Jen M.

After noticing her ankles were the size of grapefruits, Jen was diagnosed with FSGS at age 17. Maintenance medications sustained her through five semesters of college, after which her mother, Judy, donated her kidney to Jen in 1999. Seven days later, the donated kidney was determined unviable and was removed. This led to six months of hemodialysis and then six months of peritoneal dialysis before Jen received her second kidney from her father, Jim.

The transplant came just two weeks after graduating with her Bachelor’s degree. Her father’s kidney gave her a 6 ½ year hiatus from dialysis. During this time, Jen was able traveled the world, she returned to college to obtain her master’s degree in teaching and became an elementary school teacher. Jen then returned to peritoneal dialysis for about three years while the search for another matching kidney was ongoing.

However, she did not need to search too far or too long, as her Uncle Dave was a match and gave Jen her a third kidney in 2008, which has been affectionately named “UDK” (Uncle Dave’s Kidney). Jen and Dave will be celebrating their 15- year “Transplantaversary” this upcoming June! Although, there is recurrence of FSGS in the transplanted kidney, Jen is proudly in partial remission with a baseline creatinine of 1.7.

FSGS hasn’t slowed Jen down, as she earned another master’s degree in 2019 and continues to experience many incredible memories with family and friends.