Young man has new kidney, new attitude

Michael Noble is living a pretty typical life for a 20-year-old college student. Snowboarding and skateboarding. Going to class. Hanging out in his apartment.

And that is what he considers so remarkable.

Two years ago Noble, a healthy Colorado Springs teenager, was living it up during his senior year and getting ready to start college when a rare disease landed him in the hospital. He recovered, but his kidneys did not.

In an instant, a life of snowboarding, working at a pizza parlor, and lazing with friends turned to one of crippling fatigue and dialysis treatments.

Today, about seven months after Noble received a kidney from his uncle, his life is back on its intended course, only now with a deeper appreciation of what he has.

“It wasn’t a good experience, but it was a defining one,” Noble said. “I have a different outlook on life ... You know, when you have a second chance at life, you appreciate everything more, because you don’t know what you have until you lose it.”

Noble recently celebrated his 20th birthday. Since his surgery, on May 22, he’s completed his first semester at the University of Colorado at Boulder, earning all As and Bs. He has his own apartment and a dog, Gucci. He skateboards on the half-pipe in his friend’s backyard, and he’s returned to the slopes this winter.

Noble’s uncle, Rich Noble, 59, said giving up a kidney for his nephew was no big deal.
“It’s not something I think a whole lot about,” he said. “It needed to be done, I did it, and got on with my life.”

Both Michael and Rich said they were for the most part back on track after just a few days in the hospital.
Michael Noble’s kidneys were ruined by Wegener’s granulomatosis, which inflames the blood vessels and restricts blood flow to critical organs, in January 2008. He initially received dialysis through a grueling, 3-day a week routine at a local dialysis center. Later, he underwent peritoneal dialysis, a home-administered version.

The Noble family received an outpouring of support from Colorado Springs, said Michael Noble’s mother, Elba. Fundraisers collected more than $25,000, which is in an account held through the National Foundation for Transplants. If not all the money is needed, it will eventually go to help other transplant patients.

One donor gave the family money directly and told them to use it for something special and nonmedical. They took a family vacation to Fort Lauderdale. That trip, Michael Noble said, was when he realized what it was like to be healthy again.
“It really hit me then,” he said, “when I was laying on the beach with my family not worrying about anything.”

Noble’s worries aren’t gone entirely. For now, his expensive anti-rejection medications are covered by Medicare, but his mother says current rules cut off funding after three years. Donations would buy him some time, but the drugs cost a few thousand per month.

Still, worrying about money is a far cry from his pre-transplant worries. Would he find a match? Would dialysis sap his strength?

Today, he appreciates what it’s like to walk to class “without a tube hanging out of you.”
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