I promised to write in my blog so now it is the time.
First I like to give honor and respect to my late father Thomas Victor Robinson ( September 13, 1936- May 28, 2013). His nickname was Brownskin aka Brown. I don't how he got that name but I remembered family and close friends calling by that name. I just know him as "Daddy". My father had been in my life since birth through my early teens. However, my parents divorced when I about 8 years old. They were parents of my sister and brother as well that I grew up with. Later my dad moved back to his hometown, Monroe, Louisiana where he met his second wife, Janice and he fathered four more sons. I knew of them and met them twice in our life, but now I and Chris, the eldest of the 4 are re-connecting. This is a blessing.
I am blessed to be alive because of our dad he had help me by adding years to my life by donating a kidney to me. Most people are born with two working kidneys. Some only have one working kidney maybe from birth or it may have been injured in their life. One of my mother's sister is living with one and it's understood it may had been injured when she was a baby because it was not developed.
The timing of the donation was awesome but it did not take place until two years later. During this time I was separated from my spouse and suffering from kidney disease and raising two children who were merely babies. We were living with my mother. She gets lots of credit of helping raising them while I was ill. My son, D. Francis, known by his middle name, was three years old and 2 months and Whitney, my daughter was about to be a year old in two weeks, when my kidneys failed. I was very sick, sleeping all the time, vomiting, constant diarrhea, and very lethargic (sluggish). I managed to get to Cook County Hospital for an examination and on that same day the doctor stated I had to be placed on kidney dialysis or I would soon die.
When I started I began on hemo dialysis with a catheter in my heart. This is a device that extracted my blood from my body to enter a filtration machine to remove the toxins and excess fluid from it because my kidneys were no longer working properly. This machine became my artificial kidney. I was sick because my body was being poisoned by it own waste and it was not being excreted. During this stay at the hospital the surgeon fitted me for a peritoneal catheter in my abdominal. This device was to become another form of dialyzation. This catheter was attached to peritoneal tissue that is surrounds our organs in our body. I would use the device to load saline solution into the tissue lining and the toxin and fluid exchange would happen there. I would exchange solution 3x a day. Take out the old and replace with new. However, this device did not work were long just 5 months when I developed a very severe case of peritonitis which would be fatal if I continued this technique. So again the catheter was placed back in my heart the other abdominal catheter was removed. The technique I later used was an A V graft in my lower left arm. This was surgically placed and had to developed before it operational to use.
I was artificially dialyized for two years until that wonderful day happened. When Daddy gave me his left kidney. I know because it placed in my right side and he told me it was his left kidney. My children, D. Francis was 5 years and 2 mos. and in kindergarten and Whitney was 2 weeks before her 3rd birthday.
Dad's kidney lasted for me for eleven and half years, from
October 1994 to May 2006. So regrettably a piece of Dad's body died before he rested his life. He sacrificed a piece his life so I could raise my children. In those 11 and half years my children and I had adventures I can share at a later date. Yes, I am back on hemo dialysis and another AV graft place in the same arm but upper. So now I am waiting for another kidney perhaps a cadaver one. Then again there is more to my story. I am still alive and thankful.
To all the Fathers who are actively and not reluctant to be fathers I salute you for love and labor for your families. For you were given a responsibility to raise a nation. I hope many of you have found your calling with God. For he promise us never to leave us or forsake us. He will lead to be best you can be. Happy Father's Day especially to my all 5 brothers, Thomas Augusta, Chris, Corwin, Cantrell and Chad Robinson as well as my nephew, Vincent Givens. May God bless you and keep you.
Psalm 103:13
As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; (NIV)
Joshua 1:9
Be strong and courageous, Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. (NIV)
These pictures were taken in Birmingham, Al., summer of 1993 a year and half before the transplant.
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