Despite being a little sore after their kidney transplant operations in Tyler last week, sisters Paula Swope of
Cross Roads and Karen Yoder of Athens are both doing fine.
"We're both at home," said Paula. "We got to come home last Friday, which was way ahead of schedule.
Karen's at home and bored to death. But, her energy level is up, and she's talking like crazy."
"It went great," said Billie Odom, the transplant coordinator at East Texas Medical Center Tyler. "They both
really did terrific. Karen's lab values are down to normal. There were no complications, and she's looking and feeling great."
Early the morning of Nov. 2, Paula donated her left kidney to Karen, who has a hereditary illness called
Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD). Despite a few misgivings and fears, Paula went through the operation.
"When a person gives the ultimate gift that can only be given once, we like for it to work," Odin said. "So far
we've had a 100 percent success rate with kidney transplants."
For Paula, the operation lasted about three hours. The process was a little shorter for Karen, who was out of
surgery in two and a half hours. Doctors made an incision on Paula's side, removed her left kidney, tied off blood vessels and
sewed her back up. Surgeons then put the kidney in the front of Karen's abdominal cavity, according to normal transplant
procedure which calls for the original two kidneys to be left in.
Within a day of the operation, both sisters were up and around. Because the medication she received to keep
her body from rejecting the new kidney lowered her resistance to infection, Karen had to wear a surgical mask when she visited
her older sister after the operation.
Helping the two sisters get back into their normal routines, the transplant coordinator brought her laptop
computer so the two of them could check their e-mail.
"You know going in that the biggest thing is going to be the recuperation," said Paula. "But it's still a shock when
you're so sore you can't sit up or roll over."
Paula said her stomach and side were so swollen she had trouble putting her clothes on when it came time to go
home Nov. 6. She joked the swelling in Karen's stomach made her look several months pregnant.
Within a few days of the operation, in an effort to help other people facing PKD and kidney transplants, the
Swope family posted pictures of the process on their Internet home page, including a picture of Paula getting a "golden kidney
award" - a small gold pin in the shape of a kidney with a diamond from then-transplant coordinator Beth Martin.
According to Paula, her parents are driving back to Indiana on Sunday. The close-knit family and friends rallied
around each other and showed their support during the transplant process.
"Yesterday when they talked about leaving, I bawled like a baby," said Paula. "It was like Mom and Dad leaving
me at kindergarten."
Doctors told Paula she could get back to everything associated with her normal routine - with the exception of
horseback riding - within six to eight weeks of the operation. It will be 12 weeks before she's back in the saddle. Karen,
who works at Argon, will be out of work four to eight weeks.
"The doctor said we can't do anything except walk," said Paula. "He said he didn't care if we walked four or five
miles a day. Riding in a car is really painful, so I'm going to stick to walking up and down our driveway."
PKD is more common than diseases like cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, hemophilia, Down's Syndrome and
sickle cell anemia combined. There is no known cure for the ailment which affects 600,000 people in the United States and
12.5 million worldwide. PKD is the third leading cause of kidney failure in the United States.