BELLEVILLE POST
ESSEXNEWSDAILY.COM
FEBRUARY 2025
VOL. 36 NO. 13
New parking Transplant recipient paying it forward lot opens
— See Page 4
Post 105 ‘Down Neck’
— See Page 13
Top bowler in county
— See Page 22
By Daniel Jackovino Staff Writer The dictionary says that an experienced and trusted advisor is a mentor and accordingly, resident Bob Silvera, 63, is just that for individuals contemplating a kidney transplant. A recipient himself, his road has been a medical odyssey. “It started 25 years ago with a heart issue,” he said recently. “It was a blocked artery. I did not eat well or exercise and was overweight.” Silvera taught and was an assistant principal in Belleville Middle School from September of 1984 until January of 2017. He was principal of School 8 from January of 2017 until the end of October, 2020. In June 1999, he did not feel well one Friday. The headache went away, but on Monday a Verona medicenter sent him to the hospital. “I was diagnosed with diabetes, blocked arteries and high blood pressure,” he said. “My wife was pregnant, we had another child of five and were supposed to go to California. I wanted to go, but I trust hospitals.” His blood glucose was 400-500. Normal is 70-120. His heart was checked. “They go into the groin for this,” he said. “They give you a dye and you watch a screen and I saw that it was blocked. Just enough to put in stents. They wouldn’t let me go home and started rehab at Mountainside Hospital.” Silvera said Phase I of the program was his hospital stay. Phase II was bike and treadmill exercise, hooked-up to meters checking heart rate and blood pressure. “I did it before school,” he said. “Insurance covered 38-45 weeks. Phase III and IV were not mandatory or covered. Phase III was $88 a month, but worth it. There was free valet parking. Phase IV was the same, but no monitoring.” He started insulin in January of 2000 and was getting healthy and even ran a half-marathon. But, he said, life catches up and he gained a little weight. He
Photo By Daniel Jackovino
Long-time Belleville educator and administrator Bob Silvera is a kidney transplant recipient who has become a mentor to other people going through the same procedure. stopped seeing an endocrinologist, but his cardiologist told him to see one. Silvera did and was informed his kidneys were failing. “In 2016 I was told to consider dialysis over the next one to one-and-a-half years," he said. “At this time, I got my dream job as an elementary school principal.” But Silvera’s kidneys began to fail quickly and he began dialysis Nov. 2017.
His legs were swelling and seeping fluid. The pain was wicked and he could not sleep. “There are two types of dialysis,” he said. “There’s peritoneal dialysis which is done at home or hemodialysis which is done at a clinic. In peritoneal dialysis, a catheter goes into the lining of your stomach. It’s attached to a bag of fluid called dialysate.” See SILVERA, Page 2