My name is Troy Biggs. I am currently on the kidney transplant wait list. We are actively searching for a living donor. I have been on the transplant waiting list for just a little over 6 weeks. It was a shock when we heard the words……it’s time to get you placed on the organ transplant waiting list. We knew the day would come, but we just weren’t prepared for it. The unknown is the hardest part. Will I be able to work? Will my body reject the kidney? Will I be able to find a living donor? It is a lot to have in the back of your mind day in and day out.
I was listed because I have PKD (Polycystic Kidney Disease). I guess I have been living with it most of my life but didn’t really come to understand it until about 3 years back. That is when there was a dramatic decrease in my GFR (Kidney Filtration Rate). It has taken these 3 years for me to get to the point where I needed to go on the transplant waiting list. My family and I try to go about our daily life, business as usual, but the waiting and wondering if there is a match out there is always in the back of our minds. We try to enjoy the little things, not take anything for granted. My mom recently passed away and she was living with this same disease. I often wonder if what I watched her go through is the road I have ahead of me.
I really miss a nice, juicy, steak! Oh….and dark soda. I tell my wife that if I am lucky enough to receive a transplant, once I am through recovery, I want a nice dinner at Tony’s Steakhouse and I am ordering the biggest steak on the menu!
UPDATE: Troy Biggs’, Green Township Police Officer, fight with polycystic kidney disease ended on December 8, 2020 due to the life-saving gift of an organ transplant. Troy’s neighbor, Cary Aronson, made the altruistic decision to be Biggs’ living donor. Despite the uncertainty of the 2020 global pandemic, finding hope and courage was as much of an opportunity as it was a challenge.
