Help Danielle Find Another Spare!

My name is Danielle "Nikki" Austin, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend and I am praying for a second chance!

Today, I am inviting you on a journey that will include faith, advanced medical technology and a willing vessel to help save my life!

I have been dreading this. I wish writing this post was déjà vu or a bad dream, but it's not. In January 2023, a trip to the emergency room with a positive Covid test resulted in the ER doctor repeating those words that I was not prepared to hear for at least another five years, “Your kidney function is starting to decline, you should follow up with your transplant team.” I thought I had more time. Typically, kidney transplants from deceased donors last 10-12 years, but contracting Covid changed my timeline.

June 16, 2018, seems like yesterday. I received, miraculously, a new kidney and pancreas that I'd received from a deceased donor. No more Type 1 diabetes preventing me from enjoying a cup of sweet tea. I was granted a new lease on life that included being able to travel more and not worry about checking my blood sugar and using my insulin pump. I got my energy back, which had significantly declined before my transplant. I got back to enjoying the “newlywed” stage with my husband that was disrupted after being diagnosed with chronic kidney disease 4 months after our wedding. My husband, Quintin and I, had been enjoying the new normal over the last five years running our nonprofit AAU organization, No Guts No Glory Basketball, Inc., named in honor of navigating our journey through the initial diagnoses. But in June 2023, life repeated itself. The lab results, ultrasound and kidney biopsy confirmed that I would eventually need an evaluation to get on the transplant list for another kidney. 2023 was a slow dance filled with anxiety and depression waiting for my GFR (kidney function) to drop below 19%. On December 18, 2023, the slow dance came to a stop when blood test resulted in a 19% GFR, and a referral to the pre-transplant team for evaluation.

This time around, the Duke Transplant team recommends that I seek potential living donors for two reasons. The first reason is because the waitlist for my blood type (O+) from a deceased donor is 5-7 years, which would result in me having to begin dialysis. The second reason is because the success rates are higher due to the donor and recipient surgeries happening simultaneously; therefore, outcomes are better because surgeons transplant the kidney immediately after removing it from the donor and it should begin to function right away. Donations from living donors last on average 15-20 years.

Do I feel dismay? Yes! But I am hopeful and I have faith! I have faith that someone will bless me with a compatible and long-lasting kidney, just as my sister, Bianca, did for someone 9 months before knowing I would need one in 2016. She selflessly became an altruistic donor (An altruistic kidney donor is someone who selflessly chooses to donate a kidney without having a specific recipient in mind) just by reading a Facebook post. I have faith that someone will read my story and be inspired to get screened, evaluated and become my hero! I have faith that I will NEVER have to see the inside of a dialysis center.

If you're apprehensive about the process of being an altruistic donor, feel free to contact me for her information to get a firsthand account of the donation process.

Below is a link for the Living Donor Survey to become a potential donor:

https://duke.donorscreen.org/register/now

You may also contact the Living Donor Team at (919)-613-7777.

• You must identify yourself as a potential donor.

You must also provide my name and date of birth:

Danielle Austin

03/11/1987

If my story can inspire just one person to become an organ donor, then I know that my journey has been worth it. Organ donation saves lives, and I am living proof of that!

#IRunOnSpareParts #ShareYourSpare #DonateLife #KidneyTransplantRecipient

#OrganDonationSavedMyLife #OrganDonorsAreHeros

#NotAllHerosWearCapes #AltruristicDonorsNeeded #NikkiNeedsAKidney