Tag: kidney transplant

Ferris’s kidney ‘happy and making a lot of pee’ . . . Surgeon says thanks for letting team be part of case . . . Mother: ‘Maybe this is miracle we’ve been waiting for’

Sisters
Ferris Backmeyer has been able to get together with sisters Ksenia (left) and Tavia as she recovers from a kidney transplant. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

Transplant surgeons are a special breed; they really are.

When Dorothy underwent her kidney transplant almost 10 years ago at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, the surgeon told me there wasn’t any need to hang around the hospital that day. He would, he said, call me at the hotel in which we were staying once they were done.

Yeah, I thought, a busy surgeon is going to take time out of his day to call me! Sure thing!! So I was in the hotel room at 2:30 p.m., when the phone rang. I picked up, fully expecting to hear an assistant or a nurse or a case worker on the other end. But, no, it was the doctor and he had all the time in the world for me and my questions, and that’s something I won’t ever forget.

That brings us to Lindsey Backmeyer and her Kamloops family. Ferris, the six-year-old daughter of Lindsey and husband Pat, underwent a kidney transplant a week ago at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

Shortly after the procedure had been completed, Lindsey received a visit from the transplant surgeon.

Among other things, Lindsey wrote on Facebook, “He thanked me from the bottom of his heart and on behalf of everyone involved in her case for trusting them to be a part of her story.”

Is that special, or what? But these angels of the operating room are like that.

Lindsey added: “His thank you was so genuine you can’t help but love the guy. Cutting edge medicine is what i hoped for and this guy and his team delivered.

“Ummm, no sir, the thanks is all to you. For that, and to all of them. Thanks for being so friggin good at what you do!! My girl deserved this shot just as much as the next child and these guys made this happen for her.”

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The surgeon who led the team that performed Ferris Backmeyer’s kidney transplant provided her mother, Lindsey, with a water-colour painting of the new kidney. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

The surgeon also had a photo of Ferris’s new kidney, along with “his beautiful watercolour picture of her transplant.”

Is that amazing, or what?

“I had just fallen asleep when he came in to tell me they were done,” Lindsen wrote. “I was too distracted to really let him know what I thought of that picture . . . it’s beautiful. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. . . . I couldn’t love them more.”

As for Ferris, Lindsey reported late Friday night that “while things haven’t gone super smooth they are still going very well. The kidney is happy and making a lot of pee. Yay for a happy kidney!!”

If you’ve been following along, you will recall that there had been some concern about a urine leak.

Lindsey reported that it means Ferris’s catheter will be in place for another week before being removed. The good news is that “most urine is coming out of the catheter and minimal amounts are coming out of the drain. Seems solid to me!”

According to Lindsey, Ferris “had another great day. From a post-surgical recovery standpoint, she’s ready to bust out. But she’s not ready.”

In fact, Ferris will be in hospital for at least another week because of the catheter and the need to give her heparin via IV.

And now, according to her mother, she’s battling boredom.

“She made three batches of slime today. Did musical therapy and a lot of crafts. She also ate a ridiculous amount of food,” Lindsey wrote. “I forgot just how messy eating can be.”

Sounds like a normal six-year-old to me.

Lindsey’s excitement was more than evident in her latest posting. In fact, it practically leapt from my computer screen, especially at the end.

Ferris, Lindsey said, “is very officially on the other side. Doesn’t mean she’s outta the woods. Or there won’t be any complications. Just means they are post-transplant complications and not due to having end-stage renal disease.”

After six years of dealing with end-stage renal disease, please try to understand just how large this is.

“It’s a new world,” Lindsey added, “and we wouldn’t have been given this opportunity if it weren’t for Leah Scott and the urology team at Toronto Sick Kids.”

Scott, who also is from Kamloops, surrendered a kidney through the paired exchange program so that Ferris could get one via transplant.

Lindsey continued: “Forever friggin grateful for this chance. I’ve listened to this podcast where it says I believe in miracles. Do you? I friggin do. I believe in miracles. I always have.

“Maybe, just maybe . . . this is the miracle we have been waiting for.”

And let’s not forget that there also are two older sisters — Tavia, 11, and Ksenia, 9 — making this journey, too.

“Outside of that,” Lindsey wrote, “Ksenia is sick. Which has me a bit panicked. They won’t visit anymore. Hopefully it’s not already too late.”

It’s true, you know. A mother’s work, and worrying, is never done.

Ferris stable early after kidney transplant . . . Good news: ‘There is a big bag of pee’ . . . Youngster’s journey enters new chapter

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Ferris Backmeyer, 6, was stable early Friday after undergoing a kidney transplant in Toronto. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

Those people following the Backmeyer family’s journey through daughter Ferris’s second kidney transplant were greeted by seven glorious words on Friday morning.

“There is a big bag of pee.”

That was part of a brief update from Lindsey Backmeyer, Ferris’s mother, after her six-year-old daughter had undergone a kidney transplant during the night at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children.

The Backmeyers are from Kamloops.

“She’s been out for a few hours now. She’s stable,” Lindsey wrote on Facebook. “There is a big bag of pee. The doctors are all very happy with how she’s doing. Her surgeon told me it was a beautiful kidney and it woke up right away!”

All of that is awesome news. The fact that the new kidney quickly sprung into action and began producing urine is as good as things get at this stage.

“Her creatinine was already down to 120s,” Lindsey continued. “She’s breathing kinda fast and looking pretty puffy, but is managing okay at the moment.

“They are only replacing what comes out now. Let today be smooth and not scary!!”

——

To date, this has been a year of high stress for the Backmeyers, who had to relocate to Vancouver early on as Ferris encountered some infection issues that resulted in her having to be transitioned from peritoneal dialysis to hemodialysis. BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver is the only place in the province where children are able to receive hemo.

At the same time, the family was prepping for an April 25 transplant date in Toronto. However, that date was cancelled a week before as there was a break in the chain.

Ferris’s second transplant was done via the paired exchange program. While there was a break in the chain in April that wasn’t the case on Thursday.

The paired exchange program works like this: A donor, in this case Leah Scott of Kamloops, agrees to donate a kidney to a stranger, but only if the person she is acting on behalf of, in this case Ferris, gets one. What it amounts to is that Ferris and Leah weren’t matches, but when a match was found for Ferris, Leah offered to stay in the chain and see the process through to its end.

Due to privacy concerns, we aren’t privy to how many people are in a chain, but it could be four, six, eight . . . so you know that the logistics are something to behold.

——

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Ferris was looking rather chipper on Thursday before she underwent a kidney transplant. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

Lindsey wrote that the family — father Pat and older daughters Ksenia and

Tavia also are in Toronto — enjoyed Thursday before Ferris went into surgery that night.

“Mostly perfect day today,” Lindsey wrote. “(Ferris) would have said today was a great day although I’m not so sure what she’s gonna think of us all when she wakes up. She hopefully had her last hemo run.”

With all the testing behind her, Ferris was able to spend time with her family.

“She had zero tests so we took her for a walk to the park in the afternoon,” Lindsey said. “She FaceTimed auntie Terri and her friend Amilia! The day went by fairly quickly overall. She was a happy little clam all day.”

At the time Lindsey was writing this, Ferris likely was undergoing her second transplant in two years.

“It’s late here and she’s been in for a few hours now. Still a few more to go,” Lindsey wrote. “She had moments of being nervous today but she mostly was just so incredibly brave. Love her soooo much! Can’t wait to hold her again!”

——

This was the second time that Ferris underwent a transplant. She went through one on March 6, 2021, at BC Children’s Hospital, but there were complications and the new kidney had to be removed not long after it was put in place.

She has known almost nothing but dialysis, either peritoneal or hemo, for most of her young life. She wasn’t a candidate for a transplant earlier because of her small size and an inability to put on weight and keep it on.

There almost was transplant surgery in December 2020. The Backmeyers were at home in Kamloops when they got the call that a kidney was available for transplant. They left for Vancouver, but the surgery was cancelled at the last minute.

The transplant on March 6, 2021, followed.

After that transplant attempt failed, Lindsey explained:

“Urology basically said the donor kidney was perfect but it was challenging to anastamose to Ferris because of the size of her vessels. He basically said he wouldn’t consider another transplant again until she’s bigger, which terrifies me because she isn’t growing well on dialysis at all.

“He worried they underestimated her heart health and it might not have been strong enough to perfuse the organ. This is big scary stuff.”

But now, about three years after the Backmeyers were given the go-ahead to look for a living donor, here we are.

——

While the Backmeyers were in Toronto awaiting Thursday’s surgery, Leah Scott was in an undisclosed location where she had a kidney surgically removed earlier in the week. That kidney was then transplanted into a recipient as part of the chain that also included Ferris.

“I don’t believe that God ever needs us to fulfill His purpose,” Leah, a mother of three, wrote on Facebook on Thursday. “But I do think He chooses to use us when we are willing to say yes. And I think the blessing is that we get to be part of something so much bigger than ourselves. I believe the day is today.

“As hope builds within this sweet child’s community and this wave of green ribbons spreads and the anticipation rises that her win is here . . . I am so thankful I had the opportunity to say yes. It’s your day sweet girl. We all feel it!”

——

Perhaps no one summed up the emotions of all this any better than did Andrew Scott, Leah’s husband, who wrote:

“For anyone not already following along on Leah Scott posts, her recipient now has a working kidney.

“Ferris also got her kidney (Thursday) night. The surgery went well and now she begins her recovery.

“Continue to pray for Leah, Ferris and all of the other donors and recipients. This is a truly touching story and I fight back tears every time I read about lives being changed and all of the support and prayer covering these fighters have.

“Truly humbling.”

So far, so good, as Julie Dodds’ new kidney gets to work right after transplant . . .

JulieAllen
Julie and Allan Dodds on Wednesday morning, before Julie had her kidney transplant.

Julie Dodds of Kamloops got a new kidney on Wednesday at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver. Her husband, Allan, reported early in the evening that all was well.

Julie and Allan have three young boys. She was diagnosed a while back with a genetic kidney disease — Medullary Kidney Disease Type 1. Earlier this year, she was in kidney failure. The good news is that she was able to get a kidney before needing to go on dialysis.

The fact that her brother, Jason Brauer, who is from Port McNeill, was her donor is more good news. Yes, the prognosis, although early, is good.

Here’s a look at Julie’s day, through Allan’s fingers . . .

8 a.m.: Today, choose your own adventure . . . surgery or sleep in. . . . Julie picked a new kidney. I dunno what and when we will have an update, but that’s how we roll. . . . Just gonna rock this and sent pics after.

9 a.m.: Jason’s done. Julie’s turn. Jason doing well . . . Julie is hungry.

5 p.m.: Doctor called. Julie is out and done. . . . Peeing. . . . And doing good!

6 p.m.: Thanks, Jason Brauer. . . . Nurse tries to get his bed in. Hits wall. He’s like, “I’ll walk.” . . . And he walks in. Hahaha!

6:52 p.m.: Haha! My wife rocks. She called from post op. She’s doing good and gonna be a few hours til she moves into the penthouse suite. She’s gonna take a nap. As you were.

The pictures that accompany this are from Julie and Allan, and Whitney Melan, who is Jason’s wife.

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Julie enters St. Paul’s Hospital and then heads to the surgical reception desk to begin the process.
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Jason is wheeled to his room at St. Paul’s Hospital after being moved up from recovery. He apparently walked the last few steps to his bed.
Jasonresting
Jason, the hero of today’s exercise, was resting comfortably by Wednesday evening.

Hey, travellers, enough with the lack of respect . . .

Let me tell you why I am feeling frustrated, dejected, ashamed, embarrassed, pissed off and a whole lot more.

I had been sailing, sailing, sailing through this COVID-19 mess — at least, I thought I was doing pretty well. Until now. Good Friday, 6:30 p.m.

Dorothy and I went for a walk in mid-afternoon. We live in Campbell Creek, just east of Kamloops, and walk along a road on the south side of the South Thompson River.

I always walk further than she does, and halfway through I will take a break, sit for a few minutes on a retaining wall and watch the traffic on the Trans-Canada Highway. Hey, every boy loves to watch the big rigs. Right?

On this day, considering all of the politicians and health officials who had been pleading with people to stay home, recommending that they not travel, asking them to avoid family gatherings, I was rather surprised to see how much small vehicle traffic there was going in both directions.

I mean, smaller communities throughout the province were begging non-residents to stay away, petrified that someone from outside would bring the virus into areas that don’t have the medical necessities with which to deal with it.

So, sheesh, I wondered, where is everyone going?

When we returned home, social media, as it had been on Thursday evening, was full of stories of people travelling throughout B.C.

Then, after dinner, I came across a tweet, featuring a few seconds of video, from Tina Lovgreen of CBC Vancouver.

The gent being interviewed — yeah, the one with the smug look on his face — was headed somewhere in the Gulf Islands. Apparently, he also is tone deaf; why else would he agree to be interviewed on camera on this subject?

Anyway . . . asked what might happen if he got ill while there, he looked at the young girl beside him, presumably his daughter, and said: “Not too worried. We’ll bring in a helicopter to bring us out. Right?”

Well, sir, you got to me. Oh, did you ever!

I’m sorry, but I am sick and tired of people like you and the lack of respect that you and others like you are showing to people like my wife.

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Dorothy Drinnan: Hugger extraordinaire!

Dorothy is one of thousands of people who live in B.C., and have compromised immune systems. As I have written before, if you passed her on a sidewalk or in a small cafe, you would never know that she is in that situation.

You would never know that she had a kidney transplant more than six years ago, and that she takes anti-rejection drugs twice a day. You would never know that she spent almost four years doing peritoneal dialysis, hooking up to a machine called a cycler every night — EVERY SINGLE DAMN NIGHT — just to stay alive.

And there are all kinds of people with various health problems in the same predicament. In the case of transplant patients, they take drugs in order to keep their bodies from rejecting their new organs, which really are foreign to their systems. In the process of doing that, these drugs suppress the immune systems. These people will take these drugs for the rest of their lives.

That is why the virus that has us in this predicament is so dangerous to them. There isn’t a vaccine for it; there isn’t even a treatment. You can’t imagine anything worse if you don’t have much of an immune system.

While you thumb your nose at all these people with your weekend jaunt, let me tell you a bit about Dorothy.

She is everything I’m not.

OK. Let me tell you a bit about me first. I’m cynical, skeptical, pessimistic, grouchy, miserable and all of that, which is what comes with having worked in the newspaper business for more than 40 years.

Dorothy is a positive person. She loves nothing more than to hug people, something she hasn’t been able to do for a few weeks now, and you have no idea how hard that is on her.

We have been in self-isolation for four weeks now. She hasn’t been in a grocery store in all that time. We order online; if we need something between orders, I go in the store. We have ordered takeout food a couple of times; I’ve gone into the restaurant to get the food.

It was her birthday on Thursday. We went to a favourite restaurant to get some takeout — ate it in their parking lot. She couldn’t even go in to say hi to some of her favourite people.

Shortly after Dorothy found out that she had kidney disease — she was found to have only one kidney and it already had started the downhill slide — she volunteered in the dialysis ward of a Regina hospital. She wanted to help others, while getting a look at what she might be faced with somewhere down the road.

After her transplant, she co-founded the Kamloops Kidney Support Group, and she is one of the organizers of Kidney Walk Kamloops. In each of the six years she has taken part, she has been the Walk’s leading individual fund-raiser. She helps put together an annual Christmas dinner for the kidney community.

She also volunteers at Overlander Residential Care, an assisted living facility in Kamloops. Whenever she gets a text or a phone call asking her if she could come by and play the piano — she plays by ear — her face lights up like a full moon. She often joins in taking residents shopping or to medical appointments. It has pained her not to be able to go there for the past few weeks.

Sir, while you and others of your ilk are ignoring all the pleas and the recommendations, Dorothy has been stuck here with me. No, she can’t travel to Burnaby to see our son, his pregnant wife and Kara, our only grandchild.

Oh, we could arrange to meet somewhere in a parking lot in Abbotsford or Chilliwack and try to keep our distance for an hour or two. But how do you keep a granddaughter, who is soon to turn four, from running to her grandmother for a hug?

Of course, you can’t. So because of a weakened immune system, we will continue to stay home, not travel, and try to do our best to help, you know, flatten the curve while we await the arrival of a miracle or a vaccine, whichever comes first.

In the meantime, don’t concern yourself with any of the people in the medical community who are fighting this from the front lines, or the good folks who continue to keep the shelves stocked in the grocery stores.

Don’t bother yourself with any of this talk about a curve or dead people or intensive care or hospitalizations. Hey, you know that it’ll never happen to you and yours, so you just go right ahead and enjoy your weekend.

I just hope the helicopter isn’t busy if you need it.

Happy birthday, Zach, and here’s to many more . . . Robson teen just keeps on smiling . . .

Cake

Zach Tremblay turned 17 on Wednesday.

Celebrate?

Well, he was in Vancouver. But, of course, a lot of places for celebrations in the big city are shut down or takeout only.

Oh, and he also had to spend part of his day doing dialysis.

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Zach Tremblay had to interrupt his birthday celebration on Wednesday in order to do a dialysis run. (Photo: Jana Tremblay/Facebook)

But there still was cake and goodies and lots of fun at Ronald McDonald House.

Zach is from Robson, B.C., which is across the Columbia River from Castlegar. He and his mother, Jana, have been in Vancouver since early in January. He spent some time in B.C. Children’s Hospital, where they transitioned him from peritoneal dialysis (PD) to hemodialysis.

Now that he’s on hemo, he won’t be able to do dialysis at home, something he did while he was doing PD.

The reason he and his mother haven’t been able to return home is that Zach will have to travel to the Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital in Trail to do hemo, but . . .

“We were told Trail doesn’t accept patients who are not 17 years old plus a day,” Jana told Gord McIntyre of Postmedia in February. “Zach turns 17 on March 18.”

The dialysis unit in Trail has eight chairs and there apparently have been discussions about adding a ninth, which would ease some of the load there.

Of course, in a perfect world, Zach would have gotten word on his birthday that a donor had been found. As it is, we still wake up every day hoping that a match has been discovered.

In the meantime, Zach and Jana remain in Vancouver. But, as Jana points out, considering the situation in which we find ourselves these days that may not be a bad thing.

“We are thinking he’s safer here for now where he is still child priority,” she told me. “Going home means doing dialysis in a unit of older people mostly and it’s not the safest place for him to be. Here he gets good dialysis and is near a children’s hospital as this virus spreads.”

——

If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

The kidney experience, according to Coyle . . . Zach makes more friends during Vancouver stay . . . Michael Teigen: Actor, comedian and kidney donor

Michael Coyle, a volunteer with Coquitlam Search and Rescue, was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease (PKD) and later went public with his need to find a kidney donor.

So . . . what’s it like to find out that you have kidney disease? What goes through your mind when the medical staff suggests that you turn to the public in an attempt to find a donor? And what happens when you get THE call, informing you that a donor has been found?

Coyle took to Facebook to explain all of this to his friends, and you are able to read it all right here.

If you are being impacted by kidney disease, I cannot recommend this enough.

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Travis Green, the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, took some time to visit with Zach Tremblay and his mother, Jana, on Friday. The Canucks entertained the Colorado Avalanche that evening. (Photo: Jana Tremblay/Facebook)

Zach Tremblay and his mother, Jana, remain in Vancouver where they are staying at Ronald McDonald House. From Robson, B.C., they have been in the city since the first week of January and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight to their stay.

Zach, 16, began his stay at B.C. Children’s Hospital, where he was transitioned from peritoneal dialysis to hemodialysis. The closest hospital to Robson that is equipped to do hemp is in Trail, and there isn’t a dialysis chair open at this point in time.

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Zach Tremblay is all smiles after Brock Boeser of the Vancouver Canucks presented him with an autographed sweater on Friday. Below, the Tremblays spent some time in front of the CTV cameras earlier Thursday. Watch for them on TV on World Kidney Day, March 16.  (Photos: Jana Tremblay/Facebook)

In the meantime, Zach and his mother are making the best of their time in Vancouver.

On Friday, Jana posted on Facebook about their latest adventure:

“So a week or so ago, a former Castlegarite, Anita, messaged me and asked if Zach and I would like a tour of CTV, and to watch her husband Jason, who is one of the hosts of CTV Morning Live, tape the show and have a tour after. We were thrilled to go watch. Jason then offered to interview Zach and I and feature Zach’s story on World Kidney Day, March 16th!

“Jason also arranged for us to attend today’s Vancouver Canucks’ practice, which was so much more! We got to watch them practice, go down below into the change room . . . met Brock Boeser, who gifted Zach with an autographed jersey! We met Elias Pettersson and Zach got his jersey signed, and Zach MacEwen. Bo Horvat came over and said hello again and asked how Zach was doing. It was all very exciting!

 

“We also got to tour the retired jerseys and CTV 2player sticks area. We got to attend the press conference and watch (head coach) Travis Green address the media. Travis also came out and met with us — a thrill of a lifetime for us both!!

“Huge thanks to Anita, Jason and the Canucks organization for an amazing day filled with incredible memories.”

Green is from Castlegar, which is across the Columbia River from Robson. When he was a mere youngster, Jana actually babysat Green and his younger brother, David, on occasion.

After returning to Ronald McDonald House, Zach and Jana discovered they had won tickets to that evening’s game. So they were in the stands, no doubt cheering loudly, as the Canucks beat the Avalanche, 6-3.

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Elias Pettersson of the Vancouver Canucks stops to chat with Zach Tremblay in the NHL’s team’s dressing room on Thursday afternoon. Zach is wearing a Pettersson replica sweater, which he got autographed. (Photo: Jana Tremblay/Facebook)

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It was Wednesday evening and I was watching the Vancouver Canucks playing against the visiting Arizona Coyotes.

The game went to a commercial break during the second period and one of the spots was for Pacific Blue Cross travel insurance. I’m not a great commercial watcher but, dang, that guy’s face looked familiar.

In fact, I was so sure that it was Michael Teigen that I sent an inquiring note to Stephen Gillis, who has had one of Michael’s kidney’s in the lower right quadrant of his torso for more than two weeks now.

Sure enough, my eyes hadn’t deceived me.

As Stephen responded: “He is an actor, improviser and comedian. Been in commercials and movies you probably saw but never knew.”

Well, I will be watching for him now.

https://twitter.com/ePackham/status/1234538463354949637?s=20

Scattershooting on a Tuesday evening after spending time on Monday with Sabrina . . .

Scattershooting

If you’re wondering, Dave Ayres and his wife, Sarah, are expected back in the Toronto area today (Wednesday) after being feted in Raleigh, N.C., on Tuesday. You will recall that Ayres, who had a kidney transplant in 2004, is the EBUG (emergency backup goaltender) who helped the Carolina Hurricanes beat the host Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-3, on Saturday night. . . . They are expected to be back in Scotiabank Arena on Saturday night where he again will be the EBUG, this time with the Vancouver Canucks in to play the Maple Leafs. . . . You don’t suppose that he might . . . nah, never happen.

BoardingPass

Congrats to Trevor Weisgerber, the head coach of the Moose Jaw Warriors of the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League. Weisgerber, 40, who underwent a kidney transplant in St. Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon on Jan. 26, has been named winner of the Joe Bloski Award as the league’s coach of the year. . . . The Warriors went 30-13-1 and tied for fourth place in the 12-team league, one point out of third and seven short of first. They will open a first-round playoff series against the visiting Notre Dame Hounds on Thursday. . . . Weisgerber told me on Tuesday that “I am feeling pretty good . . . the fun begins on Thursday!” . . . If you aren’t familiar with Weisgerber’s story, you will find it all right here.

Grant Rezansoff, who played two seasons (1979-81) with the WHL’s Victoria Cougars, died on Saturday at his home in Red Wing, Minn. A native of Surrey, B.C., he was 58. . . . In his second season with the Cougars, he scored 40 goals and added 57 assists. . . . After moving on from the WHL, Rezansoff played in the International and Central leagues before spending two seasons in Europe. . . . There is a complete obituary right here.

Disneyland

The New York Mets are paying Bobby Bonilla, who last played in 2001, a total of $1,193, 248.20 a year until 2035. Now we are free to wonder if the NHL is headed into the same territory. . . . At the NHL trade deadline, it was pointed out that the Buffalo Sabres are paying D Christian Ehrhoff the nice sum of $857,143 per year until 2028. He last played with the Sabres in 2013-14 and was last in the NHL in 2015-16 with the Chicago Blackhawks. . . . Meanwhile, F Ilya Kovalchuk, who has gone from the Los Angeles Kings to the Montreal Canadiens to the Washington Capitals in the past few weeks, is taking up cap space on four different NHL teams, with the New Jersey Devils also in the Payin’ Ilya Club.

GiftCard

Until reading a book titled Major Misconduct: The Human Cost of Fighting in Hockey, by Jeremy Allingham, I wasn’t aware that former Seattle Thunderbirds/Kelowna Rockets enforcer James McEwan had filed a concussion-related lawsuit against the CHL, WHL and Hockey Canada.

It turns out that the lawsuit now is more encompassing that that, as Ken Campbell of The Hockey News points out here:

“Already facing a class-action lawsuit over not paying its players a minimum wage, the three major junior leagues that make up the Canadian Hockey League could soon find themselves facing a concussion lawsuit that could include hundreds, if not thousands, of former frequent fighters in junior hockey.

“What started as a lawsuit launched against the CHL, the WHL and Hockey Canada by former WHL player James McEwan in January 2019 was recently re-filed with the Supreme Court of British Columbia to include both the OHL and QMJHL. Six days after the lawsuit was re-filed, the QMJHL postponed a vote on whether or not to ban fighting, a vote that was scheduled for that day, but was moved to August.”

Campbell’s complete piece is right here.

JUST NOTES: Having heard about Sabrina Ionescu in recent days, I got a chance to watch her on a TSN channel on Monday night as her Oregon Ducks beat the host Stanford Cardinal. Earlier in the day, Ionescu had spoken at the memorial for Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gigi — Ionescu was close with both of them. She also was fighting a flu bug and apparently was sick to her stomach before the game. The 5-foot-11 point guard then went out and led the Ducks to victory, in the process becoming the first player, male or female, in NCAA Division 1 history to have career totals of at least 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists. Yes, she is quite a player. Try to tune in if the Ducks are on TV again. . . . How goofy has the NHL’s trade deadline day become? Here’s Pete Blackburn of CBS Sports, singling out one incident from Monday: “The best moment of the day came when Johnny Gaudreau inexplicably left the ice at the Calgary Flames practice, leading everyone to freak out and speculate. It turns out he just had to pee. Trade deadline day is the best.”

Stephen Gillis: ‘The kidney is working perfectly’ . . . Teigen, live donor, ‘doing very well’

If you are a regular here, you know that we have been following Stephen Gillis, a Vancouver minor hockey coach, for the past few weeks.

He went through his final hemo-dialysis treatment on Monday and underwent a kidney transplant on Tuesday at Vancouver General Hospital, his good friend Michael Teigen giving up one of his kidneys.

Gillis updated us with a Wednesday evening post on Facebook:

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Stephen Gillis: “Michael and I see each other for the first time post-transplant.” (Photo: Stephen Gillis/Facebook)

“The transplant was beyond successful. The kidney is working perfectly. For my first steps with three kidneys I went to see my hero, Michael, and thank him. He is doing very well and will hopefully go home in the next day or so.

“I will be monitored till the weekend in hospital then home for more recovery. Had an ultrasound (Wednesday) afternoon where I saw the kidney inside me. The human body and what we can do with it is absolutely amazing.

“I can’t believe this all happened and I am beyond grateful to Michael, Dr. Dave the surgeon and his staff, VGH transplant floor nursing staff, VGH Nephrology team, and all of you for your endless support.

“Thankful that my love Dany has never left my side through all of this, and my best friend since we were kids, Keith, made it all the way from Cape Breton to be here for me. Thankful that Michael’s beautiful partner Denise and their best friend (who filled out the donor application), Diana, could be here to support him and be by his side. I feel we are all so lucky. Thank you!”

Gillis2
Stephen Gillis: “I see my new kidney, from Michael, for the first time during an ultrasound. It is working perfectly!” (Photo: Stephen Gillis/Facebook)

Yes, Gillis now has three kidneys in his body. As he added to his post in response to a query: “They leave the failed ones dormant and just add the new one. It lives in my left pelvis.”

In a response to that, another transplant recipient wrote: “You have three kidneys for now but after transplant your native kidneys shrink and shrivel up. You can’t even see mine on ultrasound anymore!”

My wife, Dorothy, was born with one kidney, although we didn’t find that out until 1981. When that discovery was made, we also learned that her one kidney was malformed and was losing efficiency. When she had her transplant on Sept. 23, 2019, the deformed kidney was left in place, on the left side of her torso, with the new one going in on the right side.

Gillis’s new kidney, which used to belong to Teigen, also went in on the right side.

Big day drawing closer for Gillis, Teigan. . . . Transplant, donation records in Ontario

If you wonder what it’s like for someone who is staring at a kidney transplant and watching as the date for surgery quickly approaches, well, Stephen Gillis is providing a look into what he is going through.

Gillis, who coaches a minor hockey team in Vancouver, is scheduled for a transplant on Tuesday at Vancouver General Hospital, with a friend, Michael Teigan, as the donor. You may be aware that Gillis’s hockey team put together a video a while back as part of the search for a donor.

With Transplant Day drawing ever closer, Gillis’s Facebook posts provide some insight into his thoughts and feelings . . .

“With one week till our kidney transplant, my donor Michael’s awesome girlfriend and my dear friend, Denise, held a ‘Kidney Relocation Party’ with some of Michael’s dearest friends.

“Van Minor Atom A1 parents and players, who have gone above and beyond supporting us, gave Michael some amazing gifts including a t-shirt and card made by our awesome manager, Tara Rodas, and personal cards from each player and a lovely donation to Michael’s recovery time.

“Friends were tasked to bring kidney-related items to the party, which included cooking lamb kidney (which is the only kidney I hope to reject), an original 19-page Kidney screenplay, poems, and an unbelievable kidney donation-themed rendition of ‘The Downeaster Alexa’ by Billy Joel. A special night with special people.

“Thank you to all who have supported our journey together and know that you too can be a hero by registering to be an organ donor to save a life one day. It takes 30 seconds, www.register.transplant.bc.ca.

——

Later came another post . . .

“(Wednesday) was a special day for Michael & I as we march toward Transplant Tuesday.

We had a lovely interview with the great Robin Gill (that will run on) Global National news on Sunday, Feb. 16 at 5:30 p.m., and then will also run on Global BC’s morning show with our friends @paulyhays & @soniasunger. Thanks to Global News for their continued support of our story and raising awareness for organ donation and the Kidney Foundation of BC & Yukon.

“We also, surprisingly, ran into our transplant surgeon Dr. Dave, who is an absolute beauty. ‘We are going to make sure you are both okay and by 4 p.m. Tuesday it will all be over.’

“I am starting to feel calm for the first time in years. Literally, service dogs run up to me lately as they can tell my energy. The only time the worry leaves me is when I am at the rink with the kids, until Dr. Dave gave me our pre-game talk. I think I am finally ready to let go and have this miracle happen.

“Check out our interview Sunday evening on @globaltv and please consider becoming an organ donor and have the conversation with your family. Know you don’t have to be a living donor, just think: Do you really need to take anything with you when you go on the next part of your journey on the other side?“

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Gillis and Teigan also were to be busy on Saturday night.

As Gillis, who spent Friday night at WWE Smackdown in Vancouver, posted:

“Michael and I will be on stage for a very special Kidney/Organ Donation-themed Vancouver Theatre Sports show at 9:30 p.m. at the Improv Centre.

“Please consider coming out and laughing with us and possibly donating to The Kidney Foundation of Canada, BC & Yukon Branch.”

——

If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

The Trillium Gift of Life Network reports that the province of Ontario set a record for organ donations and transplants in 2019. . . . All told, organs from 684 deceased and living donors resulted in 1,386 transplants. . . . One of the reasons for the increases is that donors who in times past wouldn’t have been eligible because of one medical condition or another now are able to donate because of medical advancements. From a news release: “Transplants of healthy and suitable organs from donors with hepatitis C, for example, can now safely occur, expanding the pool of potential donors and decreasing wait times for recipients on the list.” . . . Jessica Patton of Global News has more right here.

AAA Warriors coach has kidney transplant . . . Weisgerber at home, planning on playoff return . . . ‘I feel better after two weeks than I have the last two years’

Trevor Weisgerber has some catching up to do, and he hardly can wait.

Weisgerber can’t remember the last time he sat down with his wife, Laurren, and two children — London, 7, and Ty, 4 — to watch a movie and actually was awake for the end.

That’s what happens when you are dealing with kidney disease.

These days, though, Weisgerber, in his first season as head coach the Moose Jaw Warriors of the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League, is a couple of weeks removed from having a kidney transplant, and he’s feeling like a new man.

In a conversation with Weisgerber from his Moose Jaw home on Monday, he recalled life in the years before the transplant:

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Trevor Weisgerber hopes to be back with his hockey team early in March. (Photo: Epic Hockey)

“You’re gone all day working and running around and doing what you do. I would take the kids to hockey, be on the ice as much as possible at their practices, but as soon as I came home, my heart rate would go down . . . instantly sleeping.

“We would watch a movie . . . I’d be lucky if I got through the introductions. In the last two years, I don’t think I’ve seen more than a quarter through a movie.”

When I spoke with him, he was 15 days removed from the transplant and his voice was vibrating with energy and enthusiasm.

“It’s definitely life-changing,” he said. “I’m only two weeks in but I can tell the difference already.

“I feel better after two weeks than I have the last two years. It’s incredible . . . absolutely incredible.”

Weisgerber, 40, has known for 11 years that he had a rare kidney disease known as Mucin-1, which has run rampant through one side of his family.

“It goes through our whole family . . . one Grandpa and his siblings . . . through all their families. It’s pretty crazy,” Weisgerber said. “There’s not a lot they can do right now, but I’m hoping with more testing that they can figure out something for our kids or even our kids’ kids.”

Weisgerber, a native of Vibank, Sask., was a point-producer during his playing days, which included stops with the Beardy’s Rage and Yorkton Terriers in the SJHL, three seasons at Lake Superior State U, and seven seasons in the now-defunct Central league.

——

(If you run a Google search for ‘Trevor Weisgerber hit’, you will find the above YouTube video of a concussion-inducing check that left Weisgerber unconscious and ultimately ended his playing career.)

——

It was while Weisgerber was in the CHL with the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees that he found out he had Mucin-1. During his preseason physical it was discovered that his creatinine level was abnormally high. Creatinine is a waste product that is the result of normal muscle use. The kidneys filter the creatinine from the blood and pass it into the urine.

“I ended up getting a biopsy done and they said that I had it,” he said. “I monitored it from then on.”

At that time, his glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was in the 55 range. GFR is the best way to measure kidney function. For instance, my wife, Dorothy, began peritoneal dialysis (PD) when her GFR reached 10. She had a transplant on Sept. 23, 2013 and her GFR now is in the mid- to high-60s.

Weisgerber’s kidney function kept declining until April 2018 when he ended up on PD.

“My kidney function was around five or six,” he recalled, “so they said I needed to do that.”

Kidney patients on PD hook up to a machine called a cycler for about eight hours at home every night. In short, the cycler drains toxins from the body through the use of fluids.

The cycler now is in Weisgerber’s past and he couldn’t be happier.

Weisgerber2“Obviously, a guy is going to be on medications for the rest of his life, and they can cause complications,” Weisgerber said. “But just to be able to live a normal life and not have to hook up to that machine . . . just the routine of having to go to bed at a certain time and having to be on that machine for eight hours, and hooking it up . . . just little things that you don’t realize.

“Before I got the transplant, I was super itchy from all the toxins; it was crazy. The most uncomfortable . . . just so, so itchy. One of the biggest things is that I don’t have that itching anymore.”

In Weisgerber’s case, it was hoped that PD would be beneficial and keep him going until later this year because a cousin was going through testing in the hopes of being a living donor.

However, PD wasn’t being as effective as it had been, which brings us to Jan. 25.

Weisgerber’s daughter, London, was playing in a hockey tournament and he was in the penalty box, running the clock. All of a sudden his phone rang; it was a number from Saskatoon. He didn’t answer it. It rang again. He still didn’t answer. When it rang a third time, he decided that it might be a good idea to see who was calling.

Well, it was Dr. Abubaker Hassan, a nephrologist at St. Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon.

“Dr. Hassan said, ‘We have a kidney for you. . . . we need you up in Saskatoon,’ ” Weisgerber said. “It was like, holy moly.

“It was really unexpected. You’re scared; you don’t know what to expect. I have an uncle who had gone through it three years ago. He filled me in on everything but, still, you don’t know what to expect.”

When the call ended, Weisgerber went home, packed and headed for Saskatoon. He had surgery the next day.

“Everything went really well,” he said, noting that he spent 10 days in hospital before returning home. For now, he will visit Regina or Saskatoon once a week for bloodwork and checkups.

Weisgerber understands that his new kidney came from a “younger gentleman in Edmonton” who had died. The Weisgerbers will be in touch with the deceased donor’s family, something that is done, at least in the beginning, through a case worker.

Weisgerber plans on writing a letter, while Ty and London “are making pictures and everything.”

“We’re just super fortunate,” he said. “I’m just excited that a guy can live his life again and be somewhat normal here. They say it helps with their healing process, too. The whole thing is emotional.

“Obviously, it isn’t good that a person passed away. But it’s good that he was an organ donor and he does give a life.”

During the process leading up to a transplant involving a deceased donor, the recipient is told that there may well be a feeling of guilt because he/she actually is benefitting from someone else’s death.

Weisgerber said that hasn’t bothered him, but that “it does get a guy emotional, that you’re that fortunate to be able to be a match to that person . . . that he was an organ donor and he pretty much gave a guy a new chance at life.”

These days, Weisgerber’s focus is on getting on with his life, which means looking after a few rental properties and a return to his hockey team. As of Monday, he had missed three games; he expects to miss four more as the Warriors finish their regular season.

Transplant recipients take anti-rejection medications for the remainder of their lives, something that compromises their immune systems. As a result, Weisgerber has been told that it might not be a good idea for him to be in a dressing room or on a bus, at least not in the early days as his system adjusts to the changes.

“The plan is to be back for playoffs at the end of the month,” he said. “The way things are going and the way I feel I can’t see why I wouldn’t be. I’m really looking forward to getting back with the guys and having a long playoff run here.”

The Warriors (29-10-1), who were in first place for a lot of the season, were second in the 12-team league, two points behind the Regina Pat Canadians (29-7-5) and three ahead of the Saskatoon Contacts (27-13-2). Moose Jaw also went 5-1-1 at the Mac’s tournament in Calgary, where they dropped a 6-2 decision to the Calgary Buffaloes on New Year’s Day.

In terms of Weisgerber’s schedule, the surgery couldn’t have been scheduled at a better time. As he said: “It was absolutely perfect. It’s actually incredible that it happened then.”

The Warriors had 10 days off while he was away and his primary business — Epic Hockey — doesn’t start a new cycle until July when he begins working with midget AAA, junior and professional players who are preparing for new seasons. He also runs skill development camps, spring teams and conditioning camps for minor hockey players. During hockey seasons, he often travels to smaller communities to work with minor programs.

That all began after he spent one season as an assistant coach with the SJHL’s Kindersley Klippers and two (2010-12) as an assistant with the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors.

It was after his stint in the WHL that he started Epic Hockey.

Now, with a renewed energy level, he can hardly wait to get back on the ice.

“You don’t really realize how you feel,” he said. “I was super tired all the time, didn’t have a lot of energy. You would work and do stuff but at the end of the day, as soon as you sat down, you’d be falling asleep. You always felt blah.

“You just do what you do. You don’t realize how bad you actually feel and how tired you actually are.”

And now when he’s at home, you can bet there will be more family movie nights, although Laurren, London and Ty will have to forgive him if he asks for flicks they’ve already seen.

These days, he promises to stay awake for the entire show.

So, kids, no spoilers. OK?