Standing in Front...
My name is James Craig
Shreeve. I grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere called St. Johns. Life was simple, no hustle and bustle of the big city. To this day there aren't any stop-lights. It is a very tight-knit community, and everyone knows each other. When I was younger I pictured myself leading armies, or a nation. I dreamed of being Superman or Batman. Maybe it was the really cool cape, powers, or gadgets that i was fascinated by. I never thought that I would actually be called a hero. Maybe when I was younger I thought of those things, dreamt of them, wished I could just fly away.
Life did was it tends to do and I kind of grew up.
I was about eight years old when I met Elijah
Caine Bargo. The first thing I remember hearing about him was that someone hit him in the head with a rock or baseball at the Little League field. I remember laughing with some friends or my brother as the ambulance sped away. Little did I know how trips like that would change my life for good.
As time went on I started hanging out with Eli and other friends at recess. We would play the Pokemon card games and get all jazzed up about who had what card. Eli would always top whatever it was we had, but never showed his cards and never wanted to trade. It wasn't until later years that i found out he never had any to begin with! It was fun hanging out with Eli. Even if his mom wouldn't let him play the violent video games that we enjoyed. (Seriously?
Metriod is just aliens! Come on Mama B!). There are more stories I could tell about Eli and I.
High School was rough for me. Nobody would have guessed it if they saw how I acted. I hated it. I had the biggest group of friends ever, then we all just went our separate ways. It got old bouncing from group to group, hanging out with different friends all the time.
Every time I was with a group they would say bad things about the other group and so on. But when I hung out with Eli, Jacob, John, and yes
Grayson; things were less dramatic. Other than John almost shooting the hood of my truck with a double barrel twelve gauge. I was always welcomed by Eli and his family. They always had smiles on their faces and always had a good atmosphere when I was around them.
The summer before my junior year; Eli, John, Jacob, and I went to
EFY in Thatcher,
AZ. We had a blast! We made some friends and most of all, strengthened our friendships with each other. Junior year passed and senior year was almost over. I found myself ditching classes to hang out with Eli, Juliet, and
Kj. We would go out east of SJ and "Jump" Eli's jeep. Almost everyday we were at Speedy B's eating. I am still surprised we never got caught. Graduation drew nearer. Another shocker, despite all the ditching we were going to graduate! The excitement, joy, and let down of graduation came and went. Eli moved to Provo shortly after graduation. I stayed in SJ to work my second summer as a Lifeguard. Something about being able to save someone from drowning always drew my attention. I myself was pulled out of the water once. That is a story for another time.
Two months after I graduated I still did not have a firm idea of what I
was going to do with my life. I entertained the thought of going on a mission, but something told me to stay. My friend
KJ and I were planning on moving to Mesa,
AZ with my oldest brother. A few weeks before the move I went to Utah to see some family and ended up hanging out with Eli. The Olympics were on and we were laughing about the way some of the athletes looked.
Eli's phone began to ring, he got up and went outside to take the call. A few minutes later he returned. He was extremely pale and looked like he was going to be sick. Eli then informed me that his doctor found out that Eli had Acute Renal Failure. I had no idea at the time what that was or what it meant for Eli.
I went on with my life but stayed in touch with Eli. I started to hear about Eli's trips to the hospital. Things got bad for Eli in December.
Kj and I went and visited him a few times. It was a pain to me to see my best friend in so much pain. I had no idea what to do to help him. Eli progressively got worse and my heart literally broke. He was into lifting and working out before he was diagnosed, he got all the way up to 198. But now he was so frail and skinny. Every time I heard about another hospital trip, I would picture that eight year old boy being hauled off in the
ambulance. I had laughed then, but this time it made me cry.
During my schooling for Massage Therapy I learned
a lot about my body and its functions. I learned that a person could live off 1/4 of a kidney. That sparked something in my mind. I had heard about organ donation before. Like many, I thought you had to die before such a thing could happen. The wonderful employees at the Donor Network of Arizona informed me that that assumption was wrong. Immediately after talking with the Donor Network, I drove to the hospital to see Eli. I will never forget the
look on his face when I told him I wanted to give him a kidney. It felt like the right thing to do and from that moment on my decision was final.
Eli's father Gregg had been tested to see if he could give Eli one of his kidney's.
There were several things that did not work out. I called the Donor Coordinator and told her what i wanted to do. She told me at the time I could not because they only test one person at a time. I called my parents and told them what i wanted to do, they told me my blood type was the same as Eli's. A+. After telling Eli's family this, the person being tested pulled out and a day later the Donor Network called me and told me we had the green light to begin testing. The days of poking,
prodding, drinking a lot of water, and hitting on the nurse at Mayo went by quickly and i found myself anxiously waiting the results. The Donor Coordinator called me, I was a PERFECT match.
I immediately told Eli and his family. We were so excited. The surgery date was December 22
ND, just five months away. During that time Eli made frequent trips to the hospital. I believe the longest he was out of the hospital was three weeks. I tried to see him each time he went, and each time he looked more and more dismayed. I kept telling hm not to lose hope because i knew this was going to work out. And then my entire universe was shattered.
The Donor Coordinator called and informed me that the surgery would be post-
poned ninety days due to Eli's health. I was on my way to school and had to pull off the freeway. I called Eli and we talked, he had been told the same thing. Later that evening i got a text from Eli saying, "Man,
I'm not going to last through March." I again told him
that everything would work out and not to worry about the little set back. It was a hard time on an even harder situation. I spoke with his mom and my mom, they were both frantic. I've never heard
Melaine so upset. I tried to calm her and told her not to worry. Tough thing to do for someone that is watching her son die.
A week later, the first week in December, the Donor Coordinator called and told me the surgery was back on. The new date was December 23rd, just a day after the original date.
I graduated my Massage Therapy program and was ready for the next step. Surgery. On December 23rd my family drove me to the Mayo Clinic at 5:45 in the morning. We were all nervous. We waited about ten minutes. I sat between my brother Josh and my Dad. They were nervous but did their best to keep me comforted. Josh and I cracked little jokes with the nurses in the
pre-op room. We were only allowed two people by the bed during the
pre-op. My family kept me company and i was not nervous. The doctor injected the anesthesia and not a minute later I was talking to people that were not there.
It was a while after surgery, I remember waking up surrounded by nurses with only one thing on my mind. How is Eli, did it work? The surgeon smiled and said yes everything is
ok and i went back to sleep. Hours later I awoke in a room with my family, the first thing I asked for was my cell phone. One of my family members told me what the surgeon had told them. When my kidney was placed in Eli it began functioning perfectly. To this day his doctors tell him it is the best transplant they have ever seen.
Elijah and I are doing great now. I am back to working as a Massage Therapist and he was able to go home the week of Feb. 5
th. My faith was tested but I never gave up.
I got to wear my cape for a day. I just wish many others would wear theirs. There are many people out there suffering from not only kidney failure but other
dysfunctions. We can help them. I encourage EVERYONE to reach out for another and help them stand. I believe that is why we are all here, to help each other.
I hope you would choose to stand in front of another and take the blows, or soften the blows for them. We all cannot be donors or Superman, but we can stand with those who cannot.
The last couple of years have been the best of my life. I have friends that say the best two years are on a Mission. That is for them. For me, the last two years have been the best. I did not convert masses to Christianity or a demonic cult or whatever. I did not win the nobel peace prize or create the Iron Man, (if only). No that did not happen. What did happen, Casey and Keeley, and my amazing job. I can't help but feel blessed. I can't help but look back at all the work it took to get here. All the times I've laughed and cried. All the friends that have come and gone. All the jobs I've had. The places I've lived and places I've traveled. All the wandering and feeling lost. All of that and now I'm here.
