Mending Mindy Jarvis receives kidney

By Roxie Murphy, Staff Writer
Posted 9/30/20

The “Mending Mindy” support group for local woman Mindy Jarvis has come through again, as the signs, shirts, decals and other advertisements have officially helped to find a perfect …

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Mending Mindy Jarvis receives kidney

Posted

The “Mending Mindy” support group for local woman Mindy Jarvis has come through again, as the signs, shirts, decals and other advertisements have officially helped to find a perfect kidney match from an anonymous donor.

Mindy is scheduled to receive a kidney today (Wednesday) during a 7 p.m. surgery.

“We are very excited and so incredibly thankful (and I’m a little nervous too),” Mindy wrote during a Facebook conversation Tuesday afternoon.

Mindy wrote to The Maries County Advocate via Facebook Messenger while she and husband Josh Jarvis drove around Rochester, Minn., “to see the city through the pickup truck window.”

“With the new hospital rules concerning COVID, I can only have one person with me here at the hospital for a limited number of hours each day,” Mindy said about the trip that only included herself and her husband. She adds that both sets of grandparents are spoiling the couple’s children. “So they are probably not missing us as much as we are missing them, haha, which is a good thing.”

Mindy 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 Mindy when she was 12-years-old. Doctors said it would last eight years, but it lasted for 15 years instead.

“I’ve been on the transplant list for the last seven years; and I’ve been on dialysis for the last six years,” Mindy said. “I did get a kidney transplant from a deceased donor in 2018, but it only lasted a day because of a blood clot. That was a devastating time, but I remember feeling so much better physically for just that very short 24-hours before I lost that kidney. I can’t wait to have that feeling of good health again.”

For the last seven years, Mindy has struggled daily.

“It often feels like my body is betraying me and I can’t wait to be able to function ‘normally’ again without dialysis,” she said.

Mindy had pre-surgery appointments at the Mayo Clinic on Monday and took time with her husband Tuesday to just be together. Since she is immunocompromised, they stayed away from people. Her surgery is scheduled for Wednesday evening and she wanted to be ready.

“The kidney will be flown here from an anonymous living donor in the National Kidney Registry,” Mindy said. “This opportunity is responsible because of someone I had never met that saw the signs that asked people to try to donate a kidney for me.”

Those were, of course, the “Mending Mindy” signs made by her friends at the church they attend. The signs have been passed out to go on cars, at businesses and so many other places.

“This person that read one of those signs and gave one of her kidneys to a stranger, to help me, is Kelsey Jordan,” Mindy said. “Her generosity and what she has gone through for this to happen is nothing short of amazing. I will be forever grateful for her big gift.”

Jordan, from Owensville originally, donated a kidney through the registry which earned Mindy a voucher to receive another anonymously donated kidney.

“I didn’t know her before she messaged me about her upcoming kidney donation surgery in my name — to get me a voucher — which is how I’m getting the living donor transplant tomorrow,” said Mindy.

The reason Mindy has had so much trouble finding a match is because she is a hard match to find. She has a high antibody count which means she requires a nearly 100-percent perfect match.

“I’m proof that nothing is impossible,” she said.

After the surgery, the plan is for Mindy to be in ICU for a day and in the hospital for five to seven days. That will be followed by staying near the clinic for a few weeks before she can go home.

“I’ll be immune suppressed so I’ll need to stay away from people and germs for a while,” Mindy said. “We will be at a hotel that connects to the Mayor Clinic through an underground walking tunnel.”

Mindy and the Jarvis family have been through a lot during this process, but they have stood strong.

“I’d love to tell you sometime about the crazy scary things that have happened to me health-wise in the last year,” she said. “Going through those dark times just makes this moment in time even sweeter.”