“Going through this, is the most heartbreaking, eye-opening experience!”

The largest group waiting for an organ donation consists of those in need of a kidney transplant.

One of them, Northern Kentucky woman, Deneal Dannelly, who spends the equivalent of a full-time plus a part-time job on dialysis each week.

“Going through this, is the most heartbreaking, eye-opening experience,” says 29-year-old Deneal Dannelly, who has had to put a lot of things on pause, like starting a family, or having a normal social life.

“I got diagnosed, about eight years ago. I was diagnosed with, IgA Nephropathy, which is an autoimmune disorder that attacks your kidneys specifically,” recalls Dannelly.

But, unlike many, Dannelly was diagnosed early on.

“One of the things about kidney disease is it’s normally caught, pretty late because, there’s typically no symptoms, until it’s really declining in function,” says Dannelly.

Dannelly balances a fulltime job and dialysis.
Her dialysis typically lasts about eight hours.
A reality she never expected.

“When you think of the cohort of people who typically need kidney transplants, you’re like 30, 40 years younger than them. So there’s not really much to connect too much within that community as far as like they’ve had lived their full lives and I’m still in the height of my life. So there’s always this kind of sadness that, all of my last years in my 20’s I’m spending doing this,” added Dannelly.

Dannelly started dialysis back in April of this year, and says the reality of being on dialysis is much harsher than people can imagine.

“People just don’t know, they think it’s, it’s very simple to just plug into a dialysis machine and they think that you wake up and it’s all over with.
At least that’s what I thought. I thought, oh, no big deal. I’ll just plug into this machine and it’ll be fine. It’s painful, it’s time consuming, it’s a lot of work, it’s a lot of dedication, it’s time management,” says Dannelly.

Deneal is just one of over 9,000 Kentuckians currently on kidney failure.
And while dialysis is her priority, “you factor in the stress of having to worry about who’s gonna donate to me if I’m gonna get a live donor. People backing out,  you get hopeful and they back out.
And,  also like I still have to deal with regular everyday problems,” she says.

Deneal also says waiting for a living organ donor has been tough. Not just because she is only 29, but because, “people will sign up with the best interest at heart, and, as they’re going through, they’re realizing, I don’t have childcare. I don’t have work time off. I don’t have any X, Y, and Z, and, and so they end up just changing their minds,” said Dannelly.

As she waits for a living kidney donor, Deneal encourages others to look into becoming an organ donor and look past the negative stigma.