HUBBARD Siblings take sharing to new level

To save his sister's life, Paul McCabe will give her oneof his kidneys.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
HUBBARD -- When Paula Robinson turned 40, she marked the beginning of a decade she wasn't sure she'd see.
"I sweated getting past 39," she says. "When I hit 40 I made a milestone. I beat the odds because most of our family died young."
Robinson's father died when he was 39 of polycystic kidney disease, a hereditary ailment that can cause the kidneys to shut down. The disease also killed her grandmother, aunt, uncle and two cousins.
Robinson, her two sisters, most of her cousins and nieces -- 11 of 18 family members -- also inherited the disease.
Although it can be fatal, not everyone is affected the same way. "You can live your whole life and never have any problems," she says. Unfortunately, that's not how it's been for the 48-year-old Hubbard resident.
Ailments: Robinson suffers from back pain, has had blood in her urine and skyrocketing blood pressure, all side effects of polycystic kidney disease, or PKD.
She was diagnosed in 1977 and went into renal failure two years ago. That forced her to go on dialysis. Although the nightly procedure keeps her alive, it causes her abdomen to bloat so much that she can't wear anything with a waistband. It also prevents her from going too far from home because she must be back every evening for her dialysis treatments.
"We call it McCabe's Curse," says Paul McCabe, Robinson's younger brother and her only sibling not affected by the disease.
"For him not to have it is just a miracle in itself," she reflects.
McCabe, 43, was just 11 when his dad died. Robinson was 16. Although they remember their dad being sick, Robinson admits that they didn't know just how sick he was.
Today, they know how devastating the disease can be. They are also determined not to allow it to take an even greater toll.
In early May, Robinson and McCabe, a Niles resident, will both undergo surgery at University Hospital, Cleveland. During the operations, Robinson will receive a new kidney, the one her brother readily offered after she was put on a waiting list for a transplant in 2000.
Usual wait: "There's a four-year minimum wait for a donor," Robinson says. "Our 40-year-old cousin died waiting for a donor kidney."
McCabe wasn't about to let that happen to the sister who took him to his first concert -- the Beach Boys at Youngstown State University.
"As soon as he found out I needed a transplant he said, 'I'll get tested and if I can do it, I'll give you a kidney,'" Robinson recalls.
Five percent of the population is born with only one kidney, McCabe says nonchalantly. "So I shouldn't have any problem living with only one." Although both admit to being "a little scared," McCabe says, "the only thing that really bothers me is that I'll have to get a catheter -- that and getting a sponge bath from another guy." Joking, he says to his sister, "When you get my kidney, you'll be drinking Coors Light."
With a more serious tone, McCabe and Robinson say that making it through the surgeries and hospital stays are not their only worries.
Other concerns: Being a living donor can be financially devastating. McCabe, a grinder inspector at WCI Steel Inc., Warren, will be off work for 10 weeks. While Robinson's health insurance should cover McCabe's medical expenses, there are no provisions for his living expenses. "He won't have a paycheck but he'll still have to make his house payment," Robinson says.
Living organ donors need financial support so they can afford to donate, Robinson stresses. "Many people can't afford to donate." If financial assistance was in place, she says, more people might consider donating and more lives could be saved.
Looking forward to her family's future, Robinson reflects, "This disease binds us together, and it keeps us apart because there are so many absent."
A fund to assist McCabe and Robinson has been established at Cortland Bank.