Southwest Transplant Alliance

Angel Flight, an organization which arranges free air transportation for charitable and medical needs, shuttled her down to Galveston for the operation.

The operation that she needed would give her the freedom she had praying for over the last 28 years.

But on Sept. 21, while waiting to be picked up at the airport, the medical staff called to tell her the donated pancreas she was supposed to receive wasn't transplantable.

"It was disheartening," she said. "To get so close."

Disappointed, Jackson returned home to Big Spring -- back to her almost daily treatments at the dialysis center and her insulin pump.

She said she knew the setback happened for a reason, and that the right organ would come along.

A second call came Saturday, Nov. 10, telling her that again she had received the donated organs and to come to Galveston right away.

But, Jackson said, she didn't get too excited about it, in case the hospital called again to tell her the transplant wouldn't work.

The hospital did call, but this time with good news.

"It is a go?" she asked her doctor over the phone trying not to get her hopes up.

"Yes," he replied. "It is a go."

------

'My pancreas died'

Last May, Jackson's name was added to the transplant list. It was among the 96,000 people on the list in the United States, with more than 7,000 being from Texas.

Statistics show on average a new name is added every 13 minutes, and, 17 people die each day waiting for a transplant.

Doctors told her she would probably need to wait six months.

The 36-year-old Big Spring native has suffered from Type 1 diabetes since elementary school.

Some studies show diabetes is passed genetically, but Jackson said her immediate family has no history of the disease.

Her doctors, she said, believed she contracted the disease after a childhood illness.

When she was 8 years old, Jackson was hospitalized with a virus. While normal blood sugar levels are between 80 and 120, tests showed the young girl's levels to be at 1,500.

"Organs," she said. "Start shutting down at 1,200."

Jackson slipped into a coma for a month and remained at the hospital for a couple of months.

That's when she said her pancreas died.

------

'Diabetes is like cancer'

For years after that incident, Jackson has had to wear an insulin pump to regulate her blood sugar.

She's taken it to school. She's had it on when she went shopping or to the movies with friends. She's even worn it to work where she was a bookkeeper.

It became a part of her life.

But then, in 2005, while monitoring her blood sugar levels, she noticed those levels started to bottom out.

The then 33-year-old was found unconscious by family and friends and taken to the emergency room.

She spent a few days at the Big Spring Hospital before the doctors released her.

But a few days after being home, she noticed her skin starting to split. Her body began swelling all over and she had trouble breathing.

Her mother rushed her again to the emergency room, this time to Midland Memorial.

Sitting in the hospital bed with an extra 22 pounds of fluid on her less than 120-pound body, the staff gave her diuretics to reduce the swelling. They were afraid it would overwhelm her heart.

Her doctor came in and she remembers clearly the conversation they had that day:

"You're not doing too well," he told her.

"Well, what's wrong?" she asked.

And then came the five words she hadn't expected to hear for a few more years.

"You have chronic renal failure," he said.

The words didn't come as a surprise to her. It was something she knew would eventually happen.

"Diabetes is like cancer," she said. "It takes a toll on all your organs."

Jackson spent the next year-and-a-half commuting three days a week to a dialysis treatment center in Midland 40 miles from her Big Spring home.

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, she sat hooked up to a machine for four hours a day with a graft running through her upper left arm.

She used the time to read and listen to her CDs and visit with the other patients next to her.

Jackson seemed to be getting better with the treatments.

Then in January 2007, the disorder attacked another organ. The now 36-year-old needed open heart surgery for a single bypass on the main artery leading to her heart.

"It's been a rough ride over the years," she said.

------

'I'm a fighter'

The night she got the call to come to Galveston a second time, Jackson was admitted into surgery around 6.

The surgery lasted 10 hours. It was routine, she said, because the hospital there is well-known for performing transplants.

Her family drove the 9 1/2 hours to the hospital and arrived before the staff was finished.

After the operation, she laid in a bed in the intensive care unit, strapped down so as not to move. She still has bruises from the straps.

On the fourth day when the nurses moved her to the critical care unit, she decided it was time to start moving around.

"Can I walk the halls?" she asked.

"You want to walk the halls?" she remembers the nurse asking.

"I wouldn't have asked you if I didn't," she replied.

The hospital staff was amazed at how quickly she was able to bounce back, Jackson said. They were shocked to see a kidney transplant recipient do so well.

"I wanted it for so long," she said talking about the surgery that gave her a new life. "I'm a fighter."

------

'It's a new beginning'

Jackson returned to Big Spring on Sunday, Dec. 2. Her follow-up appointments with doctors show her healing fully.

She now is pursuing some dreams that she wasn't able to when she was suffering from diabetes. Without having to go to dialysis treatment, 12 hours a week, she finds she has more time to do the things she wants to do.

First on her list is having a career; she's planning on returning to school to become a dietitian.

"I know for a kid (with diabetes) having to cut a lot of things out of your diet is a big deal," she said. "Even for adults, it's a big deal."

She also always wanted a family, she said, but wasn't able to with everything else in her life.

"I've learned to live life to the fullest, and don't take anything for granted. Life's too short," Jackson said.

When asked what she would like for Christmas, she tells her family and friends that she already got her Christmas present and doesn't need anything else.

She sits in a Midland Starbucks at a small table near the front window taking in the bustling Saturday morning crowd of Christmas shoppers.

Jackson's waiting for the barista to call out her drink -- a tall pumpkin spice latte. A slice of the restaurant's famous blueberry coffee cake sits wrapped in a paper bag near her on the table.

She can eat sweets even though years without them have drawn away cravings.

She doesn't have to worry about her blood sugar levels. She can even drink regular Cokes, she said.

It's a new beginning; a new life.

She still has to pinch herself to know that it's happened.

"I feel like a cat with nine lives," Jackson said. "The Lord has given me so many chances, and I don't know why. But I'm blessed."

Myths/facts about organ transplants:

Myth: If emergency room doctors know you're an organ donor, they won't work as hard to save you.

Fact: If you are sick or injured and admitted to the hospital, the number one priority is to save your life. Organ donation can only be considered if you die and your family has been consulted.

Myth: Having "organ donor" noted on your driver's license or carrying a donor card is all you have to do to become a donor.

Fact: While a signed donor card and a driver's license with an "organ donor" designation are legal documents, organ and tissue donation always is discussed with family members prior to the donation. To ensure your family understands your wishes, it is important to share your decision to donate life.

Myth: When you're waiting for a transplant, your financial status or celebrity status is as important as your medical status.

Fact: When you are on the transplant waiting list for a donor organ, what really counts is the severity of your illness, time spent waiting, blood type and other important medical information.

Myth: I am 60 years old. I am too old to be a donor.

Fact: People of all ages and medical histories should consider themselves potential donors. Your medical condition at the time of death will determine what organs and tissues can be donated.

Myth: My family will be charged for donating my organs.

Fact: There is no cost to the donor's family or estate for organ and tissue donation. Funeral costs remain the responsibility of the family

------

Information provided by Pam Silvestri of the Southwest Transplant Alliance. For more information, call (800) 788-8058 or visit www.organ.org.