Wonderful Mom Needs a Kidney Transplant

Christine Ihling Awaits Kidney Transplant

Reprinted from Branchburg News April 2008:

Editor’s note—As of late March, well-known community volunteer Christine Ihling was in Somerset Medical Center on dialysis, awaiting a kidney transplant. Along with husband Henry and daughters Katie and Chelsea, Chris hopes that, like her own sister, she can receive a transplant, beat back her hereditary disease and get her life back. Katie, an SHS senior who plans to study broadcast journalism at Ohio University in the fall, wrote about her mom’s strength, lifetime of service, and need for help. The Ihlings can be reached at ihlings@hotmail.com.

By Katie Ihling
Some people think of heroes as fictional characters like Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman. My hero is someone I see everyday, and cannot for one second imagine life without. My mother, Christine Ihling, is my hero because every day of my life I have seen her incredible inner strength.

For as far back as I can remember, I have always seen my mother as the “rock.” While my grandmother was going to dialysis three times a week, my mom was there to drive her, organize all of her prescriptions, and with the help of my father, organize all her numerous hospital bills. As time progressed, my mother and our family faced tragedies like my grandfather passing away from leukemia in August 2001, and in August a year later, my grandmother, who had appeared to be living much of her life in hospitals, passed away from kidney failure and heart failure.

After I was born, my mother had a physical and discovered that she had polycystic kidney disease (PKD). The doctor said there was a 50 percent chance that the disease would have effect on her body, and she was determined to not let this fact get in the way of her living her life. PKD is a hereditary disease that attacks the kidneys and causes them to fail. This disease is what killed my grandmother, my great aunt, and my great grandmother.

A few years after my mother made her discovery, her sister (my aunt) also learned that she had PKD, and that it was rapidly destroying her kidneys. At age 35, my aunt had to undergo dialysis. My mother, while she was also taking care of my grandparents, was there by my aunt’s side during her entire ordeal. Luckily, five years after my aunt was diagnosed with PKD, she received a kidney transplant, and her life has progressively gotten better.

Although my mother has been an important figure for my entire family, she has also devoted much of her time to the township of Branchburg. When I was in elementary school, she was a member of the Board of Education. After four years of service to the Board of Education, my mother also began to volunteer for numerous other committees in town including the PTO, the Board of Adjustment, and the Branchburg Education Foundation. For years she has helped to organize many Branchburg events that would not go as smoothly without her, such as the Taste of Branchburg and the Education Foundation dinner. She has been a significant member of the township, and has never asked for anything in return.

On March 14, my father called me at school and told me that my mother was in the emergency room, and that I needed to get to the hospital as soon as I could after school. For the rest of the day, every minute seemed like an hour and I could not wait to leave so I could go to the hospital and find out what was going on. As I ran into the emergency room, I met up with my father who was in tears. I instantly knew that whatever my mother was in the hospital for was serious. My father had informed me that my mother’s kidneys were only three percent active and were failing. Her PKD had finally caught up with her, and she needed to start dialysis.

Much of what occurred that day is still very hazy in my mind; all I can remember is that after hearing that news I got down on my knees and started crying. My mother, my “rock” is starting dialysis, and the only way she will get better is if she receives a kidney transplant.

Despite hearing this earth shattering news, my mother has not lost hope. She is determined to get through the dialysis as best as she can, and to keep my family’s spirits up. She is fighting everyday, and is finding strength throughout this ordeal with the help of her family and the memory of her parents.

Unfortunately, members of our family are not able to donate a kidney to her either because of blood types or other health reasons. My father and I are working endlessly to get my mother on a transplant list, but it is uncertain if and when she will receive a kidney.

Through out this entire ordeal, I am trying to fill my mother’s shoes as the “rock”. I am trying to help my father with all of the housework, help my younger sister with all that she needs, take care of the animals in the house, and still manage to stay afloat in my senior year of high school. I am trying my hardest to remain strong and believe she will soon receive a transplant, but as each day goes by, I find it harder and harder to stay strong for my family. I am still amazed at how my mother could remain so strong and brave while so much despair and uncertainty is occurring in her life.

I am writing this in the hope of achieving two goals: the first is to raise awareness of Polycystic Kidney Disease and the second is try and find a live donor for my mother. A person only needs one kidney to live and function normally. If someone is out there with type O blood and is willing to donate, their kidney would have a lower rate of being rejected by my mother’s body. If anyone is willing to donate a kidney to my mother, Christine Ihling, all he or she has to do is go and get a blood test and see if he or she is a possible match.

Please, if someone donates a kidney to my mother, my family will have their “rock” and my hero back. Please consider donating a kidney to my mother, so she will no longer have to suffer from the disease that has killed so many in my family. I will forever be grateful to whoever donates, and this act of kindness will be positively changing a family’s future forever.

For more information please send an e-mail to ihlings@hotmail.com.