New Kidney, New Life

"A man who is a master of patience is master of everything else." —George Savile

Last summer, I met a man who has more patience than I could ever hope to have in my life. Although the past 8 years of his life have been a waiting game, his faith is unshaken and his support system is stronger than ever. I had the opportunity to share his story about his wait for a kidney transplant and the community of Moberly stepping up to help on KOMU 8 News. Just a few weeks ago, I got word that he successfully went through a kidney transplant in Chicago and now is recovering at home. I sat down with DeWayne and his wife Angel to hear what this new kidney means for their family.


New Kidney, New Life from Nicole Krasavage on Vimeo.



Here is my full article from KOMU.com this past summer before the transplant:

Moberly Man's Struggle Unites the Community

MOBERLY - After eight years of waiting for a kidney transplant, one Moberly family finally got the call saying to pack up bags and be ready to leave at a moment's notice--but also learned of an extra hardship that goes along with the transplant.

DeWayne and Angel Long live in Moberly with their three children. When DeWayne turned 30, he was diagnosed with double kidney failure, specifically known as focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. Both of his kidney's together function at a 15 percent level. Doctors told the family the average wait for a kidney would be around 18 months. That turned out to be much longer.

"We went through the ups and downs of being on the list and being off the list," Angel said. "Then we just started to function as though it may or may not happen. I don't want to say we forgot about it, but we kind of just went on."

DeWayne undergoes four hours of dialysis three times a week. He said the dialysis wears on his body.

"It puts quite a strain and a demand on life that you wouldn't normally have if you were a healthy person," DeWayne said. "I pray a lot. I want to be around for my children. I want to be around for my daughters to get married so I can walk them down the aisle."

DeWayne got put on the Northwestern Memorial Hospital transplant list in Chicago. This past April, family members found out that, during the kidney transplant and recovery process, they will have to live in Chicago for a month and a half, paying for a hotel and meals there.

"We didn't know that before, we thought we could just travel back and forth," Angel said. "They said they wouldn't do it unless we have the funding to stay."

Churches in the community have stepped up to help raise money to support the family. The Moberly First Assembly of God Church, along with the FaithWalk Church in Paris, have already raised almost $5,000 for the family.

"There are great people out there," DeWayne said. "I'm overwhelmed. My family's overwhelmed. I will probably never be able to repay them, but I'm willing to offer whatever services I can to them in the future."

The youth pastor of First Assembly of God, Kevin Gustafson, said he has really seen more than just two churches coming together to help out the family.

"They have a lot of friends and family behind them," Gustafson said. "It's cool to see how God can work together and bless their family."

The family could need up to $10,000 to cover the total costs, so on Friday, the First Assembly of God in Moberly will hold a benefit dinner at 6 p.m. There will be music, a meal and a silent auction. DeWayne will give his testimony and share his love of music on the piano. Gustafson said the church is excited to host the event for a family loved and supported by the community.

"It's a really good testimony to see," Gustafson said. "It's got to be a difficult time, but I don't see it affecting them in a negative way. It's actually bringing together their family and their church family, too."

The support the family receives from the community is also mirrored within the home. DeWayne's father, Harold G. Long, is the bishop at FaithWalk. He said DeWayne's positivity has helped his health.

"Even when he would be going through dialysis he would be weak and tired, and I always tried to work with him on a positive mindset," Bishop Long said.

That positivity carries over into the Long's home.

"We rally together," Angel said. "We support each other. We're each other's best friends."

The call last week to have their bags packed and ready to go at a moment's notice, left the Long's with a feeling of excitement that leaves them closer to their goal than ever before.

"Your expectations become more of a reality when you actually get that word," Bishop Long said. "That was really exciting to hear."

After years of playing a waiting game and the end potentially so close in sight, the thought of the phone not ringing and waiting longer still crosses Angel and DeWayne's mind.

"What if it doesn't happen..." Angel said. "We look at our life and we still count it blessed. If we have to go and keep the same routine, we'll go and keep the same routine."

DeWayne and his family said they are overwhelmed with the community support. They are standing by their phones hoping for the next call so they can head to Chicago and move forward with the transplant.

"We're not out there alone." DeWayne said. "It's been a blessing."

To donate money you can call 660-263-4361 or send it to Moberly First Assembly of God at 120 West Outer Road, Moberly, MO 65270.

Original video that aired on KOMU.com:

First Impressions of D.C.

 "Be Strong, and let your heart take courage." Psalm 31:24

       These past few days have been so overwhelming. I can't even image how my friends feel who are studying abroad or are in countries that speak a different language! I'm still in the United States, and I already have to do so much adjusting. It's so crazy that the culture can be so different in places that are only hours away from each other. Needless to say, Bethesda and Washington D.C. are much, much different than Columbia, Missouri. I don't think I'll see ANY camouflage jackets and pajama pants when I walk into the grocery store here. In fact, we went to the nice area of town where Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Jimmy Choo are all right next to each other, and you need a ticket to even get into the parking lot. Also, we went into the nicest Target I've ever seen in my entire life last night. It had it's own parking garage and was two floors with escalators for your carts to go up like IKEA in Chicago! 

Trip to D.C.

     After a long 9 hours of driving on Friday (which I drove all of), my mom and I stopped in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for the night to stay with our good friends from Georgia. Pittsburgh is so hilly and has the cutest houses! It was so nice to stop and catch up with our old friends. It had been 5 years since we last were at their house, but it was like nothing changed. We told stories from when we were kids and growing up with all our best friends living next door to each other on the same block in Georgia and all the crazy things we would do for fun. It's so nice to have kept in touch with all of them still, especially since we are all so spread out now. I think that really made me so comfortable with traveling alone since I started flying alone at such a young age to keep in touch with all my best friends. I'm beyond excited to have my best friend from Georgia, Jennifer, only an hour and a half away this semester at the University of Delaware! It makes me really appreciate all the friendships I've kept over the years, regardless of the distance between us now.

Tunnel through mountains

Living

      I'm living in a cute house with some family friends in Bethesda, MD, which is about 25 minutes north of downtown D.C. It's a great set up at the house. It's split level, so I pretty much have the bottom floor area as my space which has a family room with a couch and TV along with my own bathroom and bedroom. The couple I'm staying with, Gaylen and Tom, have lived here for years, and grew up in D.C., so they pretty much know everything there is to know and are really helpful with random information. Tom was a college basketball referee for 35 years (And had the opportunity to ref the sweet sixteen before) and knows one of the best high school softball pitchers in the country who just committed to Mizzou for next year. His words of wisdom to me were to always trust yourself because you're the one that has to live with your choices in life. Gaylen is in real estate, so she knows the area really well and loves history so knows all the random facts. Dinner the first night while my mom was here completely reminded me of the family dinners in Gilmore Girls where Lorelei and Rory sit at the dining table lit with candles and listen to everything Richard and Emily have to talk about. (Teddy and Emily will appreciate this reference) They also have a 4lb chihuahua....whose name is poop. Over the past 2 days poop has warmed up to me, so I can't wait for it to get nice out so I can take him on walks around the block. They are really sweet for letting me stay with them, and her only request is that I "write a chapter in my future memoir about the nice, old couple that took me in." (The dentist also said this to me, so I guess I should start writing.....)

The family room area right outside my bedroom 

Exploring

       I've never really considered myself a city girl, but looks like I'm definitely going to have to adjust to it. The metro system here is really nice and easy to figure out. The trains leave around every 3 minutes compared to the trains that leave every hour going into Chicago so if you miss it you're screwed. 

One of the Metro stations

       I practiced driving to the metro station and taking the 25-minute ride into Union Station downtown. The only downside is there's no cell service since it's underground, so each time the train stops you have to try to hurry and resend all your message and your phone buzzes quickly with all the messages you missed. The walk to CNN is only a few minutes from Union station, and there was a police officer on almost every corner, so I felt safe. We got to walk by the Capitol building and take some pictures. Everything was all set up for inauguration, so it was really cool to see everything on TV today all filled up, since we saw it when it was completely empty. I have a week before my internship starts, so I'm going to use it to get all my sightseeing done and to check out the area. I have a tour booked of the Capitol for Wednesday, and I also want to see the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court, too. It's so weird to be completely on my own. In one way it's good, because I literally have the freedom to decide what I want to do everyday and don't need to worry about any other plans, but it's also weird to see and do everything by myself. So I'm definitely excited for this week to go exploring and see all the major landmarks and hopefully become a little more accustomed to using the metro everyday. I'm glad everything is now organized and in place, I just need to adjust and embrace everything DC has to offer! 

Here's some photos I took these past few days: 

High security everywhere

Outside the Capitol

New workplace!

Everything set up for inauguration!