CONTINUED FROM PART I
“I’ve been to hell and back. I’ve seen the edge. I have seen the dark side of life.”
Natalie Cole (1950-2015)
Kidney transplant recipient
This is the true story of how President Trump saved my life.
It everlastingly amazes me how most people I meet have a relative or friend suffering in agony from kidney failure, yet it is not considered a serious societal problem. Few can connect the dots.
And the main dots are these: Diabetes is by far the most prevalent cause of kidney failure. No. 2 is long-term, high blood pressure. But here’s the kicker … high blood pressure is one of the main symptoms of diabetes. So, diabetes is doubly urgent to avoid.
The very strict renal diet I was put on upon diagnosis allowed me to lose 70 pounds in four months.
The central and super important first steps were the immediate stoppage of fast-food and dark-colored drinks, with or without sugar (sweet tea as they drink so voraciously in the South is a hard no). Potassium (bananas, avocados, tomatoes, potatoes and more); Sodium in processed foods and canned foods (Stouffer’s meat lasagna=780mg, Campbell’s chicken noodle soup=2225mg of sodium per can); and Phosphorus (in virtually all dark-colored sodas & drinks, all dairy, milk and most heartbreakingly, cheese). I didn’t have a pizza for four years.
Eat healthily.
Please make sure you’re aware of and protect your body and those of your loved ones through these kinds of dietary modifications. It’s too important.
The human suffering from this blight is incalculable. The families worry, and rightfully so, while their loved ones courageously sit in a chair, three days a week, for six hours per day, with their blood leaving their bodies and being cleaned by a machine that can only clean enough to keep them alive till the next treatment.
Hemodialysis is no picnic. It’s an uber-slippery slope because while it keeps you alive (just barely), toxicity builds to lethal levels inevitably and your options are stark and two: stay on it or die.
“Now that you’re off dialysis, I’ll tell you a little story,” President Trump began again, “we had a lot of opposition to doing this … but I said ‘what’s the lifespan of people going through dialysis?’ and they said ‘it’s very low’ … because they ‘have to work so hard’ … they were telling me it’s so hard, dialysis … they die literally of overwork. Does that make sense to you?”
“It’s so true Mr. President,” I agreed wholeheartedly, remembering what it was like for me.
“These people were suffering and dying when there was no reason to die. They said they died of hard work, literally,” the president continued, “you have to be a tremendously hard worker to live. And their lives were devoted to it, to living. And it made an impression on me.”
When President Trump heard about the unbearable difficulty of dialysis, he said to them, “you’ve got to be kidding me. Let’s go!”
It’s unbearable to understand why the media isn’t all over kidney disease, as some very famous people have it or have had it. (33 celebrities who received transplants.)
Iconic songstress and daughter of Nat, Natalie Cole was a passionate advocate against the unfathomable suffering of this disease. She had a kidney transplant but died a few years later.
Selena Gomez, Alonzo Mourning, George Lopez, Tracy Morgan, Tina Turner, Barry White (who died while waiting), Neil Simon and Gary Coleman also were victims requiring transplants to survive.
Stevie Wonder’s kidneys failed and he had his kidney transplant three months before I had mine in 2019.
Notice anything about the racial composition of the above celebrities?
Because diabetes is so tied to diet and the regular consumption of fast food, soda and other sugary foods, minorities are endangered by an exponentially higher rate of kidney failure. This cannot be ignored any further.
Less than 1% of dialysis patients survive. It is a frequent heartbreaking tragedy that dialysis patients will decide to “checkout” to stop dialysis, go home and die within days. I lost several friends in dialysis to this grim decision. The complete absence of hope is tangible.
This highlights how thankful and blessed those who get a priceless kidney donation universally are. Thanking your donor (living or deceased), transplant surgeon and God Almighty is essential.
“So let me ask you,” the president pursued me, clearly understanding the gravity, “is it like you have a perfect kidney, or has it been a little bit less than that?”
“I am not complaining Mr. President, not at all. I’m steadfastly grateful for the additional life I’ve been given.”
“So, you’re leading a very normal life then, huh?”
“President Trump you wouldn’t believe all the life I’m enjoying. I got to see my namesake grandson turn 4 and the birth of my granddaughter who’s now 2, it’s meant so much to me.”
When I was first diagnosed, it took a while to sink in before I fully understood that my life might be over.
I decided that I should pray but wondered: Would it be right and just for me to ask God to give me a kidney? I wrangled with that one for a few weeks.
Finally, I decided that would be selfish to ask for a kidney and that I would instead pray to God for other people and their needs. What I found was that this delivered to me a whole, new network of people — whose lives were in varying states of disarray, like mine — that I was praying for, who would then be praying for me.
Mercifully, God answered my prayer.
So, as I pursue an incredible gift of continuing life, I am always thanking and praying for my anonymous deceased donor and their family; my transplant surgeon; President Trump and God Almighty.
Without any of that help, I would not be here today.
#ProtectYourKidneys
Bill Robinson has appeared on Fox News, CNN, PBS, Bloomberg, BBC and had his own segment on SKY News. For seven years was the only Conservative columnist for the Huffington Post. He has written columns and articles for The Wall Street Journal Europe, Forbes.com, Fortune Small Business, The Financial Times, The Moscow Times, United Airline's Hemispheres Magazine and many others. Bill may be reached at: bill@relentlessmarketing.com. Read More of Bill Robinson's Reports — Here.
(This is a story I’ve written. We all have our stories. If you’d like to share yours with me or you would like my prayers, I’d love to hear from you. My email is Bill@RelentlessMarketing.com
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