Page 8 - HealthnetworkMagazineSpring2020-p7.indd

Changing the Odds

G eorge Myers was told he could
expect to wait 10-13 years for a
kidney transplant in the San
Francisco area. He was also told
his body could only realistically handle dialysis
for 10-15 years. It was a gamble he did not
want to make. So he created a different game,
this one with better odds.

Losing Control

George is a partner in a second-generation George Myers on a successful fly fishing trip
family business that built its success in in Montana.
agriculture and now primarily investments.
He is strategic, focused, and proactive. And yet, He learned there are two possibilities for a
when it came to the unfamiliar territory of the kidney replacement. The first and best option
healthcare system and the world of organ is a direct transplant, which typically comes
transplants, George found it daunting. from a sibling with the same blood type.
“I like to be organized and stay on top of In George’s case that was not an option, as
things,” he says. “However, when it comes to he comes from a very small family and his
your own health suddenly you’re in a situation siblings were not suitable donor candidates.
completely out of your control.” His second option was to be put on a waitlist
and hope his name came up before it was
too late. In the meantime, he would have to
go on dialysis.
Having been advised of the extremely “When you get on dialysis, you get 10,
long waiting time for a transplant, the maybe 15 years, and that’s about all you can
doctor gave me sobering news. do. Then it’s game over,” says George. “One
I could die waiting for a kidney donor in doctor told me when you’re on dialysis you’re
on a long slow march to death.”
the Northern California region.
Handcuffed to a Machine

George and Kathleen, his wife of 29 years, If you have ever been inside a dialysis
on a trip to the Grand Canyon. clinic, you know it’s not the most uplifting
environment. When George started going,
he met people who had been on dialysis for
many years.
“Dialysis is hard on your body and hard on
your heart long-term,” he explains. “With
peritoneal dialysis, the form I chose, you’re
hooked up to a machine 8-10 hours a day. You
feel like you are being imprisoned, handcuffed
to this machine for the rest of your life. It’s
quite sobering. You look mortality square in
the face and you think, ‘Is this it? Is this how
I’m going to end?’”
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