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Couple recovering after transplant; Marlboro woman donated a kidney to her husband |
| When Ellyn Glazer found out her kidney was the match her husband Roy needed, she never wavered in her resolve to save her husband’s life. |
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| Publish Date: 01:07PM 02/09/10 |
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BY REBECCA MORTON Staff Writer
News Transcript
MARLBORO — When Ellyn Glazer found out her kidney was the match her husband Roy needed, she never wavered in her resolve to save her husband’s life.
“You would do anything for your husband and kids,” she said.
Twelve years ago Roy Glazer, 62, was diagnosed with Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis, a rare and incurable kidney disease. With treatment, Roy was able to survive without a transplant, although he knew that he would eventually need a kidney transplant to keep living.
The Glazers have resided in Marlboro for 26 years with their children, Scott, Lauren and David.
The average cost of a kidney transplant is more than $250,000, with post-transplant medication averaging between $2,000 and $5,000 a month, according to the National Foundation for Transplants Internet website.
Knowing about the high costs associated with a transplant, the Glazers, their family members and friends organized a walk-a-thon in May 2009 to raise money to help pay the medical bills.
Both of the Glazers are self-employed, Roy operates HRG Painting and Ellyn owns Auntie Ellyn’s Mandel Bread in Englishtown.
The walk-a-thon helped to generate almost $10,000 toward the cost of the transplant. The months passed by leading up to when the procedure would finally take place.
On the morning of Jan. 5, Ellyn and Roy were at Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, prepping for their surgeries. In recounting the events of that day, Ellyn said that while she was starting to feel nervous about the pending operation, Roy was calm and collected, and watching television before going in to the operating room.
Within minutes of transferring one of her kidneys to Roy the organ began to function normally, indicating that the transplant had been a success, Ellyn said.
When Roy awoke from the anesthesia the effects of having a new kidney were apparent to him. Having been at the end stage of his renal disease, Roy had been living with a constant feeling of fatigue and a constant metallic taste in his mouth.
Upon waking up, he immediately noticed that the metallic taste in his mouth was gone and he felt more energized than he had felt in a long time.
“Mission accomplished,” Ellyn said about her husband’s improved state of health.
As the weeks have progressed the Glazers are slowly recovering from their surgeries. As part of his regimen, Roy now takes numerous medications, almost 24 pills a day, Ellyn said.
However, each day of recovery brings Roy closer to resuming a normal lifestyle. Following the surgery, Roy must stay away from public places for three months in order to prevent infection. His seclusion has been made easier by a support system of family members and friends who come to visit the recovering couple.
“We are spending a lot of together time,” Ellyn said.
While Roy still faces the possibility of a reoccurrence of his disease, an event seen in about 1 out of 12 people, the family refuses to live in a world of “what ifs?”
“We can’t live our life thinking what if God forbid he gets sick again. I can’t think that way, I have to feel that it is working and it is going to work. That’s all we can think about,” Ellyn said.
Roy and Ellyn will remain out of work for their recovery period, which can take a couple of months.
Reflecting back over the last year, Ellyn said, “It is an amazing thing that for a year (we had) the anticipation of the surgery, what it was going to be like and how we were going to be … my fears of what life would be like afterward for Roy, it’s been pretty normal.”
Anyone who wishes to donate to help the family with the ongoing medical bills can visit the National Foundation for Transplants at www.transplants.org, click on the Patients We Help tab and search for Roy Glazer.
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