Diana McGuire, Associate Professor of Dietetics at Brigham Young University, answers that question with a resounding "Yes!" She has been living with her brother's kidney for almost 36 years, and living very well at that.

Diana was the guest speaker at a Patient Conference hosted by the National Kidney Foundation of Utah & Idaho for dialysis and transplant patients on January 6, held at the Salt Lake City Library, where her story gave hope and encouragement to patients in attendance.

Diana's story started in her small farming town in Idaho and in 1968 -- her senior year in high school -- she felt like she had "the world on a string." She was student body president, voted 'most likely to succeed,' and was the valedictorian of her class. The world was full of possibilities. And after graduation she was going to leave Idaho!

During the fall of her Freshman year at college, Diana's feet started swelling. She was diagnosed with a kidney problem, prescribed prednisone and bed rest. At 18 her world suddenly crashed, her scholarship was gone; she was just surviving to the next day, and there was fear and the "why me" question. She couldn't even cry because her eyes would swell shut.

Long story short, after many months of touch and go, swelling, liquid actually seeping through her skin on her bed, and having lungs tapped to drain the fluid, her family was told about a new procedure called peritoneal dialysis that might save her life. She would be the 20th patient to try this. Her family had to build a room to house the large tub and its coils and tubes. Three days a week her mother filled and emptied the tub -- a six hour process, and in the end it could only remove 3 lbs. of fluid. Diana continued to be in very poor health, very anemic, had congestive heart failure and bone disease, and 85 lbs thin.

Even in that condition, she still wanted to get her education and asked to return to BYU.. A dialysis nurse was found and trained, and the machinery moved to the BYU Health Center.

Kidney transplants were new and still very much experimental, and Diana was told she was in no condition at that time. Determined, she met with a senior dietetics student who helped her with a healthy eating plan so she could prepare for a transplant.

When her health finally improved after 1 1/2 years of dialysis, her brother offered, was tested and proved to be a 4 antigen match. They were told they had a 95% chance of success. The transplant took place on May 27, 1971. After 24 hours, she had perfect blood tests -- and the rest is history.

In May of 1976 Diana graduated with her master's degree in Dietetics and Nutrition from BYU. She had married in March, was pregnant with her first child, and gave the co-valedictory address! She and her husband, __________, have since had 4 more children, and Diana remains the transplant recipient in the nation who has had the most pregnancies and live births.

Is this a dream come true? Another resounding "yes" is the answer. Thirty-eight years ago Diana would have never imagined what her life has been.

What would she tell other patients? What is the secret to her success? Besides being obsessive compulsive about taking her medications and watching her weight, Diana listed four things:

1. Don't give up; life has lots of twists and turns. Don't view it as a lost life. I learned things I couldn't have learned any other way. I so wanted to go to college, it made my education very valuable to me.
2. Seek for independence and growth; take control of your situation and care.
3. Keep faith in a high power. Sometimes that was all that kept me going.
4. You're not alone. In the dark of night when it feels like you are; reach out and find others.