Dear Friends and Family,
I wanted to give my bio of the last nine months
from start to finish and some of my thoughts during those times. Some of this
will be what you already know but I am telling you it through my eyes. I hope
you enjoy!
In the Beginning
In the beginning of January I got sick with what was at
first just a common cold. After a few days it got better but a day or two later
some symptoms came back, like fevers and nausea. What was weird though was that
I would only get fevers during the night and in the morning feel fine. So
everyday I thought I might be getting better but I wasn't. This went on for
about a week until my dad decided I would go to the doctor. On Friday the 17 my
dad called the doctor to get me in. When I finally got up my dad commented that
my face looked a little puffy but I thought nothing of it at the time. We went
to the doctor and had some tests done and the doctor concluded that I was have
an allergic reaction to one of the meds I was taking. I left the doctors office
thinking that once I stopped the med that I would start to get better. After I
got home I went to bed and tried to sleep.
Saturday morning rolls around and I am not feeling any better but I thought I would start to recover because I was not going to be taking the medicine anymore. I woke up pretty early on Saturday because my parents were leaving to go to DC for the day to show some internationals around and wanted to make sure I was doing all right before they left. Once they left I was too awake to fall back asleep so I decided to take a nice long shower. I think long showers are the most relaxing thing in the world and I was planning on staying in the shower all morning or until we had no hot water. At this time I had severe back pain that I attributed to the 104° fevers I was having so the hot water felt really nice. I was also kind of nauseous still so being in the shower had many perks.
Around 8:00 the phone started ringing but it was the home phone and I don't answer our home phone. If someone needs to get to me they can call my cellphone. I had my cellphone on my towel in the bathroom and I was not going to let the home phone ruin my shower. The person calling would not stop and they called at least 4 times before finally giving it a rest. It was about 8:50 before I finally got out of the shower because someone tried to call the house 2 more times. I thought it might be my parents telling me they forgot something, or in my mind something dumb, so I decided to get out of they shower and pick up the phone the next time it rang.
Saturday morning rolls around and I am not feeling any better but I thought I would start to recover because I was not going to be taking the medicine anymore. I woke up pretty early on Saturday because my parents were leaving to go to DC for the day to show some internationals around and wanted to make sure I was doing all right before they left. Once they left I was too awake to fall back asleep so I decided to take a nice long shower. I think long showers are the most relaxing thing in the world and I was planning on staying in the shower all morning or until we had no hot water. At this time I had severe back pain that I attributed to the 104° fevers I was having so the hot water felt really nice. I was also kind of nauseous still so being in the shower had many perks.
Around 8:00 the phone started ringing but it was the home phone and I don't answer our home phone. If someone needs to get to me they can call my cellphone. I had my cellphone on my towel in the bathroom and I was not going to let the home phone ruin my shower. The person calling would not stop and they called at least 4 times before finally giving it a rest. It was about 8:50 before I finally got out of the shower because someone tried to call the house 2 more times. I thought it might be my parents telling me they forgot something, or in my mind something dumb, so I decided to get out of they shower and pick up the phone the next time it rang.
Kidney Failure
I did not have to wait long before it rang again
and I picked it up. It was the doctor and the first question he asked was if I
knew they were trying to call the house for the last hour, frustrated I said
no. He went on to tell me that my labs came in and that things were very
serious. My creatinine level was 15.9 which suggested end stage renal failure.
Normal creatinine levels are between 0.5 and 2. He proceeded to tell me that he
would call an ambulance because I needed to go to the hospital right away.
I told the doctor that I did not need an ambulance because someone was home and could take me. Chris Davis was living with us at the time and was working at the hospital where I was to go, so I had him drive me to the hospital. At the hospital, the nurses were already waiting for me with a stretcher in the ER and they started to get an IV in right away. As soon as they got the IV in they had me sign consent forms to go to surgery. I hardly finished signing the papers before we started moving to go to surgery. They wanted to put in a chest catheter so they could start dialysis. Dialysis acts as your kidneys by cleaning your blood through a filter. When they were done with the surgery I was hooked up to the dialysis machine and my blood was filtered for the next four hours.
I told the doctor that I did not need an ambulance because someone was home and could take me. Chris Davis was living with us at the time and was working at the hospital where I was to go, so I had him drive me to the hospital. At the hospital, the nurses were already waiting for me with a stretcher in the ER and they started to get an IV in right away. As soon as they got the IV in they had me sign consent forms to go to surgery. I hardly finished signing the papers before we started moving to go to surgery. They wanted to put in a chest catheter so they could start dialysis. Dialysis acts as your kidneys by cleaning your blood through a filter. When they were done with the surgery I was hooked up to the dialysis machine and my blood was filtered for the next four hours.
God’s Intervention: Boy Scout to the Rescue
By this time you are probably
wondering if my parents know anything about this or what the heck they were
doing about all this. Before I get there though I want to tell you where I saw
God in all this. When I answered the phone Saturday morning my parents had
already left on a chartered bus to go to DC so I knew I was pretty much alone
in the house. Chris did live with us but he worked night shift at the Harrisburg
hospital and we would usually only see him between 3 and 7 pm when he would be
up before work. This weekend, however, he asked off because he had a Med School
interview at the beginning of the next week and he wanted to have some time to
switch his sleep schedule around. This is all to say that Chris told me the day
before that he was going to wake up at 9 am on Saturday and try to go to a
Scouting event later that day at our church.
Little did he know that I had other plans for him. This is where God comes in. I answered the call from the doctor around 8:50 so by the time I finished explaining that someone was able to take me to the hospital, Chris would be waking up. So as I ran down the stairs to see if Chris was up, I threw some bread into the toaster because I knew that's what Chris ate ever day for his "3 pm" breakfast. When I did get down to his room he had just gotten up and I was easily able to convince him that his day would be better spent at the place he called off work from than a day at the pine wood derby.
I will take a moment to say thank you once again for his willingness to be helpful. For those of you who don't know, being helpful is the third part of the Boy Scout Law, so although I am very grateful, Chris had no choice in the matter unless he want to be portrayed as a hypocritical Boy Scout Leader. I did not need to use this leverage however because Chris is a wonderful friend regardless of his extracurricular activities of being in the Boy Scouts. As Chris got ready for the day, he was still in his jammies; I pulled his toast out of the toaster and buttered it. This is where my parents' role begins. I realized that I should probably let my parents know I was going to the hospital after the doctor called but I wanted to cement a ride to the ER before I did. So I settled on the idea that I would see if Chris would be willing to take me and then call my parents, as he was getting ready.
Little did he know that I had other plans for him. This is where God comes in. I answered the call from the doctor around 8:50 so by the time I finished explaining that someone was able to take me to the hospital, Chris would be waking up. So as I ran down the stairs to see if Chris was up, I threw some bread into the toaster because I knew that's what Chris ate ever day for his "3 pm" breakfast. When I did get down to his room he had just gotten up and I was easily able to convince him that his day would be better spent at the place he called off work from than a day at the pine wood derby.
I will take a moment to say thank you once again for his willingness to be helpful. For those of you who don't know, being helpful is the third part of the Boy Scout Law, so although I am very grateful, Chris had no choice in the matter unless he want to be portrayed as a hypocritical Boy Scout Leader. I did not need to use this leverage however because Chris is a wonderful friend regardless of his extracurricular activities of being in the Boy Scouts. As Chris got ready for the day, he was still in his jammies; I pulled his toast out of the toaster and buttered it. This is where my parents' role begins. I realized that I should probably let my parents know I was going to the hospital after the doctor called but I wanted to cement a ride to the ER before I did. So I settled on the idea that I would see if Chris would be willing to take me and then call my parents, as he was getting ready.
Parents, What Parents?
As I saw it, my parents could not
do anything from where they were at so why worry them with the news that I was
going to the hospital. But I got yelled at for this philosophy before so I went
ahead and called them. I tried to play it down so they would not feel helpless
in DC all day but even now I can't come up with a way to make "I am being
rushed to the hospital" sound like no big deal. So I told them everything
I knew and then told them that everything was being taken care of. But my
salutation of "have a great time DC" fell on deaf ears as they were
already planning their pilgrimage home, which is harder than it seems when you
take a chartered bus to sight see and are the leaders of a international
college field trip to DC.
So as I was being admitted to the hospital and undergoing surgery my parents were finding their way to the nearest car rental place, which was at Central Station. After some quick research my parents found that the cheapest and fastest way to Harrisburg Hospital would be by car rental but the only catch was that they would have to return the car to Central Station if the wanted to save an extra $300 on the rental. So the marathon was on for my parents! My dad had to drive from DC to our house so my mom could pick up our car stop by the hospital for about five minutes before having to drive back to DC in time to catch the chartered bus home. My mom was able to stay with me through my first dialysis treatment while my dad drove back to DC where he was able to catch the bus home. When my mom got to the hospital at 2, Chris was relieved of his babysitting duties and he went back home shortly after. I was in the hospital for another 4 days getting a kidney biopsy and regaining health. Since about the day before going to the doctor I stopped using the bathroom regularly and started gaining water weight. Within 4 day I had gained over 50 lbs of water weight and my skin was stretched to the max! My dad nicknamed me the Michelin Tire Man because of all the weight that I put on.
So as I was being admitted to the hospital and undergoing surgery my parents were finding their way to the nearest car rental place, which was at Central Station. After some quick research my parents found that the cheapest and fastest way to Harrisburg Hospital would be by car rental but the only catch was that they would have to return the car to Central Station if the wanted to save an extra $300 on the rental. So the marathon was on for my parents! My dad had to drive from DC to our house so my mom could pick up our car stop by the hospital for about five minutes before having to drive back to DC in time to catch the chartered bus home. My mom was able to stay with me through my first dialysis treatment while my dad drove back to DC where he was able to catch the bus home. When my mom got to the hospital at 2, Chris was relieved of his babysitting duties and he went back home shortly after. I was in the hospital for another 4 days getting a kidney biopsy and regaining health. Since about the day before going to the doctor I stopped using the bathroom regularly and started gaining water weight. Within 4 day I had gained over 50 lbs of water weight and my skin was stretched to the max! My dad nicknamed me the Michelin Tire Man because of all the weight that I put on.
Home… and Back Again!
I was released from the hospital
on Wednesday; however, I got a call from the hospital the next morning saying
that they wanted me back. So after only being home for about 13 hours I went
back to the hospital. The doctor said that they wanted to put me on some intensive
treatments to try and recover my kidneys. The doctors got my biopsy back and
they found that I had a serious form of kidney failure called Rapidly
Progressive Glomerulonephritis or RGPN for short. There are only a handful of
cases out there of RPGN and there is not much research for this type of
aggressive kidney disease. They do have several procedures that could help
including chemo-p-plasma (chemo therapy), steroid therapy, and plasmaphoresis
(plasma transplant). My doctor had been talking with the top nephrologist in
our country and consulting with them to find the best possible solutions. They
wanted to keep me for the next few days to monitor me and see how I reacted to
the daily plasmaphoresis, 3 times a week dialysis, and 3-4 low doses of chemo
and the steroids. They also wanted to go ahead and put a PD catheter in my
stomach. A PD catheter is used in at-home dialysis, which I can do on my own while
I sleep. PD dialysis would allow me to have a much freer schedule and not have
to go to a dialysis clinic Monday, Wednesday, Friday for 5 hours a day.
Aren’t Treatments Great!
The doctors started the
plasmaphoresis that day but about halfway through the treatment I started
having an allergic reaction to the donor plasma and we had to stop the
treatment. After changing to artificial plasma, albumin, everything went smoothly.
I stayed in the hospital for a few more days getting the treatments. Before I
left I got the PD catheter put in and I was discharged. For the next month or
two I continued hemodialysis until my PD catheter was ready to use and during spring
break at Messiah College I got the training on PD and was able to start that.
During those two months I also was on steroids and was getting regular chemo
treatments. Since my immune system was compromised, I had to watch my health
very carefully and I wore a mask wherever I went. I was still continuing
college during this time and I had to work closely with teachers to be able to
get all my work done as well as get all my medical treatments. After about the
first month of treatments we did not see any change in the kidneys and it did
not seem like the treatments were going to work. After a few more weeks of
seeing no progress the doctors decided that there was no way to bring my
kidneys back so I stopped the chemo treatments and I began to be weaned off the
steroids. The next step in the road to victory would be transplant.
Journey to Transplant
We started to inform our family
and friends that I would need a transplant and if they felt led to donate they
could get tested. We went to a specialist in New York City Presbyterian
Hospital who recommended Johns Hopkins for the transplant and we listened to
his advice. All we needed now was a donor. I don’t know how many people went
ahead and got tested because JH was not allowed to give that information out
but I do know that a hand full of people did tell me that they got tested. If you were one of the people that got
tested, thank you so much and your support means a lot to me!
At this point I was still
taking classes at Messiah College but I was on PD. Everything seemed to be going
fairly well with PD but it took a while to get used to it. School started to
come to a close and I thought I was going to be able to finish classes and have
smooth sailing through the summer. But God wanted to teach me another lesson in
perseverance and during the last week of school I got pneumonia and was not
able to take any of my finals. I took incompletes in all five of my classes and
had to take the finals in the weeks to follow. After about two weeks I was able
to finish all my finals and I was able to start my summer. I did not have many plans during the summer
because I was hoping to get a transplant and I wanted to leave my summer open
to be able to accommodate that. If possible I did want to do some traveling but
a transplant was my top priority. Things
seemed to be going pretty good during the summer but it was not without
complications. I had a heart ejection fraction of 30 which led to a heart
catheterization to clarify the problem (no blocked arteries-kidney related). I got sick a handful of times with two urinary
tract infections, peritonitis (which is a stomach infection), two seizures
(leading to temporary deafness and blindness), numerous bouts of super high
blood pressure, nausea, MAJOR headaches, Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome
(PRES), a spinal tap, and a kidney stone. Apart from spending time at home and
at the hospital I was able to go on a road trip with my dad to visit family in
Colorado and visit my girl friend a few times in Brooklyn.
Finding a Match
Around the beginning of July, Johns Hopkins contacted us saying that
they found a match and that I needed to get more tests done so we could move
along with a transplant. During the end of August we were able to start
planning for a transplant date. We were able to get OCTOBER 14th for
our transplant date and we could see the finish line. Even though there is
still another chapter after the transplant, all the doctors were saying
everything would get better with the transplant and that is all I have been
looking forward to for the past few months! I took medical leave from Messiah
College for the fall semester and have been anxiously waiting for October 14th,
it can’t come soon enough. On September 29th we went down to Johns
Hopkins for our TWO WEEK OUT evaluation and everything seemed in order! Since
then we have also set up a foundation to help financially support my family and
the donor. If you want to help you can send a tax-deductible donation via check
or credit card. Please make your check payable to NFT Pennsylvania Transplant
Fund. Remember to write “in honor of Nathaniel Bechtold” on the memo line. Visit
www.transplants.org to make
a secure online donation. Click “Find an NFT Patient” to search for Nathaniel
Bechtold. Prayer is also another big way you can help. Thank you to anyone that
has supported us already because your support has been a crucial part of what
has kept my family positive and looking forward through the tough times during
the last nine months.
Blessings and Love,
~Nathaniel Bechtold~
