Kidneys and widgets
The fact that my youngest son was born with severe kidney problems that eventually led to him receiving a transplant isn't something that I talk about a lot, at least not online. It's a personal matter and best left offline for the most part. But I would like to take a minute and do tell his story here.
Before he was born the doctors determined he had two essentially useless kidneys that had just never developed. At the young age of one and half years he was (after successfully avoiding dialysis) old enough and strong enough to receive a transplanted kidney, a kidney I was more than happy to part with. That was almost two years ago and he is doing better than either myself or my wife could have imagined. Life is different when you have a transplant patient but the kidney is doing well and my wife is on top of all his medical needs.
To celebrate how well he is doing, my family and I are participating in The National Kidney Foundation of Illinois' Gift of Life Walk this July and we're raising money for that organization. I hate to ask for donations but if you feel so moved we - and the group the money goes toward - would be most appreciative. It's groups like this that allow doctors to diagnose problems early, something that saved my son's life before he was even born.
Sentimentality aside, I wanted to point out something kind of cool about all this. The NKFI, when you sign up as a team for the event, has a section where you can spread the word of your fund raising efforts. And on that page is code for you to create and publish your own widget, something I immediately grabbed and put on my personal site. That's great that an organization like this has embraced such a simple way to help people spread the word. My publishing that on MMM resulted in $150 being donated in the first two hours alone, something that far exceeded my expectations.
Thanks for indulging this personal note.
--Chris