Karen Zabriskie, Familiar Face at Rockaway Township’s Lake Telemark, Needs a Kidney Donor

Karen Zabriskie has lived in Rockaway her whole life, and on weekends you can usually find her walking around Lake Telemark in Rockaway Township. Now the 56-year-old is asking her neighbors for help: she needs a living kidney donor.

The fastest way to help is Karen’s National Kidney Registry page, nkr.org/TMA633, which has her story and the application to become a donor. Kidney advocate Donna Tissot shared Karen’s story with Rockaway News, and Karen answered our questions in her own words. “I give permission to anyone who is willing to share my story,” she wrote.

A disease that runs in the family

Karen has polycystic kidney disease, a genetic condition she inherited from her father. She has known about it since she was 17, and she has been on the transplant waiting list for two years.

Her family has been here before. In 1999, her brother, her only sibling, donated a kidney to their father. Her father passed away in 2017, but Karen credits that transplant with giving the family years they might never have had.

“The gift of donation from my brother allowed us 18 years with my father that we may not have had otherwise,” she wrote. “In addition, my father lived long enough to watch my oldest son graduate from college and get married!”

This time, the family can’t step in. “Many people ask if my immediate family will donate,” Karen wrote. “Unfortunately all of my immediate family have been disqualified from donating for health reasons.”

Life before dialysis

Karen is not on dialysis yet, but the disease shapes her days. “I’m fortunate in the sense that I am not on dialysis yet, but I do have to plan my days around doctor appointments and medical testing,” she wrote. “I try to stay with kidney friendly foods so I can try to maintain the function I do have in order to stay off of dialysis for as long as possible.”

Timing matters. Karen said her doctors have told her that finding a donor before she starts dialysis will help the long-term success of a transplant, because dialysis can be hard on the body and wear it down.

Why a living donor

Karen is also on the deceased donor list. Her transplant team told her the average wait for a kidney is about five years, but people with blood type B, like Karen, tend to wait the longest, so her wait could stretch to seven or eight years.

According to what her transplant team has told her, a living donor has real advantages over waiting for a deceased donor, including higher success rates and a procedure that can be planned ahead instead of a sudden rush to the hospital. Karen added that, as she understands it, kidneys from living donors typically last longer than kidneys from deceased donors.

A Rockaway life, and a neighbor from the lake

“I’ve lived in Rockaway all of my life,” Karen wrote. “I actually purchased the home I grew up in from my father.”

“I love how the community pulls together when someone is in need,” she added, pointing to the many fundraisers she has seen for neighbors who needed help finding a home or a job.

Her weekend walks around Lake Telemark are part of that. “I’m always greeted with a smile, a wave, or a hello!” she wrote.

One of those walking neighbors went further. “We only knew each other from walks around the lake and yet she felt compelled to be tested,” Karen wrote. “Unfortunately, she was unable to donate for health reasons, but I am so very grateful that she tried!”

How to help Karen find a kidney donor

Start here: www.nkr.org/TMA633

Karen is registered with the National Kidney Registry (NKR), which set up that page with her story and a link to the donor application. “That would be the starting point for anyone interested,” she wrote. “It seems like a great program. They have a great deal of information and support available for potential donors.”

Here is what Karen wants potential donors to know, in her words and from her NKR experience:

• Talk to a mentor first. Anyone curious can ask to speak with an NKR donor mentor before applying. “The mentor can explain the entire process and what to expect,” Karen wrote. “Then the potential donor can decide if it’s right for them.”
• Costs are addressed. NKR’s Donor Shield program helps provide funds for the donor’s lost wages and lodging, among other benefits.
• Your blood type doesn’t have to match. Through NKR’s paired exchange, a willing donor who isn’t a match for Karen can donate to someone else who needs a kidney, and Karen then receives a voucher from NKR for a kidney from another donor. “So, basically, it’s like ‘swapping donors’ so to speak,” Karen wrote.
• Share her story. Flyers are up in local storefronts and on social media. “I believe that the farther my story goes, the better chance I have at finding a living donor,” Karen wrote. “Anything they can do to help spread the word would be greatly appreciated and helpful!”

Questions about whether donating is right for you are best answered by NKR’s donor mentors and medical team, through Karen’s page at nkr.org/TMA633.

What Karen is hoping for

Karen’s father got to see his grandson grow up. She wants the same chance. “My hope is to find a kidney so I can be healthy enough to watch my grandson grow and graduate college (just like my father did with his grandson, my son),” she wrote.

She also wants to keep doing the things she loves: her walks around the lake and in nature, and maybe some vacations and “adventures” with her family.

Neighbors who want to help in another way this fall can also give blood at the Rockaway Township blood drive on Nov. 6.