Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 28, 1990 TAG: 9003280048
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: COVINGTON LENGTH: Long
The Alleghany High senior remembers April 1989 as the month her life nearly came to an end.
"I couldn't tell, but people could tell I was sick," she said. "I was turning yellow."
"Maybe we should have noticed more," said Mike Wolfe, a guidance counselor at Alleghany. "For a couple of weeks, Kellie was so quiet. I remember I kept thinking how quiet she was. I might have thought she was neurotic about school, but Kellie likes school and people so much."
Bonnie Plott noticed her daughter's yellow coloring but attributed it to spending so much time playing softball in the sun.
Kellie and her twin sister, Jodie, play softball, basketball and volleyball at Alleghany. While Jodie Plott has never missed a beat, Kellie is just returning to softball after having a kidney transplant in October.
The Plotts' ordeal began April 26, 1989.
"She was supposed to play softball that day, but she got sick," said Bonnie. "I came to school to get her because they thought she had appendicitis."
It was more serious than that.
"By 10 p.m. she was on dialysis machine," Bonnie said.
"If I had played in that game, I might have died," said Kellie.
Jodie Plott did play softball that day, even after Kellie had gone to the hospital.
"My dad [Bobby] came by [during the game] and told me Kellie had kidney failure, that she was on machines," she said. "Then he went back to the hospital.
"I went back on the field. I thought, `Machines, failure?' I started talking to other team members. And I broke. I played, but I just went through the motions."
Doctors still aren't sure what happened to Kellie, her mother said.
"There were virtually no kidneys," Bonnie said. "She had the piece of one. That was it. Doctors said this wasn't the usual pattern for this type of kidney disease, that a biopsy wouldn't tell us what happened."
There were some telltale signs that something was wrong. Kellie is nearly deaf, and sometimes that can come from kidney disease.
"If someone shouts at me from the hall, I might not know it," said Kellie, who is an accomplished lip reader but has a slight speech impediment.
In sports, Jodie makes sure her sister knows when the coaches want to signal or talk to her. Or the coaches shout loudly enough to get Kellie's attention.
As an eighth-grader, Kellie had high blood pressure. One doctor suggested a kidney test, but before it was done, that physician died. Other doctors didn't think there was a problem, Bonnie said.
Kellie's comeback from that problem has been amazing.
Bonnie kept her out of volleyball during the winter, even though doctors cleared her to play. "I was afraid of her sliding around on the floor on her stomach," Bonnie said.
"The doctors were irritated with me when I wouldn't let her play volleyball," she added. "I told Kellie she could play softball."
So what happens if Kellie slides home in a cloud of dust a la Pete Rose? "It's my favorite slide," said Kellie, "but the doctors said, `No head-first slides.' "
Bonnie can't help worrying about her daughter.
"I try to keep my senses," she said. "If the doctors say she can do it, I let her do it. But you worry all the time."
Even Kellie has been surprised by her recovery.
"I feel better, stronger," she said. "I noticed a lot of difference in my softball [from last year]. The first time I got up to bat, I didn't think I'd be able to hit the ball. I did. I shocked myself."
The outlook is bright now, but it wasn't that way when the Plotts discovered what had happened to Kellie.
"I thought I was going to die," she said. "The doctors wouldn't give me an answer. They wouldn't tell me. With dialysis [three times a week for three or four hours each session] I didn't get better. The pain went away. But I still always felt sick."
And there was a special diet. No cheese, so no pizza, which is Kellie's favorite food. "The first thing I ate after I had the transplant was pizza," she said.
The doctors told Kellie she would have to have a transplant. All the members of her family were tested for a match, but only Bonnie and Jodie proved to be suitable donors.
The doctors, though, didn't want to use them unless the situation became critical. Instead, they sought another donor, keeping the family members available in case Kellie rejected her new kidney.
Meanwhile, Kellie had asked if she would ever be able to participate in sports again. The answer was no. It was a bleak picture for a teenager.
"Last summer was awful," she said. "It's the worst summer I've ever had."
It wasn't just the illness; Kellie also had to wait for a donor.
"Not knowing when we were going or when they would call for a transplant was tough," said Bonnie. "We were on five [donor] lists."
But while Kellie was waiting for a suitable donor, she contracted a blood infection and was removed from the lists of possible donors.
"One of the nurses, Laura Meadows, found out there was a possible donor and called Kellie's doctor to get her put back on the list," said Bonnie. "They told Laura not to call us to get our hopes up in case we weren't selected."
For Kellie, the call came earlier than it does for many patients with kidney disease.
"I've known a lot of people who went to dialysis until their 30s and then died. I had 12-13 years [left]," said Kellie, who got to know a lot of case histories while taking the treatments.
There always is the fear that the body will reject a transplant, necessitating more surgery. To combat possible rejection, Kellie takes medication that costs more than $200 every 10 days.
"We needed a lot of paper work to get the medicine. Some places wouldn't handle it," said Bonnie. "But Farrah's drug store has, so we can get the medicine anytime we need it."
The Plotts don't know much about the donor whose kidneys have put Kellie back on the field.
"They wouldn't tell us the name of the girl," said Bonnie. "Just that she was 16 years old from Winchester who had a tragic death.
"I've thought about [trying to find out the name of the girl and] writing. But then how do you write a letter to someone who has lost so much while we've gained so much?"
by CNB