A Welcome Adolesence
 |
| Peter Gelaro |
A few days after the Gelaro family moved from California to Elkridge, Md., Peter, then 8, couldn’t shake residual flu symptoms. Groggy and sluggish, he began complaining about a pain in his side.
A trip to Howard County General Hospital’s emergency department that winter day in 2001 revealed something parents Glynnis and Ron never knew: their son had abnormally small kidneys. Peter also had a high creatinine level in his blood, indicating poor kidney function. “There was no kidney disease in our family,” says Ron, “so we were absolutely floored.” They were referred to Johns Hopkins nephrologist Barbara Fivush.
And so began young Peter’s journey back to good health. It would take four years and a new kidney from a living donor he knew well—his father.
Fivush began managing Peter conservatively, with various medications, but she predicted Peter’s kidneys would continue to deteriorate and he’d eventually need a transplant. Two years later, Fivush said it was time to put Peter on the kidney transplant waiting list. Meanwhile, she urged both parents to be tested as potential donors because odds were better for a closer match.
Both matched well, but Ron, then 45, scored slightly better for tissue compatibility. It was a good thing, because Glynnis would develop her own health problems. Ron, a NASA scientist, began a series of donor tests over the spring and summer of 2004, preparing for the transplant the following spring.
 |
| The Gelaro Family |
As for Peter, an honor student, every day was becoming a chore. By noon, he was sapped of energy, and his teachers noticed he had trouble staying alert sometimes. “I’d come home after swim practice and collapse on the couch for the rest of the night,” Peter recalls. His growth suffered, too. Each doctor’s visit showed declines in height and weight percentiles for his age.
It was during those trying months before the spring 2005 transplant that Glynnis discovered a lump on her breast. She had a lumpectomy in January 2005; the growth proved malignant. Following surgery, Glynnis underwent radiation and chemotherapy at Howard County General. Her daughter, then 14, would be the only family member to escape doctors’ appointments during this period. But the stress level in the house affected all of them.
Looking back on what Ron calls “that horrible time,” Glynnis’s illness seemed much scarier to him than the impending transplant. “Peter and I knew what to expect from our surgeries,” he notes. “But Glynnis’s cancer came out of left field, and we had to wait till after the surgery and pathology report to know if she’d done well.”
Glynnis, a speech pathologist, emerged from surgery with no complications—although she’d need
 |
| Ron and Peter Gelaro |
treatment for several months—and the pathology report showed no further spread of cancer. But the week before the father-son kidney transplant, another development would shake the family. Ronald’s blood tests showed he was at risk for bleeding. Hopkins urology surgeon Tom Jarrett kept a close watch and insisted Ron be tested frequently before the surgery. “It was touch and go,” recalls Ron, until 5 p.m., the night before the surgery, when he was finally given the OK.
On May 17, 2005, the simultaneous kidney surgeries proved successful for both father and son. Ron was released two days later. And Peter’s new kidney, inserted by pediatric surgeon Karen Kling, found a comfortable new home. Peter felt stronger almost immediately; for Ron, recovery would take about six weeks.
