Organ and Tissue Donation

 I am helping out with a fundraiser for Organ and Tissue donation services and was passed over for a news interview for someone "more dramatic" than "just a cornea transplant".  I'm not upset about that {truly} because being on the news was kind of freaking me out.  But the attitude that tissue donation isn't as important as organ donation kind of bothers me.    Maybe it's just not as dramatic and sensational to draw people into the news piece and I guess that's ok, but it is every bit as valuable and important to those who receive tissue donations like myself.

I was at a very low point in my life with the loss of my sight.  It came right on the heels of having a premature baby born at 30 weeks with respiratory problems and heading into the winter time and RSV season.  I was confined to home with my medically fragile baby, and then confined to home again when my husband got home at night because I couldn't drive in the dark anymore.  I couldn't escape.  I had to rely on people to drive me everywhere.  My sight was so bad towards the end that I couldn't even drive during the day and I remember wishing they would just take my eyeballs out so I wouldn't have to worry about them at all.  I felt truly disabled.  I couldn't even smile and talk with the animation I used to because the slightest weird twinge of my eye would pop out my contact lenses that tried to help me see a little better on my distorted misshapen corneas .  I felt completely devoid of personality, like I had lost a part of myself and I was depressed.

Tissue donation is just as important as organ donation.  Sure it may not be as dramatic and life-saving, but for me it was.  Not only did someone give me back my sight when I received my cornea transplant, but they gave me back my expressions and my mobility and made me feel human again at a very dark time in my life. 

I will be speaking more about my story {if they still want me to} at the BeeCause Fashion Show to help raise money and awareness for Organ and Tissue donation on November 12th  if you want to hear more about it.

I will also be speaking about my brush with an actual organ transplant that placed me on the transplant list when my other child was born ~ I guess it's a little more dramatic than the  cornea transplant.  At least it includes some pretty funny hallucinations and conspiracy theories and the miracle of organ regeneration.  Because yes, livers can regenerate if you're lucky enough not to pass the point of no return, which for me I was fortunate enough not to pass.  I have been to the brink of no return causing my doctors to place me on the list and begin to organize transport for me to the transplant center and luckily {miraculously!} I stepped away from that precipice. 

Visit here for more details if you're interested in attending the event ~ it will be filled with fashion shows and concerts and will be a lot of fun!