As I begin my third year writing this column, it’s truly a “new” beginning for me. Thanks to an anonymous donor, I have a “new” kidney. The prospect of facing the remainder of life with end-stage renal disease, hooked up to a dialysis machine, has faded as I resume a normal lifestyle. I’m one of the lucky ones. There are over 33,000 people nationwide waiting for a donated kidney and approximately 250,000 on dialysis. You do the math.

I had become accustomed to my weekly routine of waking up at 6:00 a.m. and driving to the dialysis center by 7:00 a.m. three days a week, come rain or shine. Even on vacation trips, I couldn’t escape the machine and made arrangements for dialysis wherever we journeyed. Thank God for the machine as it cleansed my blood and enabled me to go on living, enjoy my family, write, fish, travel and follow an adjusted lifestyle.

A dialysis machine acts like the oil filter on your car. An operation on your arm grafts an artery to a vein and this super-sized artery then becomes an access for the dialysis needles.

One needle draws the blood from your body through a clear plastic tube and into the machine. The other is for the returning, cleansed blood that circulates back from the machine through a similar tube and reenters your blood stream. This is all done at approximately 400 revolutions per minute. Weekly and monthly blood analysis tells you how well you’re doing. Hormone injections make up for the lack of red blood cells that your kidneys no longer produce.

All of this came to a screeching halt on November 30, 2001. I was puttzing in my garage when my wife fielded a phone call. A minute later she hollered out, “you’d better get here and take this call!”

“Can’t you take a message?” I said.

She said, “Not this one!”

I answered. It was a Dr. Chao, the head surgeon for the Geisinger Medical Center transplant team in Danville, PA. He didn’t beat around the bush but let me have it straight up. “We have a kidney for you. How soon can you get here?”

I was dumbfounded. Who donated it? Why? Why me?

The only thing he would tell me, because of the need to protect the confidentiality of the donor, was that it came from a 21-year-old male who had passed away from a brain tumor. ‘Did I want it?’ he asked. Yes! How many people get a second shot at a normal lifestyle? I would be there in two hours.

My son and daughter-in-law were enlisted to drive and away I went.

The surgery took place on December 1 and I was home on December 5 at 7:00 p.m. On December 20, I was driving my car again. The greatest Christmas present of my life, the gift of life, was given to me. For those of you who have never thought of donating your organs, I know that I hadn’t, my story may give you pause to reflect upon it. If you desire more information about the nationwide donor program, consult the following: Gift of Life Donor Program, Rodin Place, Suite 201, 2000 Hamilton Street, Philadelphia, PA 19130-3813; phone 800/543-639l.