September 24, 2004

As promised to many of you, here is an update on my situation. Everyone receiving this email has probably heard some parts of the story, but I wanted to give everyone an update and some detail behind what's been going on with me in 2004.

On December 31st, 2003, I was diagnosed with an auto-immune associated kidney disease, which a few weeks later was specifically diagnosed as MPGN-1 (Membrano Proliferative Glomerial Nephritis), a rare kidney disease that destroys the membranes which keep your kidney cells alive. After three months of immune suppressive treatment including chemotherapy and high doses of steroids, the treatment was unsuccessful and close to 90% of the cells in my kidneys had been destroyed.

The first week of May, I had a peritoneal catheter surgically implanted in my stomach. Now, every night when I go to sleep, I connect myself to a machine (called a 'cycler') that fills my peritoneal cavity (the space below all your organs) with sterile sugar water to draw all the toxins from my blood stream that a kidney would normally draw. It's an amazing piece of science, and 100 times better than hemo (blood) dialysis where they literally suck the blood out of you, filter it, and push it back in you.

Just three weeks ago I made a decision to stop travelling for the remainder of 2005. Being a travel addict, and loving the travel part of my job, this was very difficult. But thanks to several individuals who encouraged me to wake up and start taking better care of myself, I have made my health my #1 priority and I can already see the results.

On Thursday, September 2nd, I was approved by Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas for a transplant. This means that 1) I have insurance that will cover the transplant 2) that they believe I am a great candidate for a successful transplant.

Many of you have asked about being a donor: I won't go into the details here, but for those of you who have asked for information on becoming a potential donor, I've created a quick page on my web site with all the facts / process information:

The care and concern that everyone (friend, family, even my lawyer friends) have shown me has been unbelievable and incredible. In addition, Reactivity has been incredibly tolerant of my frequent disappearance for testing, hospital stays, recovery, and changes in my lifestyle. I'm lucky to work for a company that is both an aggressive startup and yet compassionate.

I'll probably send out another update once the donor matching process has completed, which will likely be in six to eight weeks.