Life as a Dialysis Patient...It Goes on!

As promised, here is the 10-minute film created and produced by Bamboo Shoots Inc. for Sasktel Max TV that went to air a couple of weeks ago:

 

To read more about "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality" (coming soon!) please point your browser to this link.

Meet Jeff States, 72-year old Kidney Donor!

As founder of the Facebook group "Kidney Transplant Donors and Recipients", which 

is a "closed group" due to privacy issues, I have been privileged to read thousands of

inspiring, life-affirming stories of triumph over adversity. Jeff States decided to become what 

we fondly have come to call an "Earth Angel" by donating one of his kidneys to his brother-in-

law at the age of 72. This is his story, in his own words. Thank you so, Jeff, for not only this 

selfless act, but also for demonstrating in a singular act of courage that there is always hope, 

and that we can live to fight another day.

Michael R. Gaudet.
Please visit : mrgaudet.com

"Earth Angel" Jeff States Donates Kidney at 72.

"I wish Michael well on his 'new' kidney journey and also wish him well with his new blog  about 'all things kidney' ."

I first met Michael on a site dedicated to kidney donors, recipients and their families. Michael

lives in Canada and I live in the United States. He is a past kidney recipient and a potential 

future kidney recipient.

I am a kidney donor. My story began when my brother-in-law was diagnosed with End-Stage

Kidney Failure in 2011. By 2012, no one in the family was a match and he had to go on

dialysis. I watched my wife suffer for her younger brother and, although I had no relationship

whatsoever with him, I told her that I would be willing to get tested. She was shocked, but

immediately called her brother. To his credit, he told his sister that I would never have to spend 

a penny during the evaluation process.

We live 1,200 miles apart from each other. At that time I knew nothing about kidney disease

or what was involved in becoming a living kidney donor. I just assumed it was the right thing to

do. My evaluation took 4-5 months. Since my wife's brother lives in New York and I live in 

Florida, I would fly to the hospital where he was on dialysis to go through the testing process.

I will be forever grateful that he had chosen the New York Presbyterian / Weill Cornell 

Medical Center in New York City. I later found out that they are one of the top three kidney

transplant centers in the United States. I was eventually approved to donate to my wife's brother

and our surgeries were scheduled for 12/6/2012. It is now almost two and a half years post-op 

and both the recipient and donor are issue free.

I have learned much about being a living donor and I have become an advocate in South 

Florida, working to get the appropriate information "out there" to the general public, who, like

I was several years ago, are almost totally ignorant about kidney disease and what it means to

become a living donor. My brother-in-law will be 59 later this year and I will be 75.


I was 72 at the time of donation and became the oldest surviving living kidney donor to go 

through the living kidney donation process in the past 53 years of the hospital's transplantation 

program.

"Earth Angel" cradles a kidney, which gestates as a prayer of invocation.

Kidney Health...Be Pro-Active.

As a person who has dealt with the ups and downs of kidney health (and lack thereof) for all of my adult life, one thing I can say for sure is this: a simple yearly blood test will reveal in a distinct outline the state of your renal fitness.

Stay ahead with annual check-ups.

If I had only realized this as a teenager, I'm sure now, in retrospect, that my life would have been much less traumatic. I had the typical mindset of invincibility as a young man, thinking that my health picture was AOK, even as I suffered the long, slow decline that ultimately landed me in the ER at Sunnybrooke Medical Center in Toronto with End Stage Renal Failure. If "End Stage" sounds ominous, it's because it is! At the time, I was informed in no uncertain terms that I was a "walking toxic waste dump", and further, the admitting doctors had no Earthly idea how I'd even managed to make it into the ER under my own locomotion.

Your annual physical will include very revealing blood tests.

If I'd had the presence of mind to monitor my health with even a single yearly blood test, I could have had treatment options made available to me well before I nearly perished. So, my best advice to you is to take that simple step...get your butt into your GP's office at least on an annual basis for a check-up including blood-work. Sometimes ignorance is NOT bliss.

Michael R. Gaudet was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure only fourteen years after his father, Robert, died of kidney disease in Michael’s childhood. After his initial diagnosis, Michael was determined to achieve a measure of immortality. 

He designed and painted the seminal mural "Recovery 1", which he donated to the Toronto hospital that saved his life. This singular act cast the mold for the rest of his life, in which he battled chronic kidney disease and forged a career as one of Canada’s best-known mural painters. 

Michael has since designed and painted over 60 large murals across Canada. Today, he lives with his wife Sharon in the resort village of Manitou Beach in central Saskatchewan, where they own and operate a seasonal art gallery called “G-G’s Gallery & Gifts.” 

Michael is in the final stages of releasing Book 1 of the trilogy "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality". Please steer your search engine here to visit the Facebook page that was created to usher in the launch. Curious? Could this be the book for you? Come on over, we'll see you there.

Dialogues of Psyche

Hello lovely readers!
I've been taking myself on "Artist Dates"  (check out Julia Cameron's book, The Artist's Way if this peaked your interest!) for a little over a year now, and my latest resulted in purchasing some sketching pens and the creation of the following... We'll see if it turns into anything beyond this one page, but I'm quite happy with this one page so I wanted to share it!  Enjoy!
Peace,
Ilara

Ilara is an Edmonton-based writer, visual artist, community builder, and seeker of wisdom in the little moments.  She has been a lifelong advocate for people with disabilities, having lived with chronic conditions her entire life, and spent many of her teen and early adult years working and living in communities for adults with disabilities while always stretching to pursue her own creative spirit. 

Ilara now works as the Director of Religious Education for Westwood Unitarian Congregation and is an active member of Assiniboia Community Housing Co-operative.  She is inspired by the people in her life, a love of synchronicity, and a passion for digging into the depths of who she is and how things are connected.  She is fueled by a passion for people, peace, and a yearning for the ineffable sense of balance of power that she believes is still possible somehow.

Ilara Stefaniuk-Gaudet Poem on Wonder

My daughter Ilara recently read the "Proof Copy" of my upcoming memoir "Dancing with Rejection:

A Beginner's Guide to Immortality". In response, she wrote this moving poem as a tribute:

Ilara and her dad Michael.

On Wonder

Awe-struck;

We are shaped and held so

intimately

by the stories that we 

are told, and 

that we tell each other;

Their words weave us together,

stitching souls into the 

images 

that define us.

It feels like 

just yesterday;

Myself as a child,

pleading with my Papa

to tell me a story 

about when he was my age;

I would listen,

wide-eyed and totally enthralled.

When I was old enough to read,

he started typing up his stories;

Grand adventures of travel

and love and

miraculous happenings; 

I would ingest his words, 

enchanted; so proud

to be his daughter.

Now, many years later.

his book in front of me, 

newly printed for proof-reading,

I feel a strange sensation,

almost like vertigo,

as events and experiences

that correspond with

both our stories

are laid in front of me

once again;

To what extent

do our stories define us,

I wonder?

To what extent 

do the words we see and hear

shape our destinies, 

our DNA?

Most of this book is fully

embedded in my memory; not word for word,

but story by story.

I’ve walked the same pathways,

nearly fifty years later,

to recapture the awe of

first hearing these tales

of my Papa’s childhood; I’ve relived 

the memories with him,

From climbing the cliffs of

Crystal Falls to

Hemodialysis and being so close

to death we can hear our

ancestors speaking to

Mural painting in church basements.

In search for our own

creative powers; 

Even my signature is

framed by

the three stars that

inspired him to paint his 

“Trinity Mural”,” when he was

almost my age”, in which

he unconsciously

(at the time)

portrayed the Divine Feminine that I

so purposefully seek to embody

in my words and images.

Yet our stories continue, so

intimately 

woven together with

so many lives

that I am prompted to

question the spaces

between beings, 

and am left

Awe-Struck.

Ilara is an Edmonton-based writer, visual artist, community builder, and seeker of wisdom in the little moments.  She has been a lifelong advocate for people with disabilities, having lived with chronic conditions her entire life, and spent many of her teen and early adult years working and living in communities for adults with disabilities while always stretching to pursue her own creative spirit. 

Ilara now works as the Director of Religious Education for Westwood Unitarian Congregation and is an active member of Assiniboia Community Housing Co-operative.  She is inspired by the people in her life, a love of synchronicity, and a passion for digging into the depths of who she is and how things are connected.  She is fueled by a passion for people, peace, and a yearning for the ineffable sense of balance of power that she believes is still possible somehow.

Short Film Coming: Your Preview

Over the past several weeks, Saskatoon-based Bamboo Shoots Inc.  have been industriously working on the creation of a "short film" based on my story of living with a life-long chronic health issue and its impact on my life and art. Sasktel MaxTV commissions Bamboo Shoots to romp across the countryside here in Saskatchewan to make short films on worthy subjects, events, etc.

We started off filming in my studio, with an interview and a look at some of my easel paintings.

We started off with some "show and tell" at my studio.

After the studio segment was filmed, I requested an interview from my dialysis pod. I guess you could say I am a "man on a mission" when it comes to raising awareness of kidney health and all that implies. I figured that. even though it might make some people squeamish and uncomfortable, that is just too damn bad. It's my thrice weekly reality, along with millions of other dialysis patients world-wide.

Thrice weekly dialysis treatments will (hopefully) sustain  me until my second kidney transplant.

Just a brief overview, in case you are new here... I was first diagnosed with End Stage Kidney Failure at age 20, while living and working in Toronto. This was in 1979. After about seven months on dialysis, which saved my life at the time, I received the "Gift of Life" aka a kidney transplant, donated in a singular act of love and courage by my brother Steven. His incredible act of generosity sustained me in excellent health until mid-May of 2014, at which time I returned to dialysis. Once again, this is a life-saving measure, as the toxins slowly built up in my system to dangerous levels.

Thrice-weekly dialysis treatments are once again keeping me alive as I await the "Gift of Life".

The final segment of filming took place, again at my request, in the sanctuary of Sacred Heart Church in Saskatoon. This is where my huge mural soars to a height of almost fifty feet above the alter. I felt it was very important to emphasize that people living with a chronic disease are still capable of achieving their dreams with enough ambition and focus.

My mural at Sacred Heart soars to almost 50 feet in height in the sanctuary.

It is actually quite hard to imagine the visual force of this mural when your viewing experience is limited to a photograph. I hope you can appreciate the scale of this piece by seeing the figures in the image above.

I chose to discuss the distinctly "feminist" nature of the images in the mural.

My intention with the third segment of the film was to openly disclose the rather "radical" feminist leanings incorporated into the mural design. With such a high profile platform as this (for artistic expression), I worked strategically to embed evocative references to the "male and female" aspects of God/dess. After we (the parish priest and I) were chastised (and threatened) by the powers-brokers at the Vatican that our vision of the duality of God/dess was deemed a HERESY, I became doubly determined that my artwork would reflect my personal belief that a mature God would have no difficulty with the idea of the power and grace of His feminine nature.

The "Virgin Mary" is depicted apologetically as a full-blown "Goddess".

At present, I await the link to the short film. It is already on the public airwaves and I have heard from a few friends who subscribe to MaxTV that it is a great ten-minute film. For now, I have only seen the trailer, which lasts about one minute. You can view it here. 

Michael R. Gaudet was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure only fourteen years after his father, Robert, died of kidney disease in Michael’s childhood. After his initial diagnosis, Michael was determined to achieve a measure of immortality. 

He designed and painted the seminal mural "Recovery 1", which he donated to the Toronto hospital that saved his life. This singular act cast the mold for the rest of his life, in which he battled chronic kidney disease and forged a career as one of Canada’s best-known mural painters. 

Michael has since designed and painted over 60 large murals across Canada. Today, he lives with his wife Sharon in the resort village of Manitou Beach in central Saskatchewan, where they own and operate a seasonal art gallery called “G-G’s Gallery & Gifts.” 

Michael is in the final stages of releasing Book 1 of the trilogy "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality". Please steer your search engine here to visit the Facebook page that was created to usher in the launch. Curious? Could this be the book for you? Come on over, we'll see you there.

From One Human Bean to Another

At the age of 21, in 1979, I designed and painted the seminal mural Recovery 1 while receiving thrice weekly dialysis therapy at Sunnybrook Medical Center in "Toronto the Good".

Photo of  Recovery 1 in 1979.

I embraced the "Recovery" motif as the perfect masthead for the Facebook page that my wife Sharon and I founded a little over two years ago. Called "Kidney Transplant Donors and Recipients" (KTDR), the site garnered an impressive nine-hundred members within the first year. Little did we realize that within a couple of years, the site would explode to over eleven thousand worldwide members!

My best attempt to breathe some contemporary "life" into the fairly low-resolution, hazy, pixelated image.

Now that I was committed to pressing this image into service once again in a high-fidelity format...namely, as the cover art for my Book 1 of the soon-to-be-unleashed memoir "Dancing with Rejection..." my publishing consultant advised me that the (above) artwork appears so severely pixelated aka blurry that it would simply not suffice, should I desire to look professional. I took this as an immediate challenge and decided to respond by creating brand-new, crisp artwork for that purpose.

Getting very close to visualizing the Cover Art for "Dancing..."

An invocation for a successful hunt? It would appear so.

Now, I can say with confidence that the artwork for the cover of "Dancing..." is going to pass muster with nary a revision after this. As the careful observer will note, I have made two conspicuous changes to the design in the 2015 version. First, I have the last (vibrant red) figure on the right-hand side striding with purpose off the edge of the canvas. Second, I have included a "Kidney" motif in the guts of that figure. He is a successful kidney transplant recipient! 

Brand-new, crisp artwork is created in 2015 to dramatically upgrade the quality of the image.

Much as the artists of the Neanderthal Age would have meticulously painted iconic images of bison, deer and hunters deep inside their ceremonial caves, I paint the vibrant figure with his transplanted kidney. In my own way, I am emulating those cave paintings with an "invocation" or "visual prayer" for my own healing once again. Everything has come around full circle...I find myself once again facing down thrice weekly dialysis treatments as I wait and pray for my quest to yield the "Gift of Life". 

Michael R. Gaudet was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure only fourteen years after his father, Robert, died of kidney disease in Michael’s childhood. After his initial diagnosis, Michael was determined to achieve a measure of immortality. 

He designed and painted the seminal mural "Recovery 1", which he donated to the Toronto hospital that saved his life. This singular act cast the mold for the rest of his life, in which he battled chronic kidney disease and forged a career as one of Canada’s best-known mural painters. 

Michael has since designed and painted over 60 large murals across Canada. Today, he lives with his wife Sharon in the resort village of Manitou Beach in central Saskatchewan, where they own and operate a seasonal art gallery called “G-G’s Gallery & Gifts.” 

Michael is in the final stages of releasing Book 1 of the trilogy "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality". Please steer your search engine here to visit the Facebook page that was created to usher in the launch. Curious? Could this be the book for you? Come on over, we'll see you there.