Welcome to the Welcome page. I spent a lot of time trying to determine what exactly I wanted to do here, because you see, this page...well it is very important to not just me, but you. Sounds goofy I know, but stick with me for a wee bit.
You see Jessie has a lot of medical issues, she is one of the public faces of the NKF and, the unfortunate truth is, it’s very easy to forget that she isn’t her illness. So I want you to meet Jessie, the real one.
She isn’t a kidney kid, she isn’t terminally ill she isn’t a sob story or a charity case or movie of the week candidate. I can ASSURE you she isn’t perfect ( I, of course, am awesome and perfect so please don’t let the truth interfere with that assessment) and she certainly isn’t always good natured. She IS NOT RENAL DISEASE. She has those things, she deals with those things they are not who she is.
She is your grandkid, your partner, your daughter, your cousin. She is you. She plays Magic: The Gathering, she gets irritated as all get out when she gets stuck waiting for two hours in a doctors office even though she was on time (this time anyway (; ). She misses her father, loves to talk non stop and is fanatical about Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli. She rolls her eyes when I put Kat Williams or George Lopez stand up on TV for the 100000th time. She ignores me when I tell her to stop feeding the cat ‘cuz he isn’t supposed to be 15lbs. She goes deaf when I nag her to stop playing with her gum and go into my soliloquy about germs. She firmly believes I am the only human being on the planet who knows how to use a stove and insists I am an idiot when I mention that “Cheeze It” is not a food group. She would eat a Wendy’s double stack everyday for the rest of her life if she could and she could talk cats with you until her lips fell off (she will also look at pictures of your cats happily for as long as you would like ). She loves how Katharine Hepburn lived her life and has an expansive knowledge of classic films. She still wonders if there was something she could have done to save Emma (her first kidney transplant) and has a deep seated fear that she won’t have made her mark or a difference before she leaves this earth. She wants to make an imprint on this earth not because she wants to live longer, but because she has learned so much from all these “things” she wants time to teach others.
You see everybody has something in this life that they have to sort out, or come to terms with or heck even learn to accept. When you read some of the things Jessie has to live with, overcome or survive that’s a really good time to count your blessings, but remember that Jessie counts hers too. She may never surf again, and you aren’t likely to see her pull a 720º on the vert ramp at the next x-games but I promise you there are other joys she has to look forward to, and she knows it.
The greatest blessing we as a family have is the rock solid knowledge that people care and everyone can make a difference. In fact I truly believe that everyone wants to make a difference its just a matter of helping them find the path to do so. Jessie is cutting the path of hope for others being deluged by illness, and I am going to spend the remainder of my life cutting a path to those of us who have health among our blessings. I pray every day that God makes us an unstoppable team. I pray that he gives her the ability to hold sway and teach others like her to hang tight to their faith and that he gives my voice the strength it needs to reach others like me who have a spare kidney to donate.
If you get nothing else from this site, we both pray you leave here knowing that you are just as important as every other human being on this planet. We all deserve the best of those around us, and we should all strive to be that best.
--Dragon
