European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 22, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Wednesday june 22, 1977 the stars and stripes Page 19 new York Tymn despite a kidney transplant James Campbell still enjoys biking with his wife Anne. Kidney transplant living on the Edge by Virginia Adams new York times he drama of kidney transplantation has made it one of the Best known achievements of modern surgery. Who in t aware that the operation can Rescue the gravely ill from dependence on kidney machines or from death itself less Well known is the fact that even while conferring great benefits the procedure also can cause great emotional pain for patients and their families. Indeed some behavioural researchers have questioned whether trans Plantation is really their alternatives few transplant recipients share such doubts. In one Survey 99 per cent of patients questioned said they would stir choose transplantation if they had it to do Over again. Still Many go through some bad times. One such patient to James Campbell who spent 15 months on dialysis before a donated kidney Waslov planted in his body on aug. Is 1974. He and to wife Anne believe that to kidney patients Loose on dialysis As Well As those who receive transplants need More psychological help than the average treatment Center provides. The Campbells views have More than a personal significance. Thousands of patients Are living on dialysis and kidney transplantation is no longer rare. By the end of 1975, a total of 37,481 such operations had been Don worldwide 19,827 of them in the United states. However dialysis cannot make any patient Well. Even successful transplantation is not a cure but a reprieve of Uncertain duration. The body s defense system tends to attack foreign tissue. As a result Only about half kid Neys from unrelated donors Are still functioning after two years although some patients have retained their grafts for 10 years or More. When rejection occurs a patient goes Back on dialysis to wait for a new transplant. Grateful though they Are for their reprieve Anne who is 30 years old and Jim 31, face a precarious future and Are struggling to Cope with a stressful present. Not Long ago sitting in the Kitchen of their rented House in Colum Bia. Mo., while their Gray and White cat Cerise perched nearby they talked about their situation for several hour they have financial difficulties although Jim receives some state disability functions at a 70 to 80 per cent level he says. Al though he manages to study part time for a doctorate in sociology he tires easily and cannot always concentrate perhaps because of the drugs he takes so his body will not reject his new kidney. Showing a visitor snapshots of the Way i used to he Hays that the drugs have caused him to lose his hair and have made his face a bit puffy. Toe change is not striking to a visitor but Jim finds ii emotionally dist icing. He and Anne envy couples who can plan for careers Home and children with Only the usual worries about the future. Yet at moments Jim rebels at the need to make even modest plans i Don t know if i m going to live very Long anyway so Why the hell should i be practical the pair Are frequently anxious depressed or angry at All these talking to each other about their frustrations and their sadness is not always easy and there have Benn times when we did t think we loved each other the ordeal of dialysis and transplantation which took place outside of Missouri at a Center they prefer not to name the Campbells fell they had no one total to. Psychological sources Are Primi Tive they believe with Little attention paid to the Quality of the life that has been prolonged by sophisticated tech Are not trained in the psychology of behaviour Jim said. Doctors give you nonverbal cues that they Don t really want to hear what s bothering social workers Are too burdened with their clients practical problems to have much time for their emotional ones. One Day Anne said a social worker invited her into her office at 2 50 p.m., telling her. I be got an appoint ment at 3. If you be got anything you want to talk about you be got 10 Anne also told of a Hospital staff meeting she at tended in the course of research she and Jim Are modern living he became much weaker. Anne knew it was humiliating for him to have people see How slowly he walked or How he could t get at climbing they cultivated a Garden that summer because it was a Symbol to us of something positive a purpose for exis tence Anne said. Jim could t even do the hand clip pers after a while so we got some electric slept Little and Anne would sometimes Wake in the night to find him downstairs beating his fists against the Wall in despair at his conviction that he was no Good to there were fewer and fewer things he could do Anne said his self esteem just bottomed with his motorcycle he insisted on turning it into a racer. That frightened me she said. I was Wor ried about suicide and then we had an Accident because he was going very began thinking did i really want to commit Sui cide Jim said. I did t think so. The motorcycle was something i could control and use to get a _. we a a w. We a surgeon she said dismissed a staff member s account of a patient unhappiness by saying. Well i gave him a Good kidney i can t help what s wrong with his Jim s experience with illness goes Back a Long time. He comes from a new Jersey family in which the women were carriers of Alport s disease a rather rare kidney ailment and the men died of it usually by age 28. Jim himself stayed Active and fairly Well until he was 26. Out Wardly he did not worry about himself much Chi .1 when his older brother died in 1969. There s a process of he said. I thought it happened to my brother but that s not s health deteriorated however. They did a kidney Biopsy and matched it with my brother s autopsy results and they were exactly the then Anne said he broke Down and told me he was going to die like his As his physical and menial state declined i had to assert myself Anne said. That s what started to change the balance of Power Between us. He was no longer defined As a Strong male and that added to his de and Anne could t help feeling resentful at times because she had to take on so Many responsibilities. She Learned to la Lyme Jim at borne dealing with equipment breakdowns and cries in which Jim Bem Orr aged or went into Shock. Their relationship As husband and wife suffered because we could never get away from our patient nurse and like Many kidney patients Jim began to have Patency problems that they found psychologically devastating " Jim had to have his kidneys taken out in May 1s74, and just went in w Mai w.1m comm. Want any More problems " but he got up and they drove the 30 Miles to the Hospital in near silence according Corn s growing and Jim said yup in the Hospital it seemed to them that no one told them anything whether a particular symptom was nothing to worry about or whether it meant that Jim was going to lose the new kidney or even die. There was a network of misinformation among patients but the cleaning lady taught us quite a bit because she d seen a lot of trans during the rejection process when it looked As if Jim might have to go Back on dialysis Anne told Jim that if he did t want to live this Way it was us Choice be was t obligated to live because of but she was terrified of being a widow. In fact she was an Anticipatory widow Jim said. She tried not to remember any of the Good things we d Ever had i did t want to Grieve worse Anne said. So rather than coming together Jim said there was a withdrawal. You draw apart because you cant stand that much one time Anne said another patient s wife urged her to divorce Jim. She said get out of it it s no Way to live that kinds of freaks you when it comes from some body whose been though All this for seven years More than you have. There Are times you flirt with the idea of divorce it has nothing to do with How you feel about a if there had been someone to talk to who might have reassured her that she was t a terrible person for having such Jim sees it transplantation provokes More anxiety than dialysis because you pin so much Hope on it and you have less control you can t do anything to make your body accept the a while Jim s body did accept it and his health improved. In some tapes he and Anne made with the idea of helping people understand what kidney patients experience Anne talks about her Joy at Jim s new ability to walk As fast As she does. I see he s right beside me and he looks Good and he s breathing normally. That s the whole world to sums up his transplant As a bittersweet expert he has no doubt it was Worth it. He has More strength and freed from dialysis More Leisure. His self esteem is greater because he can do More things but he had expected the transplant to solve More problems than it s a Trade off he said. I be exchanged one set of problems for difficulty is that he has t the Energy he once had. But because he looks Well people put Normal expectations on you. And you even begin to put them on yourself but you can t live up to them and so you ask yourself what s wrong with me both dialysis and transplant patients be said sometimes give glowing accounts of their experience but i think Hall the time they do that became they feel that s what people want to for whatever reason Many kidney patients do report feeling elated after transplantation. In gift of life the social and psychological Impact of Organ transplantation to be published in october. Roberta g. d. Klein and Richard l. Simmons write that individuals who have successfully emerged from this extreme situation report a greater maturity a clearer sense of values and a deeper appreciation of Jim Campbell s transplant has lasted More than two and a half years interview Over he drove his wife and a visitor to Rock Bridge state Park. Columbia was full of flowering Trees and Jim tried to spot a Magnolia he had noticed Aday or two i love magnolias he said
