REGINA - Kelsey Dasko is hoping that someone will step forward with a gift that can save her life.
Dasko – whose boyfriend is Kirkland Chalus, the nephew of Melanie Brimner of Wawota – is studying nursing at the University of Regina.
Although Dasko had a great childhood, she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 10 years old, and for the past 17 years she has dealt with this. One day while at home, she checked her blood pressure and it was extremely high, which caused her a great deal of concern.
“It really scared me,” she said.
Dasko quickly made a doctor's appointment, and from there she went for blood work. The same evening, her doctor called her to say Dasko's kidneys were only working at 12 per cent.
This was not the news that Dasko was expecting or wanting to receive. She was referred to a nephrologist, who explained to her about dialysis and transplants. These were her only options and they would be needed soon.
Losing her mom just a year before to similar issues sent Dasko into a deep place of desperation.
She began the treatment with a catheter surgically placed into her peritoneum cavity, which allows her to do a fluid-based dialysis called peritoneal dialysis.
“Essentially what I am doing is filling the cavity up with a glucose-based fluid, letting it dwell and draw toxins out for four to six hours, then hooking myself back up to a bag and draining it out.”
Currently this is done a couple times a day and during the night she does a treatment that requires a starch-based solution that dwells for 12-16 hours.
Presently she is able to do these treatments at home.
“This gives me a somewhat normal life,” she said.
As her kidneys continue to fail, she will need more dialysis until a transplant becomes available. This has been her life for the past year.
Dasko is looking for a kidney transplant to save her life. The blood type needs to be O positive or O negative to be compatible with her.
Every month she needs to have blood work done, and every four months she sees her nephrologist as long as things remain close to the same.
She has been doing a lot of testing for a transplant lately, which includes cardiac stress tests, tons of blood work, an ECG, a CT scan, ultrasounds, multiple vaccination appointments, TB tests and MRSA testing, and she said there is more testing to come.
People usually have two kidneys, but in order to live a normal life, some people only need one.
Tara Byrant from White Bear First Nation donated her kidney for her cousin. Although they did not match, her kidney was given to someone else, and her cousin received the much-needed organ from another person who did match.
She was moved up the list because of the life-saving kidney that Byrant gave.
The average wait time for a kidney transplant is over 2 1/2 years in Saskatchewan.
If a person wishes to become a kidney transplant donor or wishes to donate one to Dasko, contact the Kidney Foundation of Canada, Saskatchewan branch and they will provide you with all the information necessary to donate.
A person could be saving another person’s life this Christmas.
