BALD EAGLE FESTIVAL More than 1,500 eagles counted at event
HOMELESS CONCERNS A tent at Heritage Parks is considered dangerous
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CUSTOMER APPRECIATION Downtown businesses kick off the holidays
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Friday, November 27 2015
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Running out of time Mission mother of three waiting to find a suitable donor Kevin Mills Mission Record
Walking inside Jacquelyn Sumpton’s house, one’s attention is drawn to the dozens of stacked cardboard boxes marked Baxter. They contain medical supplies that keep Sumpton alive. The 29-year-old Mission mother of three has been diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease and has to have peritoneal dialysis every night. Her prognosis is for eventual kidney failure, which is fatal. And time is slowly running out. Her only hope is to find a suitable person willing to donate a kidney so she can have a transplant. As of today, the search is ongoing. Her ordeal began about 18 months ago while pregnant with her third daughter. A routine blood test came back showing that she was anemic. Further tests revealed that Sumpton had kidney disease. Initially, she was told it was nothing serious to worry about. Doctors advised her to keep having blood tests to monitor the condition. After Evangeline was born, three weeks early, life went back to normal. Two months later, the doctor’s office called and told Sumpton she needed
Mission’s Jacquelyn Sumpton prepares to start her peritoneal dialysis treatment, which she needs every night. The 29-year-old mother of three has been diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease and needs to find a suitable kidney donor KEVIN MILLS PHOTO to go back for more bloodwork That test revealed that Sumpton’s GFR – which measures how much her kidneys actually filter – was down to nine per cent. “They said, ‘You need to
come in here today. We are putting a catheter in next week; we have set you up an appointment and you are going on dialysis the week after that.’ “Like it is happening now.”
She was horrified by the suddenness of it all. “I think, a few times, I listened to a song and I just drove around and cried.” But she is determined to stay upbeat and keep fighting.
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She doesn’t really have a choice. “I come at it positive. Because if I don’t, I’ll fall into the deepest depths of depression and my family couldn’t take it and I couldn’t take it. And crawl-
ing out would be much harder than staying above it. “Every day I have to consciously prepare myself and strengthen myself and ready myself and then address the day.” Sumpton and her husband Sean Magnusson, also 29, have been together since they were in high school. They have three daughters – 10-year-old Genevieve, Aliya, 8, and Evengeline, who is one. Sumpton and Magnusson remain hopeful that a suitable kidney donor can be found. “We knew from the start that polycystic kidney disease is not curable, so the only way to fix it is to put a new kidney in,” said Magnusson. The search began immediately as they asked family and friends to get tested for compatibility. But slowly, those potential candidates were ruled out for a variety of reasons. “The screening process is very thorough. The donor has to be a good match in order to have success.” Magnusson is currently going through the testing process, hoping he might be a match. “Our blood type matches and I’m healthy enough,” he said. Continued on A5
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