Sarah Ferdinand Houston’s scream at 1 a.m. was so loud it woke up everyone at the dialysis center. "Thank you, Jesus!" she shouted. After nine years of overnight dialysis three days a week, Sarah would get a healthy kidney just hours later on May 21, 2021.
Sarah knew the call was coming. She was taking a break from work for the first time in 30 years and doing everything she needed to do to stay on the transplant list. Sarah felt so optimistic, she had even packed a bag for the hospital with a handmade t-shirt on top that read, “The wait is over. I finally got the call.”
Sarah thanks Dr. Sarah Meade for helping her get to the finish line.
“I worked in the medical field, so I had so many questions,” she explains. “How does the surgery work? What are my other options? Why do I need to get vaccinated? Dr. Meade always came with a paper and would draw for me. She would explain everything and then still ask, ‘Are you sure you understand?’”
It was her trust in Dr. Meade and her faith that helped Sarah pull through two difficult setbacks. After the transplant surgery, her new kidney took some time to “wake up,” and then she got an infection requiring emergency surgery and 12 weeks of wearing a drainage bag.
“Dr. Meade took really good care of me, but it was still hard,” she says. To help cope, Sarah would get up every day and say, “I am strong, I am healthy. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
And she has a good reason why she would repeat those statements: “I believe in the law of attraction; what you speak comes back to you.”
Sarah felt so optimistic, she had even packed a bag for the hospital with a handmade t-shirt on top that read, “The wait is over. I finally got the call.”
Today, Sarah is feeling better than ever. She enjoys crafting, eating foods she never could before and spending time with her family. “Right now, I am doing what brings me joy,” she says.
She wanted to share all the ups downs of her story to give people on dialysis hope. She encourages them to join kidney groups online (she’s part of five) and do whatever else it takes to stay positive.
Sarah doesn’t take for granted that someone had to lose their life for her to live. “I felt very sad on Thanksgiving and Christmas. There I was sitting with my family, eating a meal and laughing, and their table had an empty seat. But if this person didn’t donate, maybe my family table would be empty.”