Kidney recipient and donor doing fine

Life is gradually trending toward normal for Tanglewood residents Tom and Debby Mapp after she received a kidney transplant from her neighbor, Margo Holliday, on Oct. 27.

Mapp, 54, came home from Shands Hospital in Gainesville just a week after the transplant surgery. She sat in her home today, pressing a small kidney-shaped orange and blue "Gator" pillow to her side.

She said she never really suffered any pain from the surgery. She had wisdom teeth removed that caused her more pain, she said.

"I itched a lot, but I don't know if that is from anesthesia or some of the anti-rejection medicine," said Mapp. "Right off the bat they give you some anti-rejection medicine they don't give you the day afterwards - or if it was from the sheets or linens or something like that. I just felt like I had poison oak. It's just now wearing off."

Almost miraculously, Margo Holliday, 66, was driven home by her Husband Robert "Doc" Holliday on Oct. 29, just a day and a half after the surgery.

Complications and worry

The day of the surgery didn't go quite as planned. Mapp was supposed to have her surgery at about 9:30 a.m.

Margo Holliday had gone in ahead of her as an outpatient.

"Who knew kidney donation was outpatient surgery?" Mapp asked. "She only got a room after the surgery was over."

Her surgeon ran into a complication.

About 11 years ago Holliday had her gallbladder removed. Scar tissue had formed and attached the kidney to her colon and to her liver.

Instead of a four-hour surgery it dragged out to almost eight hours while the surgeon carefully detached the kidney from the scar tissue a millimeter at a time.

"They had to dig around the scar tissue to get to the kidney," said Mapp.

She remained confident.

"For me I wasn't scared at all - the day had finally come," said Debby Mapp. "But I was thinking about Margo. And what she was going through."

The husbands underwent their own trauma.

By 1 p.m., Mapp still laid there waiting with Tom at her side.

Almost unbelievably the recipients weren't being told what was happening with the donor because of HIPAA privacy laws.

Doc Holliday said he wasn't being told much help either.

"They gave a call to the auxiliary lady's desk and said it will be another hour, they're having problems - that made me feel real good," said Holliday. "Then a half hour later 'They can't get the kidney out, it'll be another hour.' Then 'We're having complications ... '"

At about 1:30 p.m. the team came in and told Mapp it was her time.

"Finally they came and took Debby and I went and waited in the waiting room with Doc., said Tom Mapp. "And we waited and waited and waited and they didn't give us any answers except it's going to take longer than expected and they wouldn't give us a reason why. That made for a very long day."

"I remember they said, 'We're going to take you down to the operating room now,'" said Debby Mapp. "And, 'We're going to give you a shot.'"

All she remembered was waking up in the Intensive Care Unit.

"They were saying it's all over, and me and Margo were fine," Mapp said.

Her surgery lasted three hours.

"It all went super and in the end you couldn't get a better result," said Tom Mapp. "Margo has given Debby her life back."

A worthwhile exchange, but no guarantee

For now the Mapps will have to make the trip to Gainesville twice a week for at least a month, exchanging trips to the dialysis center for trips to Shands.

"I'm hoping today when we have to go back it will be a little easier," said Debby Mapp, Wednesday morning, still remembering her uncomfortable ride home.

She and her husband went back to Gainesville on Wednesday afternoon to be able to get up early for follow-up labs and clinical testing on Thursday morning.

Another change for Debby Mapp is taking the nine new medications on top of five of her old ones that she was prescribed.

Some of the new included anti-rejection medicines she will need to take for the rest of her kidney's life. And right now it's working great.

"There is no guarantee," she said. "It's like they told me, it's a 66-year-old kidney and everything's got a time stamp on it. Only God knows how long it's going to last.

"If I treat it willy-nilly it's going to die out and if I don't take care of myself it's not going to be able to do what it needs to do. So long as I do everything I can, there's no reason this kidney couldn't last me 20 years. And that's what I'm striving for."

Margo Holliday said she's not taking any medications due to the surgery.

"I've got nothing," said Margo Holliday, smiling. "I took my vitamins this morning. See, when you're old and tough and mean and hard-headed this is what happens."

Her eye's twinkled as she spoke.

Special diet for Debby

A low salt, low fat, low sugar diet was recommended but it really is no change for Mapp, who is a diabetic.

"It's the same diet I was on when I was on dialysis," she said.

She must avoid foods with phosphorus and has to watch the potassium, so she can enjoy a few bites of melon once in a while or a half a banana once a month and she has to control her sugars tighter.

Mapp dropped more than 100 pounds to prepare for the surgery.

"She took a machete and cut that tether," said Doc Holliday. "She's not tied to that dialysis machine any more."

All in the family

The Mapps and Hollidays have spent a lot of time together and see each other as family.

"We've got a whole new lease on life," said Tom Mapp. "We sit down and talk about places we can go, and things we can do together."

Hearing Tom Mapp speak of things they can do together, Doc Holliday got a sly look in his eyes as he lifted his eyeglasses and took off his baseball cap, exposing a sea of skin on a balding head.

"Now I've got to talk Tommy into giving me some hair transplants," he said laughing loudly. "I'd love to be a redhead."

Margo said she still gets tired easily, but every day her body is progressively recuperating.

"If a 66-year-old woman can do this then anyone can do it," she said. "I would encourage anybody to be a donor."