Sue George: You Can’t Give Up

MT. PLEASANT - It was dark, the lights had been turned off. That's all Sue George can really recall about her hospital room at Bryan Memorial Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska on March 7, 1997. The shock of learning she was in renal failure had left her reeling and numb to almost all else.

At 22 years old, most people feel invincible, like they'll live forever and nothing in the world could stop them. For George, a Mt. Pleasant resident and preschool teacher at Faith Lutheran Church, 22 was when she received - what she believed to be at the time - a death sentence.

In 1996, the Nebraska-native was battling some mysterious illness that seemed to have no end.

'I was throwing up every morning. My mom asked if I was pregnant, I said ‘no.'” George explained with a laugh.

When she approached doctors about constantly feeling sick, she was sent home believing she had a simple virus and was told not to worry about it. The vomiting persisted for an entire year. When she went back for a follow up, results from her blood work was so alarming, George received a panicked call from nurses two days after her initial doctors visit, telling her to get to the hospital immediately. The tests found she was incredibly anemic and near-death.

When she arrived, George strolled into the lobby of the hospital feeling mostly fine. Nurses swarmed her at her entrance, offering a wheelchair and assistance but George waved them off saying, 'No, I'm fine. I'm walking in and I will walk out.” This determined attitude is what would carry her through over 20 years of health issues.

Shortly after, the then-22-year-old was rushed into a room for an ultrasound that would reveal her kidneys were the size of walnuts. Normal functioning kidneys are usually the size of a human fist. She would need to start dialysis immediately.

'The doctor said, ‘You're in renal failure,' and he just kind of left me there … I was four hours away from death, I found out later,” George said.

Even after the doctor's announcement, George still was not sure what exactly was wrong with her. No explanation of 'renal failure” had been offered. In fact, the news of her failing health was so shocking, George initially refused to start dialysis, a necessary and lifesaving procedure that would do the work of taking out toxins and purifying her blood that her kidneys could no longer do.

'I just thought, God gave me two kidneys so I wouldn't need to do dialysis but the nurses kind of talked to me and explained, well, God also gave us this technology so people who need it could use it and live,” George explained.

She credits the patience and kindness of nurses not only in convincing her to start dialysis but also being her support throughout the scary experience.

'They become your family. They can tell when you're feeling low and know when to check in and ask, ‘Hey, what's going on?'”

Her first session of dialysis lasted four hours, during which George received four pints of blood to replenish all that she had lost. Her stay in Bryan Memorial would last a week, during which she would undergo a procedure to get a peritoneal catheter placed in her neck to start daily dialysis sessions.

'I just did what the doctors told me. Back then, we didn't ask questions and doctors didn't really tell us anything,” George said. Since that time, George has educated herself on her condition and learned to speak up for herself when meeting with doctors. She can explain dialysis and the procedures she's gone through almost as well as a medical professional can.

But, all she really knew at the end of her weeklong stay in 1997 was that she would probably need to be on dialysis for the rest of her life.

'It felt like a death sentence,” George bemoaned, 'I was frustrated, emotionally drained and confused.”

And although it wasn't quite a death sentence, it certainly prohibited the young woman from doing things that she wanted to do. In one day, George had to administer multiple dialysis sessions to herself, which often drained her of her energy and left her unable to work or to go far from home. Daily tasks like taking a shower or even just getting up from bed became almost impossible.

'At 22, most people want to go out, have that independence from their parents … I had to rely on them for everything again, to get places and for help because I couldn't do things on my own,” George said.

'I just didn't feel good. I gained a lot of weight from the dialysis and had all these scars from surgery and just thought, ‘Who's ever going to want me?'”

Following her initial emergency visit, George moved back in with her parents because she could not afford to live on her own anymore. George says her mother, Lola, stayed by her side through everything, often acting as her caretaker during dialysis sessions.

'It costs about $60,000 a month to do dialysis … and Medicare and health insurance covers some of it but not all of it,” George explained.

The first big break in George's seemingly unending battle with renal failure and dialysis was when she switched doctors in 1998. Dr. Jeffrey Marple immediately began working to get George onto a transplant list. In just a little over a year, in July of 1999, she got the call, the catch being that she had to get to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, in less than nine hours, the time it would take to drive from her home in Nebraska.

'My dad got on the phone and talked to somebody from a service that flies missionaries to places and so they actually had one guy that lived 30 miles away. And they called and he said, ‘Yup, I do that for transplant patients also, I will fly them.'”

George and her mother rushed to get ready following the phone call, bags packed in less than half and hour to meet the pilot and board the small airplane, which only seated four people in total.

'You're sitting there wondering what's going to happen, how the transplant is going to transpire. You're flying and you get to see all these little checkerboards on the ground … so that was a relaxing thing,” George said of the ride.

What had seemed like a godsend quickly felt like a mistake. Following the transplant, George didn't seem to get any better and was constantly battling pneumonia, checking herself in and out of hospitals. Eventually her body rejected the kidneys in 2001.

'I was told I had to go back to dialysis … at the time, I gained a lot of weight from the transplant drugs so I was unable to go on the transplant list,” she explained.

This time, George would have to travel to dialysis centers to do hemodialysis before she was convinced again to learn to administer the procedure for herself at home.

'I went through a weeklong training ... I could feel when something wasn't right quicker and knew when to stop,” George said about learning to do home dialysis. During the training, George also learned how to properly sanitize and set up her dialysis machine.

However, the transplant rejection not only meant George had to be put back on dialysis, but complications from transplant drugs left George nearly blind. Attempting to wean her off the medicine gave her terrible headaches that created pressure to build on her optic nerve. While doctors scrambled to find a solution to the issue, George would lose her peripheral vision.

'I try not to think about the what-ifs because it doesn't change anything and it only makes me upset,” she said.

George has been doing home hemodialysis since 2003 but hasn't allowed her predicament to keep her from living a full life. In 2005, she met her soon-to-be husband, Marty George, on a Christian website, and made the move to Mt. Pleasant in 2006 to be with him.

'I was just looking for a friend because I felt so lonely … a lot of people stopped associating with me when my renal failure first started,” George said.

George would not only get married but also help Marty raise his three children and begin working again. But she remained dependent on her dialysis machine. The machine and her condition serves as something as a ball and chain in her life. Vacations and excursions must be carefully planned to make sure she can complete her dialysis sessions. Carrying the machine from place to place can be expensive and often not worth the inconvenience.

Now, George is looking to get a second transplant and turn a new page in life.

'I decided I don't want to live on the dialysis machine anymore. I want to be able to travel and see the kids when they are in college without the hassle and stress of having to take my machine and supplies with me,” George said.

Despite her previously failed transplant and understanding that another transplant does not necessarily cure her renal failure, George is pushing ahead, determined to make a change in her life.

'You can't give up … I know that no matter what, God will provide,” George said.

Her faith and her support system of family, friends and her church community have rallied around her as she prepares to receive a new kidney, setting up the Sue George Transplant Fund and hosting events to help raise money for the procedure and aftercare. Those interested in donating or contributing to the fund can faithlc39@gmail.com.

'If there's anything I want people going through renal failure to know is that dialysis is not a death sentence … you can have a life, you just can't give up,” George reiterated. George eventually hopes to be able to share her experience with others and act as a role model for those going through similar health issues. She plans to take part in speaking engagements in which she can encourage those going through difficult times to continue fighting.