Shelby Winder.
Asking for a kidney is like asking someone for a piece of their life. And for one local resident, a new kidney would mean she would get her life back.
Shelby Winder, 45, was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2019. Prior to her diagnosis, she suffered heavy periods and cramps and was told to take Aleve and Motrin. In 2019, her doctors noticed that her creatinine numbers were rapidly going up. She then went to see a neurologist, who said both kidneys were failing.
“We did notice she was very pale. She said she didn't feel well, and we noticed that she was losing weight, but she just didn't look healthy and kept saying her stomach hurt,” Cathy Zeller, Winder’s mother, said. “Those were the toxins building up in her stomach because they weren't being released because she couldn't go to the bathroom.”
Winder immediately went on home dialysis, going on it from two times a day to three. She eventually went to the hospital last July for blood loss and was told to go on nighttime dialysis, a process of five treatments per night that runs for 10 hours. Based on her bloodwork over the course of four years, her doctors believe her kidney failure was the result of taking Aleve and Motrin.
She went on the kidney transplant list for Lehigh Valley Hospital in 2020. The average wait for a kidney transplant could be five years.
“It's very hard to get [a kidney], so we've been out there doing our best to get a live donor because that's the best,” Zeller said.
According to the National Kidney Foundation, “a kidney from a living donor lasts about 15 to 20 years” whereas deceased donor transplants may last for 10 to 15 years, according to American Kidney Fund.
Being on dialysis can be isolating and restricting for Winder as she can only walk within 20 feet radius because of the cord.
“To be hooked up at night from a person who was very social — she was out all the time with her friends and then had social life at the theater, so she was very busy — [she suffers from] anxiety and depression,” Zeller said.
She suffers from heavy coughs as a result of toxins entering her body or certain fluid or salt intakes, which can be difficult especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Sometimes, she can have a coughing attack, which is the worst thing to have during Covid [because] everybody just stares at you,” Zeller said. “I think that's the hardest thing for her because she knows everybody turns around to look at us.”
Winder is doing well regarding the bloodwork that she gets done every month, but finds that each day is hard because she just wants her life back.
“We don't realize as an individual, when we don't have our kidneys functioning, how much it affects our body until you hear the stories of those going through it,” Zeller said.
To cope with her anxiety, depression, and other struggles, her family has regular game and movie nights and has few people over at a time to socialize.
“One of the things [we’ve been doing] was to try and keep it as normal as possible around here,” Zeller said.
Winder has a Facebook page called “Kidney for Shelby” where she documents how she’s feeling and what she’s going through each week as a way to spread awareness and find a potential donor. Her church has also made efforts to help Winder find a living donor. She and her family have worked with their church to start an organ donor Gift of Life program. There have also been two walks organized by her church at Fischer’s Park to spread awareness, in addition to two luncheons.
“Everybody keeps reminding us how much they're praying for her, and we just believe that God will send the right kidney, whether it's living or deceased, at the right time,” Zeller said.
The search for a living donor has been a long and difficult journey for Winder and her family. Despite their own struggles finding a donor, they continue to keep their hopes up for not only Winder but for whoever is ahead of her on the list.
“We're grateful for anybody who even considers just not for [Shelby] but for anybody,” Zeller said. “We often said when we got one or two calls that we were number two on the list, but we always said, ‘Well, we pray for the person who's number one.’ We hope they get it because they've waited longer or maybe need it more.”
Interested donors can call 610-402-8506 option #5.
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