From her blond hair to golden tan, Ashley Rader resembles any college student enjoying a break from the books with summer fun. Rader, however, can be distinguished from others by the four-inch scar to the lower right of her sparkling bellybutton ring. Rader underwent kidney transplant surgery April 25, 2001, after being diagnosed with kidney disease in February, 2000.
"If she hadn't told me, I never would have thought she had had a transplant," said Rader's college roommate Jillian Poznick. "She was so active and there was nothing noticeable. She was full of energy like anyone else."
In the middle of her junior year at Langley High School, Rader was put on dialysis and confined to beds at home or at INOVA Fairfax Hospital. She finished the school year with the help of tutors offered to those who are homebound but was unable to begin her senior year at LHS in the fall. She was battling severe stomach pains from pancreatitis, nightly sessions of dialysis and the anxiety of waiting on the national list for kidney transplants. Nevertheless, Rader was determined to complete English and government so she could graduate in the spring with her class.
Just six weeks after her transplant, Rader walked across the stage at DAR Constitution Hall to receive her high school diploma in front of cheering friends, family and donor Dennis Riley. Riley saw an ad in his church newsletter the previous summer and chose to undergo testing as a possible match for Rader. Considered the best possible donor, doctors "harvested" one kidney from Riley for Rader's transplant.
"He is the nicest man you'll ever meet," Rader said. "He didn't even want anyone to know that he was donating a kidney [because] he is so modest and generous."
TWO YEARS LATER, a small scar on her chest from the central intravenous line, a scar in her upper abdomen from a drainage tube and the scar on her abdomen from the transplant are the only visible signs of her illness. Rader just finished her freshman year at Penn State University and is spending her summer baby-sitting, playing soccer and going to the beach. While Rader can practically live a normal life now, her recovery required a lot of time and patience.
"I took life one day at a time," Rader said of the summer 2001 after her transplant. "I needed to enjoy not being tied to a machine every night."
Rader spent her time relaxing but also prepared to apply to college in the fall. She took an SAT course and put together a personal portfolio to send in with her applications. The portfolio included a resume, newspaper articles, recognitions and journal writings. Rader was accepted at two in-state schools, Virginia Tech and James Madison University, but decided to attend Penn State University.
When she received her acceptance letter in April 2002 to Penn State, Rader said, "I think I seriously jumped up and down. It was the first step in starting that part of my life."
With the summer's end, Rader's LHS classmates were starting new lives at their various colleges while she stayed at home to enjoy her one year off from school. In October 2001, Rader and her mother went on a one-week vacation to Hawaii. While Rader was sick in the hospital, the Make-A-Wish foundation approached her. The organization offers children under 18 and living with a terminal illness to make one wish, and Rader's dream was to take her mother to Hawaii.
"My mom is my best friend, my nurse, my psychologist, my stress reliever," Rader said. "She is the closest one to experiencing what I went through so I wanted to do something that included me and my mom."
Rader and her mother traveled to a four-star resort in Maui and enjoyed the beach, pedicures, manicures, massages and extra spending money.
"We were going through such hard times, it was a miracle that we could make a trip like that," Ashley's mother Eileen Rader said.
When Rader returned home, she took her SATs and finished applying to colleges. In January, she began working four days a week at the Kids Zone at Tyson's Sports and Health Club. She was also able to start weight training again.
"I really wanted to stay healthy and have fun," Rader said.
While she had blood sugar problems early on and many urinary tract infections, her overall recovery was going smoothly. Rader's transplant, however, was not a cure. A transplant is only a form of treatment for kidney disease.
She still takes immunosuppressants, steroids, blood pressure medication, Prevacid to treat the acid reflux from the pancreatitis and a multi-vitamin. She also continues to visit the gastro-enterologist, nephrologist, transplant surgeon and endocrinologist as well as have blood drawn every two months.
During her year off, Rader spent time giving talks about her experience at events including the Youth Leadership Forum for high school students interested in medicine and a Youth for Life presentation about organ donation. Rader says she can put a face to the issue.
While a transplant is only a way of treating kidney disease, Rader said, "The point of a transplant is to live life as normally as you would if you never had gotten sick. People are so quick to put you in a glass bubble just because of the transplant."
IN LATE AUGUST, Rader's parents and her kidney donor and his wife and nephew helped move Ashley into her dorm room in Runkle Hall at Penn State. Rader decorated her room with Scarface posters, photos and a string of Christmas lights around the room. She also met Poznick, her roommate from Hamilton, N.J.
"It was non-stop laughter," Rader said. "She was like a sister."
Poznick said she couldn't have asked for a better roommate.
Another college friend of Rader's is Jon Unrath of New Holland, Pa. Unrath said that the best things they did was just lie around and laugh all the time. He recalls one funny moment when they mimicked the Terry Tate Reebok commercial by hitting each other in the gut and throwing each other onto a bed of pillows.
"She is fun-loving and always smiling," Unrath said. "She is a great person to have around."
Rader's move to Penn State had also allowed Eileen Rader to move on with her life. She has returned to work full time at the CIA and is enjoying a new-found sense of normalcy.
"I miss her but the happiness takes over for missing her," Rader said. "I am happy she is at Penn State and enjoying her friends and classes.”
Rader studied psychology, nutrition, math, chemistry, speech communication and art education firing the year. She plans to major either in bio-behavioral health or kineseology and go into physical therapy for rehabilitation and maintaining health. She maintains a 3.3 grade point average.
Rader made it through the school year with only a five-day hospitalization in the fall due to a kidney infection. She stayed active at school by exercising at the gym or playing sports with friends.
"We would go play soccer, play basketball or go to the gym and work out," Poznick said. "We went four or five times a week to get outside and have fun."
Since her transplant, Rader has been determined to get back on track to leading a normal life. One annoyance, however, is that people who hardly know her sometimes suggest what she can and cannot do.
"No one has more value for the gift of life than me," Rader said. "And if they think I am going to do something to jeopardize my health, they're wrong."
Rader plans to go to King's Dominion for her birthday, July 19, and she will begin her sophomore year at Penn State on Sept. 2.
"I am very mentally and physically happy and healthy," Rader said. "I have wonderful friends, I love my school, and I love what I am studying. Every day that I live, I am thankful."