The Gift of Life is for Giving

The Gift of Life is For Giving

It is not there for the taking

From the time of our first child being born, I have been totally bewildered from the age of being a young man to a slightly older one, perhaps a little creaky in the joints, why do the females of our human society ever want to become pregnant again after the birth of their first child. It is agreed up front that it takes two to tango. It is admitted I was there and the results were five pregnancies and one miscarriage. Twin sons were conceived after Val thought she would like a daughter. I saw and felt the agony and the pain Val was put through at these births. I always believed that Val would not go down the road again.

Why do they do it?

Why do they want to tred that path again?

Having become a little older and probably not any wiser, I do believe our female counter parts are far stronger than us Mere Males are. They learn that, "The Gift of Life is For Giving" from a very young age. They keep on giving and giving.

On a programme Val watches every Thursday night on TV, she watches RPA or Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. She called me from the computer, probably creating another Hub,

This was about a mother whose 30 Year old son was under daily Dialysis of up to five hours per day. Five days per week. This son needed a new Kidney. This lady had volunteered 7 years ago to give her son a kidney from her own body. She was told, that she and her son were not compatible. He had Diabetes

Now medical science has advanced so much that they were now able to do something to her blood and she would have 90% possibility of giving one of her Kidneys to her son. To my thinking that is bravery of the highest. A mother, who would have to be maybe 50 at least, could do that for her son.

We all know that Christ gave his life up for our SINS at his Father's Wish.

This was a lady of maybe fifty years or older, with a 10% chance of her dying. That is Brave!

She passed through her operation successfully. The programme finished and to be inserted into the son next Thursday night.

If anyone is interested I will post in the comments the success of his survival. I am sure that he will survive.

Diabetes

Almost 40% of new dialysis patients have diabetes, making it the fastest growing risk factor for kidney disease. Type 2 diabetes is the number one cause of kidney failure, responsible for more than one of every three new cases.

What you can do: Kidney disease does not have to happen to people with diabetes-good blood pressure and blood sugar control can help prevent it. Tight control can have big payoffs in reducing the risk for kidney disease.

High Blood Pressure (Hypertension)

High blood pressure puts more stress on blood vessels throughout the body, including the kidney filters (nephrons). Hypertension is the number two cause of kidney failure. Normal blood pressure is less than 130/85-and this is the target for people who have diabetes, heart disease, or CKD. Weight control, exercise, and medications can control blood pressure-and perhaps prevent or slow the progress from kidney disease to kidney failure.

What you can do: Blood pressure pills must be taken as prescribed to work properly. If you can't afford to buy your blood pressure pills or have side effects, tell your doctor so he or she can suggest other options for you. Certain classes of blood pressure medications, such as ACE inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), or beta blockers may help protect the kidneys in some cases.

Dialysis Prior to Living Donor Kidney Transplantation and Rates of Acute Rejection

Mange KC, Joffe MM, Feldman HI

Nephrology Dialysis and Transplantation. 2003;18(1):172-177

It is well known that renal allografts transplanted from related living donors (RLD) fare significantly better than those from cadaveric (CD) donors. Although there is an ongoing drive to improve the biocompatability of dialysis membranes, there is evidence that dialysis exposure modulates the immune system, resulting in an increased risk of acute rejection in both RLD and CD transplants. Pre-emptive transplantation (PRLDT or transplant prior to dialysis) has been performed to reduce this risk. This retrospective cohort study analysed data provided by the United States Renal Data System and attempted to determine the relationship between the chronic use of dialysis (modality not specified) and acute rejection in RLD patients and whether the incidence of acute rejection varies throughout the first post transplant year. Among the 8549 patients who received an RLD allograft between 1994 and 1997, 21.4% received their transplant prior to dialysis. Most patients were male Caucasians, and most donors were siblings with at least 1 HLA match. Ninety-five percent of patients were prescribed CsA-based immunosuppression. In the non-pre-emptive transplant group (NPRLDT), the frequency of biopsy-proven rejection was significantly higher (P = .001) than in the PRLDT group from 1-12 months posttransplantation. Adjustments for other factors, including donor gender, ethnic relationships, delayed graft function, panel reactive antibody, HLA match, and antibody induction therapy, were made; NPRLDT was associated with a 2.5-fold higher rate of rejection. Increasing duration of dialysis prior to transplantation (from 0 to > 600 days) was associated with an increased rate of acute rejection, although this relationship diminished over the 12-month period.

Another incidence of ‘The Gift of Life is For Giving'

A much younger Mother with a fourteen month old son. This baby had extreme jaundice. The Baby was yellow. She was willing to give a part of her own liver up to keep her young baby alive. This was done immediately and both the mother and son have come through with flying colours.

This is another case of being a Giver and not a Taker.

Many years ago I was subjected to three operations and as a result I managed to get an ulcer on the liver and the result was Jaundice and this became catastrophic for our family

Jaundice in newborn babies

Disclaimer: This fact sheet is for education purposes only. Please consult with your doctor or other health professional to make sure this information is right for your child.

Jaundice in newborn babies is a yellow colouration of the skin and the whites of the eyes. Visible jaundice occurs in one third to a half of normal newborn babies. It usually does not cause problems and generally fades by the end of the first week after birth. If the jaundice appears within 24 hours of birth or doesn't start fading after a week, or is still present after 2 weeks, contact your doctor or local hospital.

What causes the yellow colour?

In the human body, new blood is being made all the time and old blood is being destroyed. One of the products of destroyed blood is called bilirubin. Bilirubin normally goes to the liver to be processed and then leaves the body in the poo. For the first few days after birth your baby's liver does not work as well as it does later, so there tends to be a build-up of bilirubin in the blood. This causes the yellow colour in the skin and whites of the eyes.

Is jaundice harmful?

If the amount of bilirubin level gets too high it may make your baby drowsy. Very high levels can lead to hearing problems and brain damage. In hospital, care is taken to ensure that the bilirubin level does not get too high.

Prolonged jaundice may also be due to liver disease. This is why it is important to contact your local doctor. One of the signs of liver disease would be your baby's poo being very pale rather than a rich yellow colour. Jaundice due to liver disease needs to be investigated immediately so that appropriate treatment can be instituted.

Which babies get high levels of jaundice?

Babies who may be more likely to get jaundice include:

Premature babies.

Babies with an infection.

Rhesus or RH babies - babies with one blood group different from their mother's. Due to this a reaction occurs in which the baby's blood cells are destroyed more quickly.

Measuring how much jaundice the baby has

A blood test checks the bilirubin level. Some hospitals also use an instrument placed on your baby's skin as a screening test to help decide if a blood test is needed. A blood test will also determine if the jaundice is due to liver disease, by measuring the total and the processed (or conjugated) bilirubin levels and checking other liver tests.

Keith Pepper

Age cannot weary multi-talented Keith Pepper. In fact, it can't even knock down his golf handicap, writes Trevor Hulm From the Sydney Sun Herald.

It's just after dawn and the morning's first rays of sunshine are tripping across the Wollongong Golf Club links course. Among the first wave of golfers milling around the first tee is Keith Pepper - a small, wizened figure in a white towelling hat.

Pepper lines up and drives sweetly, 220 metres down the centre of the fairway. Just another day at the office for the South Coast veteran. Pepper will be 87 next month and is still playing off a handicap of seven. Golf's officialdom believe he is the oldest single-figure handicapped in Australia .

"I would be amazed if there is an older golfer playing off single figures anywhere in Australia," says Bill Sidwell, the Australian Veterans Golf Association secretary.

Pepper, or "Pepsi" to his mates, is a truly remarkable sportsman, some even call him ‘Hot Pepper‘. He did not take up golf until he was 41, but has since won scores of club, regional, state and national titles.

He was virtually unbeatable in tennis on the South Coast for two decades before switching to golf. Pepper won the Illawarra tennis title 10 times and the South Coast championship for six consecutive years without dropping a set.

He took on United States Davis Cup star Tony Trabert in an exhibition match in Wollongong in the early '50s. The match was called off at seven-all.

"Trabert wasn't too happy," Pepper recalls. "I think he was a bit put out not being able to get over the top of a country bumpkin."

Pepper played A grade cricket age of 15 and scored 81 against a Club attack that included Bill O'Reilly and Ray Lindwall in its ranks Famous names in the World of Cricket.

He was also a regional champion in squash, table tennis and badminton, and was an outstanding diver. Oh, and a champion ballroom dancer and a dab hand in the boxing ring

But golf is the sport that has held his interest for almost half a century. Wollongong club members recently took on the task of tallying his titles.

"They came up with a figure of 60, but I think it could have been more," Pepper says.

The tally includes five Wollongong club championships, nine Illawarra Golf Association titles, six NSW seniors crowns and two Australian seniors titles.

Pepper at one point had a handicap of plus one and held the Wollongong course record on six separate occasions.

"They kept changing the course on me," he says with his trademark grin.

Pepper has never bothered to keep a record of the times he has shot his age - one of golf's crowning achievements. The reason? "I shoot it every time," he says.

The old warhorse does not have any ready-made answers for the secret to his longevity. He plays at least three rounds of golf every week and walks the course on each occasion. He has always scorned the use of carts by golfers.

"Playing and practice are important, but technique is the most important aspect of the game," he says.

Pepper enjoys excellent health, but his feet have started to give him trouble in recent times.

He recently had two cortisone injections for growth spurs in his feet and that helped. He went out two days later and shot 72 off the stick.

I wished I had done that, I went walking immediately after the Cortisone and fanited in the shopping centre.

Wollongong's club professional, Neil Speirs, is in awe.

"He is lucky to be as fit and as subtle as he is at his age, and he works at his game," Speirs says.

"But you've got to give it to him - he is one hell of a golfer. He is just a natural."

Surprisingly, Pepper does not rate himself the best sportsman in his family.

"My late brother Cec, now he was something - cricket, golf, tennis, you name it," he says. "He played Sheffield Shield for NSW and should have represented Australia.

Pepper has no personal regrets about not trying to crack it at the elite level.

"I might have been tempted to try to make it in the big time in tennis or cricket," he says.

"But family and business commitments [he owned and operated three sports stores in the Illawarra] and four years' war service in New Guinea and the Torres Strait Islands put paid to those ambitions.

"But I've no regrets. Sport has opened many, many doors for me."

Another person who gave rather than take.

A 92 year old man, who took great care in his appearance, arrived at the door of an Old People's Home. His wife of 70 had recently died, and he believes it was time to move on. He sat and waited in the lounge room of The Retirement Home, for some time, he smiles, as the lady informs him his room is ready. As he slowly walks to the elevator, using his stick. The Lade describes the small room and the sheet, hung over the window which will also serve as a curtain over the window.

" I like it very much,"

he says with the enthusiasm of a 8 year old boy, who has just been given a new puppy. When told he had not seen the room as yet.

"That has nothing to do with it. Happiness is something I choose in advance. Whether or not I like the room, has nothing to do with the furniture or the décor, rather on how I choose to see it. This is a decision I make every morning, when I wake up. I choose wether I spend the day in bed enumerating all the difficulties that I have with the parts of my body that do not work very well, or get up and give thanks to God for those parts in working order.

Every day to me is a new day and I consider it a gift. I will focus on the new day, and the happy memories that I have built up during my life."

"Old age is like a bank account, you are able to draw on in latter life what you have deposited along the way.."

So if one can offer any advice at all, to everybody.

Deposit all your Happiness can into your Bank Account of Memories.

Thank you all for your separate parts in filling my account with Happy Memories, which I intend to fill until there is no more time..