This Thing Called Life

This Thing Called Life

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This Thing Called Life episodes

  • This Thing Called Life: Community Heroes 18: Don’t Forget To Register For The Virtual Community Breakfast.

    Don’t Forget To Register For The Virtual Community Breakfast.  It starts at 9am on 11-17.  Register At https://lifepassiton.org/

     

    Andi Johnson joins Lincoln Ware on WDBZ and today they discuss November Events for Life Center.

     

    Community Heroes is a special extension of This Thing Called Life’s podcast. In this series we talk to community leaders, share important information about organ and tissue donation and honor those who have been instrumental in saving lives through the gift of donation.

     

    Resources:

    Register For Free at https://lifepassiton.org/communitybreakfast/

    https://lifepassiton.org/

    https://www.facebook.com/LifeCenterOH

    Life Center Phone # 513-558-5555



    6 min
  • Episode 33: We Got The Call, And A Friendship Was Formed with Renee Paige and Sarah Green

    November is the month of National Donor Sabbath, where people of all faiths highlight organ donation within their places of worship. During this episode of This Thing Called Life podcast, host Andi Johnson talks with Renee Paige and Sarah Green who have a beautiful connection that formed a few years ago, tune in for this inspiring story!

     

    Episode Highlights: 

    • Renee and Sarah recall the details of meeting each other for the first time when they received kidney transplants from the same donor on the same day.
  • They both share their belief in God and how they knew they had a connection.
  • Did you know that lupus can cause renal failure? Renee shares her journey with it.
  • Sarah shares what brought her to the place of needing a kidney transplant and how she wrestled with the news.
  • Diabetes and hypertension are precursors to kidney disease.
  • Andi emphasizes that Kidney disease is a silent killer and many want to be in denial.
  • Renee recalls her thoughts about transplant donation prior to her journey with it.
  • Some have a fear of death and therefore just don’t want to address the topic of organ donation.
  • Sarah shares her time of working in the medical field starting as a candy striper and how she learned the purpose of organ donation.
  • Renee and Sarah share about how they got to go through the whole process of receiving an organ together. They are each other’s kidney champions of support.
  • If you received an organ, what would you say to your donor’s family? Renee and Sarah share their responses.
  • After receiving a kidney transplant, new freedom is achieved. Renee and Sarah explain the difference between before and after. 
  • When you are vulnerable and share your journey, more people can relate, be encouraged, and be motivated to address their own health issues too.
  • There are opportunities to advocate for the organ donation process, support others who are on that journey, and offer hope.
  • How does kidney donation impact people of color?
  • For those that are waiting for an organ, keep the faith. It can happen for you. Don’t feel as though you have a death sentence. When you open your eyes each day, be thankful and keep moving forward.
  • By signing your name as an organ donor, you can save lives. Educate yourself on the importance of organ donation.
  • There are more than 90,000 men, women, and children in need of life-saving kidney transplants in our country today.

    •  

    3 Key Points:

    1. There are many misconceptions about organ donation that cause resistance to being organ donors. Renee and Sarah share how their viewpoints on the matter changed. 
  • Doctors and medical teams' only duty is to save lives. The donation piece is secondary and it’s not until death has been declared that organ donation becomes a part of the end of life conversation.
  • Renee and Sarah share the limitations of living life on dialysis three days a week and the freedom they have after being given a second chance at life through kidney donation. 

    •  

    Resources Mentioned:

    • LifeCenter | website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube|  Twitter
  • Andi Johnson  website |LinkedIn 
  • Organ Donation Website
  • https://www.donatelife.net/nmdam/
  • Life Center’s Community Breakfast Virtual Edition will be November 17th 9-10am EST: This is a free event, open to the public, register at lifepassiton.org.




    • 49 min
  • This Thing Called Life: Community Heroes 17: Life Center’s Community Breakfast, Will Be Virtual This Year On November 17, 2021 at 9am. Join us To Hear Some Amazing Uplifting Stories

    Life Center’s Community Breakfast, Will Be Virtual This Year On November 17, 2021 at 9am. Join us To Hear Some Amazing Uplifting Stories  

     

    Community Heroes is a special extension of This Thing Called Life’s podcast. In this series we talk to community leaders, share important information about organ and tissue donation and honor those who have been instrumental in saving lives through the gift of donation. 

     

    Resources:

    Register For Free at https://lifepassiton.org/communitybreakfast/

    https://lifepassiton.org/

    https://www.facebook.com/LifeCenterOH

    Life Center Phone # 513-558-5555



    2 min
  • Episode 32: October Is National Liver Awareness Month And We Wanted To Re-Share The Episode With Liver Recipient John Mock

    During this episode of This Thing Called Life, host Andi Johnson speaks with John Mock, a salesman for a large wheelchair manufacturer. His life took a turn two years ago when his liver failed after 56 years of perfect health. It took a ridiculous set of miracles for John to get his new liver, but he did, and his story is absolutely inspiring!

     

    Episode Highlights: 

    • John details his background as a traveling sales manager for a large wheelchair manufacturer.
  • John discusses the moment, two years ago, when he realized that something was wrong with his liver.
  • The doctors could not figure out what was going on with John’s liver because he passed all tests that they could throw at him.
  • The ammonia build-up from liver failure was taking away John’s ability to focus.
  • Excessive sleeping led John to the conclusion that something was definitely going wrong.
  • John’s liver specialist sent him to the University of Cincinnati’s transplant program.
  • MELD (Model for Endstage Liver Disease) goes from 6 (years to live) to 40 (death); John was a 24.
  • After some mini-miracles, John was able to accelerate the process of getting on the transplant waiting list.
  • A battery of tests and blood work stood between John and getting on the transplant list.
  • Expecting a long wait to get on the list to get the tests run, a cancellation got John in for his test two days after his acceptance into the program.
  • Canceling the family vacation was tough, but John had to be close enough to get to the hospital.
  • John was accepted onto the transplant list and found a donor within the same day.
  • Recipients have to manage their expectations because there is a chance the organ is not a good match.
  • It was important for John to reach out to the family of the donor to express his gratitude and condolences.
  • Only 6 weeks after his surgery, John was on a plane to his national sales meeting in Colorado.
  • Relying on others for everything was incredibly humbling for John as a natural go-getter.
  • 27 days after his surgery, John and his family were able to meet his donor family and they hit it off.
  • The liver that John has now is not his own, but has been inside two other people along the way.
  • It’s incredibly difficult to have a healthy relationship between the recipient and the donor family.
  • What it was like connecting with his donor family and how hard it remains for them to this day.
  • If both sides can see that through donation, it can help both sides move forward.
  • The gift of life is shared between two families, two worlds really, in the case of organ donation.
  • It all starts with the decision that two people do not have to die.
  • You see life from a completely different perspective when you come so close to death.
  • John works tirelessly as an advocate to make sure that his donor’s family would be proud.
  • Hope doesn’t get people to become donors, but it is a strategy.
  • Anyone can be a registered organ donor and give hope to someone in need.

    •  

    3 Key Points:

    1. John’s life completely changed when his liver failed two years ago. Through some mini-miracles, John was able to get in front of the board of the University of Cincinnati’s transplant program.
  • Organ recipients tend to question what they have done to deserve to live and why someone else had to die. The harsh reality of life sets in at some point.
  • It’s incredibly humbling when your body and mind stop you from doing certain things and you are forced to rely on others to do things for you.

    •  

    Resources Mentioned:

    • LifeCenter (website) (Facebook) (Instagram) (YouTube) (Twitter)
  • Andi Johnson (website) (LinkedIn)
  • John Mock (Facebook) 
  • Hope is Not a Strategy - Book
  • United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS)
  • University of Cincinnati Medical Center
    • 53 min
  • This Thing Called Life: Community Heroes 16: Did You Know You Can Donate A Part Of Your Liver?

    Did You Know You Can Donate A Part Of Your Liver? Andi and Lincoln Ware Of WDBZ Discuss, in this episode of Community Heroes. 

    Lincoln Ware and Andi Johnson discuss Life Centers involvement in the community educating and advocating for those in need of a transplant.  In this episode they focus on expressing gratitude for the employees of the BMV who are on the front line of creating awareness for the opportunity to become an organ, eye and tissue donor.  

    Community Heroes is a special extension of This Thing Called Life’s podcast. In this series we talk to community leaders, share important information about organ and tissue donation and honor those who have been instrumental in saving lives through the gift of donation.

    Resources:

    https://lifepassiton.org/ 

    https://lifepassiton.org/who-we-are/leadership/ 

    https://www.facebook.com/LifeCenterOH 

    513-558-5555

    Americantransplantfoundation.org

    Liverfoundation.org



    9 min
  • Episode 31: Kidney Disease Can Be A Silent Organ Killer, With Dr. Govil

    During this episode of This Thing Called Life podcast, host Andi Johnson talks to Dr. Govil,who has been in health care for many years, specifically working in the area of kidneys and kidney health He is a professor of medicine at UC Health as well as Director of Transplant and Chief Section of Transplantation. 

     

    Episode Highlights: 

    • Dr. Govil shares has been in this field for over 20 years and he has dedicated more than 15 years of that time to take care of patients needing kidney transplants.
  • Dr. Govil shares why he chose this area of medicine to practice in.
  • One of Dr. Govil’s first exposures as a medical resident was with a patient who had trace protein in the urine. All of them, as residents, ignored that component of lab finding and did not realize that their finding was a world-renowned figure in diabetic kidney disease.
  • One in six of the US population is at risk for kidney disease, and more importantly, one in 10 out of the US has some element of kidney disease or chronic kidney disease.
  • Dr. Govil says kidney disease is very silent. You may only have pain in the kidneys when you have physical problems like kidney stones or any cyst that is hurting you. 
  • The only way you discover kidney disease is through the blood test and routine numbers analysis.
  • Diet does play a role in making kidney disease worse or stable, but a lot of that has to be done with how we manage our primary disease, which is causing kidney disease. 
  • It is very difficult to ask one patient to stop eating salt because everything we eat around us is loaded with salt, and it is very difficult to break that cycle, says Dr. Govil.
  • Andi asks, “Is this kidney disease more prevalent here in America, or is it more prevalent in other parts of the world?”
  • There are definitely certain aspects of kidney disease that we do not understand, which means that they may have familial clustering, says Dr. Govil.
  • As we progress, we now can identify certain genes that make one more prone to have kidney disease, which does not mean that everyone who has it will present with it.
  • Andi asks about Dr. Govil’s experience specifically, “Do you see more of Caucasian patients? Do they seem to have more success in identifying living kidney donors? And if so, why do you think that is?”
  • When we look at the transplant or people who are receiving dialysis, 1/3 of them are African American, which means that there is definitely more propensity of any disease in this group of patients than any other group.
  • Dr. Govil says, “When we look at the number of people on the list compared to the people who get transplanted and then compare it to the number of people who are on dialysis, they just don't add up completely.”
  • Dr. Govil clarifies the myth that kidney donation can harm a donor in the short run and in the long term.
  • As per Dr. Govil, education is the key, and that is what he feels when he goes to multiple outreach clinics in the tri-state area, and he realizes a lot of these barriers are related to misinformation.
  • Dr. Govil gives recommendations for keeping your kidneys healthy.
  • Don't count on kidney pain as one of the symptoms because kidney pain really is not a symptom of kidney disease -that is just a mechanical problem, which could be because of a stone in the kidney or some cyst.
  • Diseases are frightening in many aspects; These are things that could be prevented if we took the proper steps and proactively saw our doctors.
  • Changes in organ allocation will generally increase some of the volume, but it will definitely increase the volume for certain centers to do more transplants.
  • A donor that may have hepatitis is now able to give organs to the patient in need of a transplant, and then that can be treated, says Andi.
  • The dialysis survival is really dismal over a period of time. So, a 10-year survival on dialysis is around 10%.

    •  

    3 Key Points:

    1. Dr. Govil explains what leads someone to having kidney failure. We have to realize that the kidneys are affected by a lot of things that happen in our body, whether it be high blood pressure, diabetes, or any other changes that may be related to some problems happening at the level of the kidney itself.
  • Kidney disease means we are in a tier of the kidney, which is a very silent process and so essentially, your kidneys really do not have to hurt and actually they do not hurt at all when you fail your kidneys over a period of time.
  • If we have a healthy, balanced diet to stabilize our diabetes and high blood pressure, it will indirectly help keep our kidneys happy and healthy.

    •  

    Resources Mentioned:

    • LifeCenter | website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube|  Twitter
  • Andi Johnson  website |LinkedIn 
  • Organ Donation Website 
  • https://www.donatelife.net/nmdam/



    • 48 min
  • This Thing Called Life: Community Heroes 15: Honoring The Men & Women Of The BMV (DMV)

    It’s National BMV (DMV) Appreciation month, And We Want To Recognize Their Commitment To The Donate Life Mission In This Interview with Lincoln Ware on WDBZ

     

    Lincoln Ware and Andi Johnson discuss Life Centers involvement in the community educating and advocating for those in need of a transplant.  In this episode they focus on expressing gratitude for the employees of the BMV who are on the front line of creating awareness for the opportunity to become an organ, eye and tissue donor.  

     

    Community Heroes is a special extension of This Thing Called Life’s podcast. In this series we talk to community leaders, share important information about organ and tissue donation and honor those who have been instrumental in saving lives through the gift of donation. 

    Resources:

    https://lifepassiton.org/ 

    https://lifepassiton.org/who-we-are/leadership/ 

    https://www.facebook.com/LifeCenterOH 

    513-558-5555



    4 min
  • Episode 30: Leaders Driving Awareness Of Kidney Donation with Debbie Hayes

    During this episode of This Thing Called Life podcast, host Andi Johnson talks to Debbie Hayes. She is a healthcare leader in Cincinnati, and specifically she leads a number one ranked hospital in the Cincinnati region. Tune in to hear her experiences and perspective on kidney donation.

     

    Episode Highlights: 

    • Debbie began as a nurse at Christ Hospital. She worked her way up to being CEO, also led the Board of Directors at LifeCenter Organ Donor Network for 9-10years. 
  • She started her career 34 years ago as a student nurse aide. The one thing that always amazed her about this organization is that you are given opportunities to grow and develop your talents.
  • The pandemic was one of the most challenging times in the history of healthcare, but it has also been one of the most rewarding times. Because of the extraordinary efforts of an incredible team of people working they have still kept that mission of the organization at the forefront of everything that they do despite every challenge.
  • “We are definitely grateful for all of our hospital partners throughout our service area who are able to facilitate organ, eye, and tissue donation”, says Andi.
  • Many people who have organ failures of any kind are not able to fully experience what life is all about,which is why Debbie is passionate about this.
  • Andi inquires, during the pandemic, “Did that affect patients waiting for kidney transplants at Christ Hospital?”
  • One of the trends that she has noticed during her time at the Life Center is that living kidney donation continues to increase. Debbie explains her thoughts about why we are seeing more people making that choice to be a living kidney donor.
  • Andi had the opportunity to interview a young woman who was actually waiting for a kidney, and she was listed at Christ, and she just could not say enough about what a positive experience has been with her team there.
  • There are probably a million-plus surgeries that occur in the country requiring donor tissue, which is very interesting. 
  • Andi recalls a story about  a young woman who was a volunteer and ambassador, and she has been waiting for a kidney for about three years, and unfortunately, she passed away. But she was able to be a cornea donor, and it just meant so much to her husband and young daughter. 
  • Debbie talks about who/what experience has helped shape her into the leader she has become.
  • Andi asks Debbie to give advice to someone who is just starting out in their career in healthcare and may be inspired to lead a healthcare system down the road. 

    •  

    3 Key Points:

    1. Debbie shares how she maintains the passion for the work that she has been doing. She was recently named CEO of the Christ Hospital after serving as interim for a period of time, and just as an outsider looking in, it seems like health care leaders don’t tend to stay put with this same place for so long. She shares what it is that kept her at Christ all of this time.
  • During the pandemic, things at the LifeCenter were quite dramatic. Debbie talks about the changes they have had to undergo during this time to attract people to sign up to be donors. 
  • There are about 750,000 people a year in the United States that have kidney failure. If we could get a transplant for every single one of those patients when they needed it, wouldn’t that really make an impact in the United States?

    •  

    Resources Mentioned:

    • LifeCenter | website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube|  Twitter
  • Andi Johnson  website |LinkedIn 
  • Organ Donation Website 
  • https://www.donatelife.net/nmdam/



    • 37 min
  • Episode 29: A Lifetime Of Dealing With Kidney Disease with Karyn Frost
    During this episode of This Thing Called Life podcast, host Andi Johnson talks with Karyn Frost. This Thing Called Life introduces you to powerful stories about organ, eye, and tissue donation from individuals, families, and health care teams whose experiences will inspire you and remind you that while life is hard, unpredictable, and imperfect, but also beautiful. Tune in to hear Karyn’s story!
    52 min

About This Thing Called Life

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This Thing Called Life is a podcast dedicated to acts of giving, kindness, compassion, and humanity. Host Andi Johnson introduces you to powerful organ, tissue, and eye donation stories from…