know, that's you. That's your special
orders that you've taken up.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
That's a great way of to do, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
And the beauty of the beauty of the one kidney
clubs there's forty seven across the country. The beauty of
the National Kidney Registrate, the beauty of the National Kidney
Donation organ is they is that we all teach kidney
donation awareness and so a lot of times makes it
this decision. Hard for people is the lack of knowledge
(14:10):
and at knowing that they can live a very healthy,
long life with one kidney, and that it is okay
to share your spare Yeah, you share.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
That's one of my favorite sayings. I absolutely love it.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
You've heard that too. Oh yeah, oh man, I'm lated party.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
You're not in the.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Inner circle, that's right, I'm not in the circle of trust.
So after the surgery and everything had taken place, how
long did it take you to kind of get back
on your feet, kind of reacclimate it to a normal
if there ever is a normal rethin, but just where
(14:59):
you can get back on your can kind of move
around a little bit.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Sure.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
So my recovery, I thought I was going to recover.
I was really talking about this. I thought, I'm young,
I work out a lot, I'm going to recover just fine.
Now I have a really difficult recovery in the first
two weeks. My body apparently just doesn't take trauma in
any way very well. So it was a rough recovery
at first. However, I will say it probably that's the
(15:23):
three week mark, it kind of a switch kind of flipped,
and I felt amazing. I woke up and I was like, oh,
I feel like myself again. I feel like I can
walk around, and so I think about I would say
the one month mark is where I really had absolutely
no side effects whatsoever. I woke up and felt completely normal.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Hmm. Okay, So that's about a good time frame because
I'm kind of judging at my mine, her valeries, recovery,
and her timeline. She has a little she has a
lack of energy at times that just kicks me out
of nowhere. And she just kind of faced plants on
the baby or where she that it just goes asleep.
I would say that's the one side effect for her
(16:04):
that's kind of been lasting.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Honestly, I feel that too, And I didn't know if
it was me getting a little bit older, but I've
had chronic fatigue and like like you've already kind of
just hit. And when it hits, it's like I'm I'm done,
I'm gonna gonna go to sleep.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, hers is pretty It's been some episodes if we're
out somewhere it's hot. Sometimes it's not a particular factor,
it just hits, and Yeah, I can just see it,
like she goes downhill really fast. So that's good to
know that's what we're talking about this so now you
know too. Yeah, so yeah, in that you're not alone.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
And one of the reasons why I was really kind
of really praying about starting the One Kidney.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Club in Las Vegas was because I.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Don't know about you, but I didn't have a lot
of support when I came home from the transplant center.
I was I were well cared forward there and they
made sure that I had everything I needed when I
came home, though it was you know, my husband and
I and my daughter here, but we didn't have any
support from the community. There wasn't any resources, there wasn't
(17:14):
an outlet, and I really didn't have any other donor friends.
There was not a donor community. And so that's something
that I know I longed for during my recovery phase
and still even to this day. And so that's what
I really want the One Kidney Club to grow to to,
you know, provide comprehensive support for donors, recipients and their family.
(17:37):
I know that we can do it, but it's going
to take the community to do that. And so we
started with our first member and her name is and
I was like, come on self, give me.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Me, you we got this.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
We got this. It's gonna be so big.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
I swear we're gonna look back in a year or
two and it's like, wow, okay, is it.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
No, Valerie.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
I empathize with you completely with that. I mean it,
it's kind of like this, like you have so much
support and so many people checking in, and then you
get home and it's kind of just like crickets and
it's this new you know, not only are you recovering physically,
but like you've just had something you know, kind of
crazy happen to you and now you're you're kind of alone.
And I think that's such a beautiful mission for the
(18:18):
club because you're I definitely felt a little bit of
an emotional kind of like depression after that.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Almost Yeah, that's just true.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I think that's a little natural, I would think after
going through a procedure like that and trying to get
you know, get your life back to a regular routine.
And I'm glad that's why, you know, Valerie started to
warn Kidney Club firsthand. She just said she wanted to
spread the word, plus you know, through the hurdles that
(18:50):
she had to go through upon wanting to be a
donor and talking to different hospitals and different networks or registrations.
It was really she just felt that she needed to
spread the word a little bit better. And yeah, if
she's going through it, there's a lot of other people
going through it too, So you too, I'm glad you
(19:11):
too stepped up.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Yeah too.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Yeah, I mean I don't think I know any I
don't know anybody else in person who's got one kidney,
So it's really cool to have somebody here that's local
and I feel like I have a community now.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Yeah, well, we look forward to it. Once again. We'd
like to say thank you for stopping by tonight, Michelle Penny,
and welcome to the One Kidney Club LV family, and
we look forward to doing a lot of things with you. Now.
Before we get out of here tonight, you know, we
got to ask you a question the show's about. You know,
(19:46):
we got to move from personal conversation, but we got
to get to the music a little bit. Oh absolutely,
If at anytime, if you can think back over your life,
what's your top five? And when I say top five,
it does me one genre of music, But what are
the like, maybe five groups or five people that you
would put on the chill out, to get your thoughts together,
(20:09):
to roll out to five, to turn up to like,
what's your list that you'd like this? You?
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Okay, I love this question. Music is I mean, just
such an outlet for me. Not making it, I'm horrible
at that, but listening to it and feeling it. Huge outlets.
So I would say throughout my life, my top five
groups are probably Metallica, Alison James, Sound Garden, Yepard, Yeah, Program,
(20:41):
and the song One's Hard. I think I would taste
it on Tuple Pilots because that was something I was
really into when I was little.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I have to say, you're one of my only guests
that nailed at top five that I'm like, oh.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Wow, Oh I love hearing that none of my friends
know any of these bands.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Yeah, Sol, Triple Pilots, oh my. Yes, great music, great
era of music. And what I like about their music
is that everybody's your name is timeless time, you can
put it on it anytime. And those groups seem to
speak to many generations and they've crossed many generations. Passion yeah, raw, passion. Yeah.
(21:23):
So I love it. Thank you very much for sharing.
Now we're gonna have to have you back later down
the line too. Once you get into the One Kidney
Club and you start doing some things and you want
to share some more information to the community, you are
more than welcome to come back. Is that cool? Oh?
Speaker 4 (21:38):
I would love that. I would absolutely love that.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
All right, So, once again, here on the grind our
guest today Michelle Petty and our co host, missus Valerie Perrier,
founder of the One Kidney Club Las Vegas. Ms Perrier,
come tell us where they can find more information about.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
The One Kidney Club to find what we are a
Facebook group, so you can join. Please please please join
our Facebook group that's One Kidney Club Las Vegas, Nevada.
If you have questions about kidney donation, you can email
me at One Kidney Club lvnat gmail dot com. And
if you would like to register to become a kidney donor,
please visit Kidney Registrates dot com.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
Hey guys, and welcome to the grind emagazine, your ground
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(22:44):
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(23:06):
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Here we are another episode of The Grind. Thanks for
joining us, King, I mean host James Periers on. This
podcast is gonna take us on the trip, trips and
places and moments of my life where I discovered hip hop.
We artists do sound. Y'all ready to go here, Let's hit.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
It life line.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
I got your perier love love checking.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
To this perier press play the Grind starts. The rhyme start.
We come together like car parts to make your move.
Y'all are like, don't help you out on this little
rule the purpose to enlighten you. But all we do
flog exposure and if you selp can't get Jim post
to poster, we poster help each other out. Go down
before this closure, get tune into the Grind. It's time
(00:57):
we take it over. It's this life on your line weight.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Hello, my grind is how you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
This?
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Is DJ Retro here with another week of the podcast,
the flagship podcast called The Grind. This week we have
two very special guests. All our guests are special, so
we always going to address it in that manner. The
first guest that we have, which is going to be
co hosting with me tonight, is the beautiful and I'm
(01:23):
not even gonna say her name. I'm just gonna say
she's the founder of the One Kidney Club Las Vegas.
And the other guests share something in common with my
co host. Hmmm, So what I'll further, Ado, I'm going
to introduce to you the founder of the One Kidney
Club Las Vegas. Would you like to introduce yourself?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Oh, hello, hello everyone. My name is Valadi Terry. I
am the condru of One Kidney Club, Las Vegas, Nevada.
And tonight on the call, we have our very first
member that joined since we started the One Kidney Club,
Las Vegas, Nevada, and that is Mishe Petty.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
And I'm so glad you're here tonight.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Yes, Oh, I'm so glad to be here. I'm so
so happy to be here and to talk with you
both and to be in the One Kidney Club Las Vegas.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yes, yes, we welcome you, and thanks for joining us.
The one thing that I wanted to share with our
guests in which He's to so elegantly share in common
is kidney toe Nation. So both of you have help
save two lives and we are really appreciative of that,
and we'd like to make sure we have and give
(02:35):
you a platform to share your story. So once again,
miss Patty, so you're here this evening as our very
first member, her very first member of the One Kidney
Clove Las Vegas.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Yes, yes, yes, and.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
We definitely want to we want to share that and
express that to you. But you are here tonight to
share your story with our listeners, and we're going to
give you that platform. So I'm gonna stop talking right now,
I'll pass it off and you can go right into it.
So thank you well.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
First of all, thank you so much for having me on.
Something that I think is such a great thing about
kidney donors in general is that we love sharing our
stories and we love sharing advocacy for a living kidney donation.
So I really thank you for having me on. But yes,
I donated my left kidney in a non directed donation
back in twenty twenty, so it just passed the four
(03:26):
year mark. And I donated down in San Diego at
the UCSD campus.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Wonderful.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Wow, that's a beautiful campus down there. Actually, I used
to live in San Diego and we frequent San Diego
a lot, and I was unaware that they actually had
a kidney Donor Center down there a transfer.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Yeah, yeah, I was too. You know, when I first
started this process, I was shocked to learn that there
wasn't really somewhere in Las Vegas that I could do it,
at least at that time, and they recommended you know, UCLA, UCSD,
And like you, I love Sandy Ig. So I was
so soaked to be able to go down there, and
even if it was for surgery, you know, just to
be in that glrgeous San Diego air.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah. So my first question to you, and I always wonder,
even when Valerie donated to her father her kidney and
she was in the process of making the decision, what
brought you to the point where the first thing is
that you said, Hey, I would like to donate a
kidney to someone out there, And do you know who
(04:32):
your donor was, or was someone in your family? How
did you come to the decision to donate?
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Sure, yeah, so I did donate non directed. So I
don't know who my kid you went to, And to
this day I don't know anything about them. I couldn't
even tell you their age or their gender or anything
like that. And it's kind of funny because I was
scrolling Reddit one day and I saw this ask me
anything post from somebody who did the same thing, somebody
(05:00):
who had donated their kidney to a complete stranger, and
I was so intrigued. I read through it and I
kind of like read everything that you know, he had
gone through and everything that he experienced. And I never
really had thought about kidney donation before, especially in the
terms of non directed I always thought to donate a kinney,
(05:22):
you had to know somebody that needed one, or to
have a family member. I didn't realize that you could
just donate and they would find the recipient for you.
And so that's why I also think add to see
is so important, because I was never known this was
an option for me if I hadn't read this stranger's
post on the internet. So that's kind of kind of
(05:43):
a story of how I came to it. I you know,
once I read his post, I couldn't stop thinking about it.
I couldn't get it out of my mind. So I said, Okay,
let me go ahead, I'll sign up for an in
posession or you know, I'll look into it more. And
the deeper I got into the process, the more and
more I wanted.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
To do it. So that's intrigued. So you read a post,
you read, you read a story someone said that they
needed they needed assistance, they needed some help, and just
from that it just stayed on your mind to say, Wow,
this is just gnawing at me. I really want to
help this person. And yeah, that's actually.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
They actually on This person had donated their kidney to
a stranger and they were like talking about their area.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Wow. Yeah, the story gets a little.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Different, right, So they had donated their kidney and they
were kind of just talking about their experience and I
was like, oh my god, I kind of want to
see if I can do that too, and so it
just but you're right, like without post, it just kind
of sparked something in me to to to want to
help somebody who. I mean, there are so many people
on the transplant list and so many people will never
get their kidney.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
That's right, Michelle, And we're working hard here at the
One Kidney Club to bring those numbers down. We have
a very new audience here, and some of our audience
may not know what non direct donor means, or known
as altruistic donation. Would you like to explain that?
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Absolutely? Yeah, So non directed I think is kind of
what they started calling it more it was called altruistic
when I went through either way, it essentially means you
are doing it in to a non specific recipient. You
are not you have really no control over where your
kidney is going. You are essentially going to a transplant
center and saying, hey, I'd like to donate my kidney,
(07:34):
give it to whoever needs it the most, whoever's next
in line, or whoever I can match with. You're basically
just giving your kidney to the universe, and the universe
who's gonna find somebody for it?
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Mm hmmmm. And with non direct, non direct donation, that
sometimes starts a chain of transplants because you donate it
to one person that really is another person to donate
it and it just keeps going. So one one non
direct donation can save up to eight lives. And I
just think that that is so fascinating and amazing.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
You are so right, And mine, I think, was a
six person long chain, which is just incredible to hear about.
You know, you can have that much impact.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
She started a six chain donation, so from her altruistic donation,
she saves six lives, Like that is so amazing. Michelle,
you are a rock star.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
Oh, I appreciate that. I thank you. I'm just I
honestly just feel so fortunate that I was in a
position of, you know, physically to be able to do so.
You know, I've heard a lot of people say that
they would love to do so, but they you know,
maybe they're other to me isn't very strong and they've
got out of health issues. So the fact that I
was put on this earth healthy enough to do this
is something I'm grateful for in itself.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
So can you give a little give us a little
background about the process. What did you first have to do?
What were your qualifications? Is there any steps that you
personally had to go through through during this process to
make sure that you are ready? And is there anything
that you are in or had it Well, I wouldn't
say a discussion with the donor because you're you're, you know,
(09:12):
you're you're already in, right, So what is your process
to get ready for this procedure?
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Sure? So, I think it was probably around November of
twenty nineteen when I first filled out a little info
questionnaire on I think it was Kidney dot org or
the National Kidney Registry. One of those two and from
there I was contacted and I did kind of an
initial phone screening. They basically asked very you know, surface
(09:39):
level questions, how old are you with your lifestyle, like
do you have a family history of this? Do you
have the history of this and that? And they're usually
looking for things like do you have a history of
kitty disease in your family? Do you get kitty stones?
Often like you know, are you a smoker or are
you things like that. They kind of just want to
get a good idea if they want to bring you
in for more testing. And in addition, they ask more
(10:00):
about your mental state kind of and your reasoning for
wanting to do this. They want to make sure you're
not under any sort of pressure from anybody to do this.
They really want to make sure it's your own choice.
So after that initial phone questionnaire, I had to do
a twenty four hour year analysis and sure value you
(10:20):
remember the lovely year analysis where I essentially had to
record or I had to collect my year and for
twenty four hours and take it to a testing center
so they can measure, you know, the protein levels and
kind of be what my kidneys are churning out and
that's a good indicator of kidney health at least at
this stage. And in that I also did a blood
(10:43):
draw with that too, So those two things are sent
over to the transplant hunter so in my case, UCRC,
and they review them and if they I'm not sure
what they look for exactly, I know they look for
the cret end levels and whatnot. So if they're happy
with those numbers, they then called me in for a
full day of testing at UCSD. So I literally got
(11:06):
on a plane at about five o'clock in the morning
here in Las Vegas, flew to San Diego. I did
in EKG a CT scan, a full blood draw, and
another year analysis, and I had a meeting with the
entire chance plant team as well as a psychologist, So
all of those appointments in one day. Got back on
(11:27):
a plane at about nine pm and flew home. And
then that was January twenty twenty. So I think we
all know what happened after that. The world kind of
shut down. So I was approved and I found out
that I was a prood for donation about a week
after that, and then not too long after, everything started
getting really disty with COVID, so they shut down all,
(11:50):
they called it an elective surgery, even though in my
opinion it's non elective surgery. Somebody needs this, So they
shut down those surgeries for a little while, and I
didn't end up getting the call to kind of say hey,
we're back on until June. So in June of twenty twenty,
they sent out a couple of people to my house
do more blood draws, and you just send it off
(12:11):
to the National Kidney Registry so they can find me
a match. So a lot of blood draws. I have
never seen so much of my own blood at once.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
It was a lot.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
So once they did that, they activated me in the
National Kinney Registry and I had a match about a
week after that, and then we set the surgery date
and I went down to San Diego on July first.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
To donate. Anytime during a process where you just like
what am I doing? Like you know there you always
had that like you do is I mean it's a
new world. You kind of nervous, you might be scared.
I mean how did you feel about it? Did you
question yourself like why am I even doing this?
Speaker 4 (12:56):
I did it Sometimes I was like, you know, is
this the choice? Like you know at that time, I
was only twenty seven, I think, so I was like, man,
I've got a long life to live with this one kidney.
But you know, I just really kept thinking about the
reason why I started and the reason why I wanted
to do this, and every doubt went away quickly, like
I really had no There was no time where I
(13:18):
was like, oh, I might want to back out. I
was pretty dumb whole from the beginning.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Okay, yeah, because you know, anybody that wants to give
up a body part, most of that's just natural.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
I would think that they but yeah, brain, it's like no,
we kind of need that.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
But you know, kidney donation or any donation of any kind,
I really feel that you're a you're on a mission,
You're on a you know, that's you. That's your special
orders that you've taken up.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
That's a great way of to do, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
And the beauty of the beauty of the one kidney
clubs there's forty seven across the country. The beauty of
the National Kidney Registrate, the beauty of the National Kidney
Donation organ is they is that we all teach kidney
donation awareness and so a lot of times makes it
this decision. Hard for people is the lack of knowledge
(14:10):
and at knowing that they can live a very healthy,
long life with one kidney, and that it is okay
to share your spare Yeah, you share.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
That's one of my favorite sayings. I absolutely love it.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
You've heard that too. Oh yeah, oh man, I'm lated party.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
You're not in the.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Inner circle, that's right, I'm not in the circle of trust.
So after the surgery and everything had taken place, how
long did it take you to kind of get back
on your feet, kind of reacclimate it to a normal
if there ever is a normal rethin, but just where
(14:59):
you can get back on your can kind of move
around a little bit.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Sure.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
So my recovery, I thought I was going to recover.
I was really talking about this. I thought, I'm young,
I work out a lot, I'm going to recover just fine.
Now I have a really difficult recovery in the first
two weeks. My body apparently just doesn't take trauma in
any way very well. So it was a rough recovery
at first. However, I will say it probably that's the
(15:23):
three week mark, it kind of a switch kind of flipped,
and I felt amazing. I woke up and I was like, oh,
I feel like myself again. I feel like I can
walk around, and so I think about I would say
the one month mark is where I really had absolutely
no side effects whatsoever. I woke up and felt completely normal.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Hmm. Okay, So that's about a good time frame because
I'm kind of judging at my mine, her valeries, recovery,
and her timeline. She has a little she has a
lack of energy at times that just kicks me out
of nowhere. And she just kind of faced plants on
the baby or where she that it just goes asleep.
I would say that's the one side effect for her
(16:04):
that's kind of been lasting.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Honestly, I feel that too, And I didn't know if
it was me getting a little bit older, but I've
had chronic fatigue and like like you've already kind of
just hit. And when it hits, it's like I'm I'm done,
I'm gonna gonna go to sleep.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, hers is pretty It's been some episodes if we're
out somewhere it's hot. Sometimes it's not a particular factor,
it just hits, and Yeah, I can just see it,
like she goes downhill really fast. So that's good to
know that's what we're talking about this so now you
know too. Yeah, so yeah, in that you're not alone.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
And one of the reasons why I was really kind
of really praying about starting the One Kidney.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Club in Las Vegas was because I.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Don't know about you, but I didn't have a lot
of support when I came home from the transplant center.
I was I were well cared forward there and they
made sure that I had everything I needed when I
came home, though it was you know, my husband and
I and my daughter here, but we didn't have any
support from the community. There wasn't any resources, there wasn't
(17:14):
an outlet, and I really didn't have any other donor friends.
There was not a donor community. And so that's something
that I know I longed for during my recovery phase
and still even to this day. And so that's what
I really want the One Kidney Club to grow to to,
you know, provide comprehensive support for donors, recipients and their family.
(17:37):
I know that we can do it, but it's going
to take the community to do that. And so we
started with our first member and her name is and
I was like, come on self, give me.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Me, you we got this.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
We got this. It's gonna be so big.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
I swear we're gonna look back in a year or
two and it's like, wow, okay, is it.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
No, Valerie.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
I empathize with you completely with that. I mean it,
it's kind of like this, like you have so much
support and so many people checking in, and then you
get home and it's kind of just like crickets and
it's this new you know, not only are you recovering physically,
but like you've just had something you know, kind of
crazy happen to you and now you're you're kind of alone.
And I think that's such a beautiful mission for the
(18:18):
club because you're I definitely felt a little bit of
an emotional kind of like depression after that.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Almost Yeah, that's just true.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I think that's a little natural, I would think after
going through a procedure like that and trying to get
you know, get your life back to a regular routine.
And I'm glad that's why, you know, Valerie started to
warn Kidney Club firsthand. She just said she wanted to
spread the word, plus you know, through the hurdles that
(18:50):
she had to go through upon wanting to be a
donor and talking to different hospitals and different networks or registrations.
It was really she just felt that she needed to
spread the word a little bit better. And yeah, if
she's going through it, there's a lot of other people
going through it too, So you too, I'm glad you
(19:11):
too stepped up.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Yeah too.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Yeah, I mean I don't think I know any I
don't know anybody else in person who's got one kidney,
So it's really cool to have somebody here that's local
and I feel like I have a community now.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Yeah, well, we look forward to it. Once again. We'd
like to say thank you for stopping by tonight, Michelle Penny,
and welcome to the One Kidney Club LV family, and
we look forward to doing a lot of things with you. Now.
Before we get out of here tonight, you know, we
got to ask you a question the show's about. You know,
(19:46):
we got to move from personal conversation, but we got
to get to the music a little bit. Oh absolutely,
If at anytime, if you can think back over your life,
what's your top five? And when I say top five,
it does me one genre of music, But what are
the like, maybe five groups or five people that you
would put on the chill out, to get your thoughts together,
(20:09):
to roll out to five, to turn up to like,
what's your list that you'd like this? You?
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Okay, I love this question. Music is I mean, just
such an outlet for me. Not making it, I'm horrible
at that, but listening to it and feeling it. Huge outlets.
So I would say throughout my life, my top five
groups are probably Metallica, Alison James, Sound Garden, Yepard, Yeah, Program,
(20:41):
and the song One's Hard. I think I would taste
it on Tuple Pilots because that was something I was
really into when I was little.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I have to say, you're one of my only guests
that nailed at top five that I'm like, oh.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Wow, Oh I love hearing that none of my friends
know any of these bands.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Yeah, Sol, Triple Pilots, oh my. Yes, great music, great
era of music. And what I like about their music
is that everybody's your name is timeless time, you can
put it on it anytime. And those groups seem to
speak to many generations and they've crossed many generations. Passion yeah, raw, passion. Yeah.
(21:23):
So I love it. Thank you very much for sharing.
Now we're gonna have to have you back later down
the line too. Once you get into the One Kidney
Club and you start doing some things and you want
to share some more information to the community, you are
more than welcome to come back. Is that cool? Oh?
Speaker 4 (21:38):
I would love that. I would absolutely love that.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
All right, So, once again, here on the grind our
guest today Michelle Petty and our co host, missus Valerie Perrier,
founder of the One Kidney Club Las Vegas. Ms Perrier,
come tell us where they can find more information about.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
The One Kidney Club to find what we are a
Facebook group, so you can join. Please please please join
our Facebook group that's One Kidney Club Las Vegas, Nevada.
If you have questions about kidney donation, you can email
me at One Kidney Club lvnat gmail dot com. And
if you would like to register to become a kidney donor,
please visit Kidney Registrates dot com.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
Hey guys, and welcome to the grind emagazine, your ground
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retro is. Staying in the note about the hottest local artists,
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then you're in the right place. Our latest podcast will
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(22:44):
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(23:06):
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