Student’s wish comes true while pushing past illness

by jessica payne

 It all started when sophomore Lizzie Groenweghe was in seventh grade. She found out that she had an unexpected auto-immune disease, and her kidneys were about to fail. Her face got puffy because it was full of fluid, and kidneys are what remove extra fluid in bodies. About a month later, they failed.

 “I was really scared because it was a very serious condition in which there is really no cure except for a transplant,” Lizzie’s father Philip Groenweghe said.
“Even with the transplant, there’s a danger of the disease reoccurring.”

 Lizzie was put on dialysis. At first, she did Peritoneal dialysis, which is where, through osmosis, toxins and fluids are removed, and later drained back out. This works for most, not for Lizzie.

 “The doctors didn’t realize it wasn’t working,” Lizzie said. “I lost a lot of weight, and they thought I had an eating disorder.”

 When Lizzie was at her sickest, she was sent to a hospital in Kansas City. Earlier, a social worker told Lizzie and her dad that anybody who had kidney failure was eligible to apply for Make-A-Wish. Lizzie wished for a horse of her own. She’s been riding for about three years, but never had her own horse. People came to her house to find out what she wanted, researched on the internet, then sent the horse over from Kentucky so Lizzie could pick it up.

 All of the walls of her hospital room were covered with pictures of her horse Xerox. He was her inspiration to stay strong, to see the positive in the situation. Although she was sick, she still found time to be with her horse.

 “She was so sick that she could barely stand,” Philip said. “She still got on the horse and rode him though. I think that horse might have saved her life, because it gave her something to look forward to when things were really bad.”

 She was later put on Hemodialysis, where blood is taken out through a machine, cleaned, and put back in. This procedure takes three hours, and is done at home. Lizzie was the second minor in the U.S. to do this at-home dialysis.

 On July 4th, 2007, Lizzie got her kidney transplant. Most people are on the waiting list for at least a year, but she got called after two weeks.

 “I was afraid of how bad it would hurt when I woke up,” Lizzie said. “I’d heard everything from I’ll be walking around in a week, to it’s the most painful thing ever.”

 It wasn’t that painful for her though. She was hospitalized for four days afterwards. The transplant made it possible for Lizzie to do much more in her life.

 The horse has been great for Lizzie. She keeps him near Troy, Missouri, and rides him three to four times a week. Her wish really did come true.

 “If you have a serious illness, don’t let it get in the way of doing something you really love,” Lizzie said. “Someone told me ‘if you’re going to get a kidney transplant, why would you not live a little?’ If you’re going to live in fear afterwards, then there was no point in getting it.”