photo by Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph Giovanni Fuller, 33, of Henderson holds a kidney-shaped pillow signed by family members he received after a kidney transplant at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler Wednesday. Fuller had his transplant on Valentine's Day after being on the list to receive for four years and being on dialysis since age 24.

On Valentines Day, two East Texans got the best gift of their lives when they each finally received a kidney transplant.

At 4 p.m. on the Friday before Valentine’s Day, Giovanni Fuller, 33, received the call he’d been waiting for. He’d received calls before, but he felt differently about this one.

He’d already had Valentine’s Day plans with a significant other so he asked that they exchange their gifts a day earlier.

“I feel like I’m going to be preoccupied tomorrow,” he recalled saying.

Mrs. Ayala, 62, waited for a kidney for nearly two years when she received the call on Feb. 13 that one was available.

“I feel very good and I’m very thankful that I got a kidney,” she said through a translator, her daughter, Adriana Ayala.

Staff at the transplant center had also called Mrs. Ayala twice before, but ultimately she was unable to receive a kidney at those times.

“This time, she didn’t believe she was going to get it when they called her,” her daughter said.

Fuller and Mrs. Ayala’s surgeries are among the 746 transplants performed at the East Texas Medical Transplant Center since it was established in 1987.

The two, who both live in Henderson, are now free from the restrictions associated with dialysis, which they underwent to compensate for failed kidneys. They can eat what they want, they’re not tied to a machine and they’ll regain the energy that had been drained from them.

Dr. Steven Potter, ETMC transplant program director, said receiving a kidney transplant adds about 20 years to the recipient’s life.

“People that are relatively young and not diabetic have a significant number of years of life added when they have a transplant,” Potter said. “It’s not just the freedom from dialysis and spending half a day at a dialysis center. It’s getting you in a much better position to reduce chances of a heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular disease.”

 

JOURNEY TO A TRANSPLANT

Mrs. Ayala was diagnosed with diabetes at 35. The disease took a toll on her kidneys and she later went on dialysis. The time spent in a dialysis center and fatigue prevented the mother of three from working.

“She was very worried and stressed out about it because she had to go to dialysis three times a week and it was for four hours,” Ms. Ayala said. When she’d come out, all she’d do was sleep.

Ms. Ayala said her mother would be recovering over the next several weeks and working to eat a balanced and nutritious diet to stay healthy.

Fuller was only 24 when his kidneys failed.

“A day that I won’t forget is the day I found out,” he said.

While at work, Fuller began coughing and had trouble breathing. When he was seen in the emergency room, he also learned had high blood pressure — reading at 200/150. After running several tests, doctors told him his kidneys weren’t functioning properly and that he’d be on dialysis.

“I’d never heard of it,” he said. “Never knew anybody on it.”

Fuller began continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis, or CAPD, four times a day at home. It’s a type of dialysis that helps control the water and replaces the work of failed kidneys.

Before getting on a waiting list, he had to lose a considerable amount of weight.

“Being on CAPD, I was gaining weight,” Fuller said. “I was really going backwards. The doctor told me I really had to focus on losing weight.”

He changed the way he ate and walked every day, dropping 150 pounds. He said he understands he’ll have to continue that lifestyle to stay healthy.

Fuller was on dialysis for about four years before getting the call that a kidney was available.

“I never got impatient,” he said. “I never complained. I didn’t see what good it would do. I was thinking I’d get it. I wasn’t going to stop until I got it.”

Throughout Fuller’s experiences, he remained positive, never feeling despair or complaining.

“I just didn’t see the use for it,” he said. “I never let it control what I wanted to do. … It was a lot to handle at the time but I didn’t feel it was something to be mad at the world about.”

Fuller’s new kidney will enable him to travel without constraints. He looks forward to his first trip post-surgery in Miami.

“I’m optimistic,” he said. “I was determined to travel anyway. This will be easier.”

Potter said the staff at the ETMC Transplant Center follows transplant recipients for life. After the transplant they’re seen in the office each week for some time and then every two or six months.

 

THE GIFT OF LIFE

According to the National Kidney Foundation, there are several reasons a kidney transplant can fail, including infection, clots, fluid collection and side effect of medicines. However, it doesn’t happen often, Potter said.

“Risk of rejection is relatively low because we monitor people,” he said. “The risk the first year after is roughly about 5 to 6 percent. When you get rejection, it doesn’t mean you lose a kidney. I can fix rejection 95 percent of the time.”

Potter said of those 5 percent whose kidneys may be rejected, only 5 to 6 percent of them would lose the kidney.

Fuller and Mrs. Ayala both received their kidneys from deceased donors. Potter said there is always a need for donors — whether deceased or living.

According to federal data, an average of 21 people die each day waiting for transplants that can’t happen because of the shortage of donated organs.

In Texas, people can go to www.donatelifetexas.org to make the first steps in becoming a donor. Donating an organ and having conversations about that choice before death ensures that a life-sustaining gift is provided to someone in need.

“It’s important that people communicate with their family members,” Potter said. “It’s an amazing gift and you don’t have to be a blood relative.”