Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 18, 1994 TAG: 9409120009
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MARY JO SHANNON SPECIAL TO THE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
No longer does he need to inject insulin daily, a procedure that began when he was 5 years old and diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. No longer does he need to spend 41/2 hours three nights a week hooked up to a dialyzer to purify his blood.
Thanks to the gift of a young man from Tennessee, the disease that plagued McClanahan for 26 years, stealing his right eye and his kidneys, no longer has power over him.
Mike's personal freedom also meant freedom for those who love him - his family, and co-workers at Ewald-Clark, a Roanoke video and camera store - who watched his daily struggle and marveled at his positive outlook on life.
"No matter how bad it gets," he said in an article in the Roanoke Times & World-News on Jan. 1, 1993, "I have relatively good health. I can walk. I can see. There's nothing stopping me."
Although he did not pity himself, he did mind the uneasiness his condition caused for his parents, Jack and Sidney, and his co-workers.
"If they called the apartment, and I didn't answer, they would rush over expecting to see me passed out somewhere," he said. "I hated to cause them worry."
Sidney McClanahan described it as "being tied to the phone, on 'Mike Alert,' for 31/2 years." After Mike's recovery, she said, her friends noticed such a change in her they thought she had a new hairdo or new makeup.
Mike's younger sister, Laura, a medical technician, shared an apartment with him, and they "took care of one another." Although she also is diabetic, Laura is able to control her diabetes with an insulin pump.
Since Mike's recovery, she has been able to get an apartment of her own.
His co-workers at Ewald-Clark are like family to Mike. They say he worked hard, was enthusiastic and full of fun and never complained. He declares that Cheryl Oyler, Frank Ewald's secretary, saved his life on numerous occasions.
Diabetics can easily slip into insulin shock or suffer seizures if their blood sugar drops too low.
"I tried to find a gold LifeSaver [charm] to give Cheryl," Mike said. "When I would be late leaving for lunch, trying to finish up paper work, Cheryl would say 'Go on to lunch - do the paper work later,' knowing I had to eat regularly. Or she would hand me a horse [sugar] pill and say 'Put this in your mouth.' She'd make me take it, even if I said I was all right. She knew what I needed before I knew."
Dialysis patients qualify for Medicare, and Mike also could have qualified for Social Security Disability payments. Doing so, however, required giving up his job, which he refused to do.
"My work kept me going," he said. "I love photography and had worked as a free-lance photographer for years. They were great to me at Ewald-Clark. But I had to leave work early on the days I went for dialysis, so I called the Social Security office to see if I could receive compensation for the hours I missed. I found I either had to quit work or get my boss to lie and say I was not doing my regular job to qualify. There was no way I could get partial compensation. I think there is something wrong with the system."
His doctors tried to persuade him to settle for just a kidney transplant, which would be more readily available, instead of holding out for both kidney and pancreas, but Mike was determined to go all the way.
"I was 31 years old," he explained. "A kidney might only last 20 years and I would be facing the same thing again. My sisters [Jackie Porter, 33, Sally Jackson, 32] offered to give me a kidney, but Laura might need a transplant some day. Or they may some day have their own diabetic problems."
He chose the evening shift at Bio Medical Applications for his dialysis so he could continue his work at Ewald-Clark throughout the three-year wait for a double transplant.
"Dad would come with my supper at 7 and we would watch 'Wheel of Fortune' and 'Jeopardy,'" he recalled. Sometimes, his father rubbed his legs to help relieve the cramps that often occur during dialysis.
When one of his dialysis friends died two months after receiving a kidney transplant, Sidney said, Mike came over and told her, "I know this has you upset, but I want you to know I realize this might happen and I want to do it anyway."
That made her feel much better, she said.
The hospital call
Mike wore a beeper to link him to the University of Virginia
Medical Center so he could be reached immediately should a compatible donor be found. His call came around 2 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 15, 1993.
"At first, I thought my mother was calling me -maybe Granny was sick," he said. But the message was to call the Medical Center, which told him to come to Charlottesville immediately. He called his dad to see if he could take him, notified his sisters, and woke Cheryl Oyler and her husband to say he wouldn't be at work "Monday, or Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday or Friday or Monday or Tuesday ..."
Cheryl understood immediately.
The surgery took nine hours. Mike remained in the hospital at Charlottesville for seven weeks. His mother rented a room and stayed during the week, and his dad came on weekends. Mike says he knows God watched over him during the surgery and afterward.
"It's normal for new kidneys to take a day or two before they begin to function," he said. "Mine started off right away."
He experienced a slight rejection at first, which is expected, but soon adjusted and has done exceptionally well for a year now.
He continues to take medication to avoid rejection - 42 pills a day - and will for the rest of his life. He realizes that rejection could still occur, but his philosophy is "not to worry about something until you know there's something to worry about."
Support
While he was in the hospital, Mike was amazed at the number of cards and letters he received, many from people he didn't know.
"I had stacks over four feet high," he said.
Some were from friends of friends. Many had read the article in the paper and sent their best wishes. He was especially touched by cards from the children in day care at Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley.
"Man, this was wonderful," he said. "All those kids - they had no idea who I was. And some people sent in money to help with the expenses."
Expenses were and continue to be great, although Blue Cross agreed to cover most of the transplant expense. Virginia Heights Baptist Church established a fund to help with his medical expenses, and the Loudon Avenue Christian Church held a fund-raising event for him. Other friends also have contributed.
Mike plans to continue working at Ewald-Clark. He also will continue to help exercise the big cats - tigers and cougars - at Pet City. He began photographing them years ago, and owners Charlie and Flora Harvey, noting his love and lack of fear of the animals, gave him a key to the shop. He is the only one they trust to take the animals out. Caring for them helped relieve his depression when he was on dialysis.
Mike was engaged at one time to a girl who was in the military reserves. She was called to Portsmouth during the Gulf War and married someone else. Afterward, he decided it wouldn't be fair to date anyone - "I didn't want anyone to have to put up with my problems."
But now even that might change.
"If I find someone I can be serious about, she won't have as much to put up with," he said.
by CNB