Otherwise, Marsh, 58, a longtime Middletown City School District administrator who retired in January 2014, will connect herself to a cycler at 9 p.m. every night and receive nine hours of home dialysis.
She has been on dialysis for 14 months.
She may depend on it the rest of her life.
That is unless a match can be found, either a living kidney donor or a cadaver donor. She doesn’t even want to think about the latter. She doesn’t want to celebrate a better quality of life when another family is planning a funeral.
So she sits and waits by her cell phone. The phone number at the UC Health Kidney Transplant Program starts with a 584. Every time the phone rings, she answers it, regardless of the number, hoping, praying it will be The Call.
She was placed on the kidney transplant list in October 2019 and was told the average wait is 12 to 14 months. If the average holds true, a match could be located early in 2021. Until then, she can’t travel more than two hours from home.
“Every day I’m one day closer,” she said.
Marsh said her “medical journey” started when she began retaining fluid in the summer of 2015 and she spent 42 days in the hospital after repeated tests revealed no diagnosis.
“It was very mysterious,” she said.
Eventually, Marsh, who said she weighed more than 300 pounds and resembled the Pillsbury Doughboy at the time, was diagnosed with kidney failure. She has lost all the extra weight, mostly fluid, she said.
“Brought me back to life,” said Marsh.
She has kidney disease and a sense of humor: “I’m not telling you what I weigh now.”
She credits her twin, Monica, who lives with her in their Mason condo, for providing constant sisterly support and being her “right hand” throughout the process.
“We are closer than close can be,” she said. “You got to have a good support system, a positive attitude and never give up.”
Monica, a retired educator from Butler Tech who also worked in the Middletown City School District for nearly half of her 30-year career, remembers wisdom passed down from her late father. When she was diagnosed with lupus, he told her: “You have lupus or lupus has you.”
Her sister has responded to kidney failure with the same mindset, she said.
“I’ve had a great life,” Marla Marsh said. “Good family. Good friends.”
Her doctor said her life expectancy is 80.
“I’ll take 80,” she said with a laugh.
Despite her medical hurdles and restrictions, Marla continues giving back. She serves as president of the Middletown Kiwanis.
“That has not changed with her,” her sister said. “She’s a wonderful person who always thinks of others first.”
When one of their dear friends was dying, the sisters opened their home so she wouldn’t die alone.
The friend gave Marla all the reason she couldn’t care for her. But Marla told her: “I can sit with you.”
Their friend died in their residence.
Now the sisters pray a phone call will bring a better life in their home.
TO SEE IF YOU’RE A POTENTIAL MATCH
CALL: UC Health Kidney Transplant Program at 513 584-8313
FOLLOW MARSH’S MEDICAL JOURNEY: Kidney for Marla Marsh on Facebook
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