Former Siena player gets new kidney
Jim Mextorf was a powerful, hard-nosed and bruising forward during his days as a Siena basketball player in the mid-to-late 1980s.
By the end of his career there, he and two senior-season teammates were mostly relegated to bench duties. Yet their determination and toughness every day in practice earned them the nickname of Vikings because they embodied that group’s physical and tenacious characteristics.
But the hard work Mextorf contributed every day as an athlete was nothing compared to what he had to endure in recent years.
You want tough? How about diabetes requiring four-and-a-half hours of physically draining dialysis three times a week?
How about losing one leg from just below the knee and losing two toes off his remaining foot?
How about having to deal with being near the top of the kidney transplant list and, then, enduring physical setbacks that pushed him way down the line for being a recipient.
How about being on dialysis for five-and-ahalf years and knowing that the chances of dying increase dramatically as the length of that blood-purification technique goes on ... that there’s only a survival rate of 30 to 35 percent of those on dialysis for seven years, and, that the morbidity rate goes up each year beyond that?
You want toughness? Try being a 50-year old man looking at an end of life in his not-sodistant future without a new kidney.
Mextorf was on the verge of getting one a couple of years ago before an infection related to the amputation of a portion of his right leg set in.
The infection severely damaged two aortic heart valves and ruptured an aneurysm in his brain. Within a month’s time he had separate surgeries to replace the heart valves and remove the aneurysm.
All of that pushed him way down the list of potential kidney recipients, behind “healthier” diabetics.
You want tough? Try to endure all of that.
Try getting through all of that, getting healthy enough to get back to the top of the recipient list and, then, getting a phone call on February 6th of this year to say, finally, that it looked like he was going to get a new kidney.
And, then, the kidney wasn’t a perfect match.
More dialysis. Another hope dashed. More waiting. More tough times.
Mextorf has been dealing with diabetes, a group of metabolic diseases that precipitates high bloodsugar levels that can cause complications if not properly monitored and treated, most of his life.
He admits that he did not monitor his sugar levels and take care of himself as well as he should have during his active days as a high school and college athlete.
So, eventually, came the complications that continued to get worse as he aged.
Tough? Through it all, Mextorf never complained.
Instead, he remained positive. The complications were correctable. He deals with the loss of the lower-portion of a leg by wearing a prosthetic. The heart-valve replacement and brain-aneurism surgeries were successful.
He continued to work for the state as a information technology service manager. He continued to serve as an assistant basketball coach in the highly successful Albany Academy basketball program.
He continued to wait and optimistically hope for a new kidney, a wait further handicapped by a difficult-to-match blood type.
And, then, another phone call came this past March 21st.
A kidney match had become available. An 18year old male, yet to be identified to Mextorf, had died of a drug overdose. The youth’s family opted to donate his organs. A kidney was to go to Mextorf.
“It was all surreal ... it happened so fast,” says Mextorf. “I went through a plethora of emotions, from happy, to sad, to scared, to nervous.”
The story has a happy ending. There was no disappointment this time. Two days later he had a new kidney. Twenty-four
days later he was back to work.
“Everything seems positive right now,” says Mextorf.
Positive? How about no more dialysis which, considering transportation time, took a six-hour block of time out of his day three times a week?
How about no more wondering how much longer he had to live without a kidney transplant?
How about an improved quality of life? More quality time to spend with his wife Lisa, more energy to go about every day living?
“I used to be pretty wiped out when I was getting dialysis,” he says, now. “But, I guess I didn’t realize how sick I was. Just getting out of bed was tough. Now, I’m up at 5:30 every morning with tons of energy.”
It’s energy Mextorf wants to use to impart a message to others. He says he wants to get involved with different groups to talk about and encourage organ donations and transplants. He wants to talk to young diabetics about taking care of themselves better than he did.
He says his long-term plan is to write a book, something other diabetics can read and say that his message helped them.
Right now, though, he
is mostly thankful that a family opted to donate a deceased son’s organs to save others.
“A lady got the other kidney,” said Mextorf. “Several other organs were donated. That family did a great thing. It gave some people another lease on life.”
Mextorf says he believes his new life’s lease will be good for 30 years, or more.
“At some point I’d like to reach out to the family to let them know that their son is living on in other people,” he says. “They gave me at least 30 more good years if I take care of myself and take care of my kidney. I can’t thank them enough.
“I want to live as long as possible, to take care of myself to honor what that young donor did for me. After the surgery, for a couple of days, I prayed a lot and talked to this young donor under my breath. My conversation was mostly saying `thank you’ to him.”
These days Mextorf has much for which to give thanks.
And, finally, one very tough Viking no longer has to be so tough.