Alexis MacKay-Dunn can almost carry her infant daughter, Sloane. It’s a feat her family wasn’t certain would happen again.
Six months ago, the Eagle Harbour woman was recovering from the birth of her daughter while fighting kidney failure.
MacKay-Dunn has IgA Nephropathy, an auto-immune kidney disease. There is no known cause or cure. The only options for treatment are dialysis, which is temporary and comes at tremendous cost to quality of life, or kidney donation from a live donor.
Her team at the St. Paul’s Hospital Living Kidney Donor Program suggested her best option was to go public and plead for potential donors, which they did in January.
“Quite a few people did come forward. Some friends and family and some people that I guess we touched with our story, initially, which is just amazing to me,” MacKay-Dunn said. “People have a visceral reaction to things like these.”
Even with willing volunteers, there’s no guarantee of finding a compatible match and screening candidates takes months, which MacKay-Dunn’s kidneys didn’t have time for. She started dialysis in April.
The first positive hit they got was with her husband’s cousin, Sandra Salazar, a nurse in Calgary who was all too eager to donate.
“She was very committed from Day 1. She did everything she could to expedite the process for us. As soon as she got a requisition, she was at the lab doing it,” MacKay-Dunn said. “Being a nurse herself, she's seen people who are unwell and who need help and here was an opportunity for her to help someone else. She's just a complete angel. And I've now gained my own sister for life through this.”
The operation at St. Paul’s Hospital on June 14 was not a small task or an easy recovery but everyone is on the mend, just as they should be.
“She'll be on to a full, normal, happy life with one kidney,” she said. “My kids get their mom back and the husband gets his wife back and we can get our lives back on track.”
As she is recovering, MacKay-Dunn said she’s been struck by how the “brain fog” that comes from a sick kidney has dissipated.
“I feel like now even just in the last couple of days, I've really turned a corner. Before, I couldn't even plan a meal. All my creativity is coming back and I'm inspired to do things again,” she said.
Sharing her story in January wasn’t easy to do, MacKay-Dunn said, but there is no question that it was worth it.
“Quietly, we've learned that some of the potential donors that have come forward to help me have decided to continue on their journey in hopes to save other lives,” she said, adding that she’s been left feeling “blown away.”
As a recipient, MacKay-Dunn said she now has a new responsibility to help others still waiting on their own angel.
“People are on dialysis for years and I think that the ability to ask for help fades as you sit there in that chair and you sort of succumb to it,” she said. “There are hundreds in B.C. waiting for a kidney right now, and my hope in the future is to help get that number way down by being an advocate for people.”
Information on St. Paul’s kidney program can be found online or via 604-806-9027 or [email protected].
