Jarvis recovery in isolation from kidney transplant is boring — and she is cherishing every moment

By Roxie Murphy, Staff Writer
Posted 10/29/20

Since returning home from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. on Oct. 18 following a kidney transplant, Mindy Jarvis has been enjoying a remarkably, somewhat boring life — compared to the last …

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Jarvis recovery in isolation from kidney transplant is boring — and she is cherishing every moment

Posted

Since returning home from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. on Oct. 18 following a kidney transplant, Mindy Jarvis has been enjoying a remarkably, somewhat boring life — compared to the last few years.

“I’m cherishing every single moment of it,” Jarvis said with an upbeat attitude via Messenger. “Being a woman of strong faith, I give God all the glory and credit.”

Jarvis has had kidney failure since birth due to a lack of oxygen at delivery that scarred her kidneys. Her grandfather donated one of his kidneys to her when she was 12-years-old. Doctors said it would last eight years, but it lasted for 15 years instead.

However, in the last seven years since she has been on the National Kidney Registry (NKR), Jarvis has faced her share of ups and downs.

“I’ve had some major disappointments in my past,” Jarvis said. “My aunt was scheduled to give me one of her kidneys; we had a surgery date and hotel reservations made, but the final crossmatch didn’t pass. We were both devastated.”

Jarvis has also gone to Barnes Hospital on several “dry runs” as a secondary kidney choice for a cadaver kidney, only to come back home to the dialysis machine instead of getting the much needed transplant surgery, because the matches were not good enough.

“It was hard not to get my hopes up and end up disappointed each time,” she said.

The ups and downs of waiting for a transplant and not knowing if it would ever happen weighed on her.

“My very lowest point was when I did get a much-needed transplant in August of 2018, but it failed in less than 24-hours after the surgery due to a blood clot to the kidney,” Jarvis said. “I almost gave up on the fight to live after that traumatic experience, but I had a family that needed me. So I kept doing everything I could do to stay alive.”

When she was diagnosed with calciphylaxis disease, a side effect of kidney failure, many people thought the rare sickness would be the end of her battle.

“I know I looked like a sad shell of a person during that time, but I somehow felt like I was going to beat it and be okay,” Jarvis said. “The treatment used, especially the hyperbaric oxygen therapy, was a godsend and I surprised my medical team when I totally recovered from the diagnosis.”

While she still has scars from her survival with the disease, she considers them tattoos that tell a better story.

But the hardest part of having the kidney disease has been the nerve damage in her feet.

“That is what took me to the Mayo Clinic the first time, trying to get help for that,” Jarvis said. “I definitely miss being athletic.”

While doctors are quick to remind Jarvis that she may never get that function back at 100 percent, she chooses to look at it in a way more positive light.

“Look at my life...nothing is impossible for God,” she said. “Before the transplant, standing and walking was a pain level of 10-plus, but I forced myself to keep trying. Now its a very doable pain level of four most days, and I enjoy pushing myself to walk.”

She says she believes things will continue to get better, regardless of whether doctors agree with her.

“Right now, I am still extremely immune-suppressed,” Jarvis said, adding she is on heavy doses of medications for the first few months. “I try to stay away from crowds of people. I go to Jefferson City once a week for labs and they send the results to my doctors at the Mayo Clinic.”

“The doctors said with me having kidney failure my whole life and the health issues that brings, along with me being a rare match, they have me in the high-risk category and will be following me closely.”

Many have taken to calling the transplant and its subsequent success “Mindy’s Miracle” and doctors agree.

“It is amazing to me how all the details came together for this miracle to happen,” Jarvis said. “The fact that Kelsey (Jordan) and I didn’t even know one another and she saw a sign asking to call the Mayo Clinic to see if she was a kidney match for me.”

While Jordan was not a match, she donated her kidney anyway, and Jarvis received a voucher from the NKR for Jordan’s donation in her honor. Jordan later posted her story on her Facebook page.

“I strongly think everyone should read her story on how she became an anonymous kidney organ donor and what she went through,” Jarvis said. “It’ll give you goosebumps, like it did me.”

Jordan ended up giving a kidney to someone else to get Jarvis a voucher in the NKR.

“It’s truly amazing,” Jarvis said. “And then I had one of the very best kidney transplant surgeons in the country operate on me. That was also an answer to a prayer.”

The Mayo nephrologist told her it was a miracle to even get a matched kidney for Jarvis because of her high antibody count, which was a very hard match.

“He said there were only 8,000 people that would match me and most of that would not qualify for the surgery or would not want to register to see if they qualified,” Jarvis said. “Even that doctor agreed it was a miracle.”

With each day, lab tests show Jarvis’ kidney function is better. She returned home to Missouri at 5:30 p.m. on a rainy Sunday, in the care of her mother, and was met with a surprise as they drove down Alvarado Avenue in Belle.

“Several people from our community surprised me with balloons and signs standing out in the cold rain as we drove into town,” she said. “Plus I had (Maries County Sheriff) Chris Heitman and another Maries County Sheriff Officer escort mom and I into town. That was a first for me (lol). It was one of the sweetest “coming home” surprises ever!”

Now life is different from before. It’s lighter.

“Life is great right now,” she said. “No stressful, huge chunks of time doing dialysis five times a week anymore...no limiting my fluid intake anymore...I have a spring to my step and a song of praise in my heart. I can’t thank Kelsey Jordan enough for what she has done to make this happen.”