Savior អ្នកសង្គ្រោះជីវិត

04/13/2017 12:35 pm ET

From the Huffington Post

Taylor Tagg, Contributor
Life Coach, Author, Speaker, and Workshop Facilitator

All of my life, I’ve prided myself on being giving of my time and talents to those who need it. From running a charity golf tournament with my father, to volunteering weekly at an orphanage, to providing time and resources for a big children’s cancer research run, I was pretty confident that my level of giving to others was sufficient.

When the opportunity presented itself recently to get tested for a kidney donation for my friend Tim Chhim’s son Tony, I thought, “Well, I’ll do my duty and get tested. Nothing will come of it.”

Boy, was I wrong.

I turned out to be a perfect blood match for Tony, who I had not met at the time.

I thought to myself, “What do I do? Was I really going to say no? Was I really going to give away an organ?”

I wrestled with this emotional tug of war for a few minutes, felt the fear of losing an organ my body was using but could survive without, and then I ultimately said yes.

In agreeing to the donation, I opened a door for The Chhim family that had not been available to them for years. They had searched the world for a donor with no luck. Now Tony could plan for a long, healthy life and gain permanent mobility away from the dialysis center.

Needless to say, the Chhim family was beyond grateful with my decision.

Yet, I had to dig deeper into why I was giving the kidney and why now at 46 years old?

The answers weren’t clear at first.

But a funny thing happened as I told others of my decision. Almost every single person seemed surprised that I would give a kidney to a friend that wasn’t a family member. I replied, “I don’t see the distinction. To me, a person in need is a person in need.” Then I followed up with, “I was an only child for many years and I always wanted a brother. Now I have one!”

Underneath the laughter, there can be a great sense of love and fear that accompanies organ donation. While being very helpful to another life, there are thoughts of your remaining kidney failing, surgery gone wrong, and a litany of other what ifs. It was important for me to meet these fears head on and work through them mentally and emotionally.

The answers of why I’m donating did eventually become clear.

Here are the 5 Reasons I’m Giving My Kidney Away:

1. Life Supporting Life – more than anything, when the call comes to help, I want to be thought of as a person who can be counted on. It’s an act of love and contribution to support life when you give away your time, talents, or other resources. By giving a kidney to Tony, I am in essence not only supporting the extension of his life, but indirectly supporting all of life itself.

2. Helping my Hero – when the call came, I acted in kind to help my friend Tim Chhim. His heroic act of survival through the Cambodian Khmer Rouge massacres in the early 70’s has inspired me to be more heroic in my life. It was natural for me to want to return a gift he gave me through his courage and perseverance to live.

3. Understanding the Research – most people can live a very healthy life with one kidney with no shortage of life expectancy. The one remaining kidney becomes more efficient and expands in capacity to meet the needs of the body. In addition to finding out the facts, I talked with living donors, recipients, doctors, surgeons, and a host of other professionals with tremendous experience in the field. I kept asking questions until I was comfortable with my decision.

4. The Need for Organ Donation is Tremendous – over 100,000 people are on the kidney transplant list in the United States. That list is growing every day. Other organ lists such as liver donation are growing exponentially as well. Organ donation awareness has become important to me and I’m donating my kidney in part to be an example for others to gather the courage to investigate potential donation of their own.

5. It’s a Unique Blessing – to give a part of my physical body away is truly a blessing from above. It’s just my time to give in a special way. I don’t expect anything in return for the gift, but knowing I’ve helped Tony improve the quality of his life inspires me to want to keep giving of myself in other ways and champion others to give too.

Organ donation is a decision that needs to be thoroughly considered. It’s not right for everyone, but for some it can be the right call to make. Life has a weird way of quietly tapping us on the shoulder for our assistance when we least expect it.

The question becomes will we step up when called?

Through overcoming our fears and ultimately displaying love for our fellow brothers and sisters, we most certainly can get to the point where we all emphatically say YES!

Photo Credit WikiMedia Commons

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…/5-great-reasons-why-im-dona…

Giving Myself Away II

http://archive.aweber.com/theevolvinghart/6NaHG/h/Giving_Myself_Away_Part_II.htm

Giving Myself Away
Special Article by Taylor Tagg

Of all the lessons I’ve learned in life, one of the most healing was giving away what I no longer needed mentally, emotionally, and physically.

In doing so, I discovered what was lying underneath, my true nature.

It was a space where I could purely choose who I wanted to be. I chose love, kindness, compassion, and forgiveness.

– Taylor Tagg

A Moment of Decision

Life has a way of bringing us a big dot surprise every now and then, a shocker that has you wondering what in the world just happened! The question is what do we do with those surprises? Do we explore the beauty of the horizon ahead for what it can teach us or do we stagnate in fear waiting to be rescued?

Just two months ago, I was be-bopping along in my routine. What I didn’t know was that a significant call to action was waiting for me around the corner. My friend and co-author of Adversity to Advantage Tim Chhim posted a heartfelt plea on Facebook asking for O blood types to test for a potential kidney match for his son Tony.

I am O+.

Tony has been on dialysis for the better part of 5 years, waiting for another kidney after one from his mother Kim failed. I contacted Tim to ask how I could help. I could tell that Tim’s plea was one of concern and desperation.

He and his family had been searching for a kidney for Tony for several years and nothing had surfaced. Tony’s health was in decline. I thought, “Well I’ll do my duty here and that will be that.”

But as I received the blood kit in the mail, a little voice inside said, “You will be a match.” I thought, “Ok nice try little voice but I’m just helping my friend here. I’m doing what a courageous person would do and getting tested, but I’m really going to be a match?” I chuckled at the thought.

Just 10 months earlier, Tim and several other Napoleon Hill Leadership Instructors traveled to Cambodia to bring the 17 Science of Success Principles to the Cambodian people. It was a wonderful journey full of hope, anticipation, and sharing. Part of the trip was set aside for Tim and his family to search for a kidney donor.

I got sick the second day in Cambodia and spent most of my trip trying to recover. Tim and his wife Kim traveled the countryside seeing family and friends, asking for help for their son.

Their journey of hope was off my radar at that time. I was concerned about getting home in one piece. After a thorough search, Tim’s quest for a donor turned up no good leads.

So a few months later, Tim turned his focus to Facebook. He passionately posted his desire to find a kidney for his son (complete with pictures of Tony as a little boy). Something in Tim let caution to the wind go free. He needed something positive to happen now. His only son was in decline and he was ready to go to any legal means possible to help.

Something awoke in my heart for Tim and Tony when I first read his Facebook post. I thought about Father and Son unable to have moments together any longer.

That thought hurt.

I hadn’t met Tony, but it’s easy to visualize what the relationship would be like. I had to act. I responded quickly and the transplant center sent me the blood test within a matter of days.

Something kept hinting within, “You will be a match. You will be a match.” I kept my beliefs open and lo and behold, a couple of weeks later, the Westchester Medical Center in New York called and asked, “How do you feel about donating your kidney?”

I’ll admit, it was a moment of intense fear that I could give up a part of my body and intense love that I could bless another person with it.

“Oh Lord God Almighty, am I really going to donate my kidney? Who else would help Tony if I didn’t?”

I struggled with this tug of war for a few moments, and then I made up my mind and heart right where I stood.

Giving Myself Away Part II
Special Article by Taylor Tagg

Of all the lessons I’ve learned in life, one of the most healing was giving away what I no longer needed mentally, emotionally, and physically.

In doing so, I discovered what was lying underneath, my true nature.

It was a space where I could purely choose who I wanted to be. I chose love, kindness, compassion, and forgiveness.

– Taylor Tagg
The Moment of Decision and How Forgiveness Played a Part
There was no doubt what I needed to do.

It was apparent the Chhim family was not finding favor with others to help donate a kidney. Something in me said, “it’s time for you to step up Taylor.”

All of the forgiveness work I’ve done and helped others with gave me the courage to let go to the flow of this kidney donation process. If I could help myself and others let go of very painful emotional resentments, surely I could let go of a physical kidney to help save a life.

So, I called the Westchester Medical Center back and told them I would be willing to donate my kidney to Tony. A lot of testing needed to be done to make sure it was a go, but I committed right then and there to helping a friend in need, even if he I hadn’t met him yet.

For me, no matter what happened from that point forward, there was no turning back.

I called Tim and told him the good news. He was silent for a few seconds. I guess he was shocked and needed to make sure it was really happening. Then he burst out in joy and thanks.

A few minutes later, his wife Kim called me on the phone in tears, elated that her son would finally receive the help he needed.

I was taken by surprise too. A lot of praise and thanks was heaped on me in a short amount of time and I wasn’t even approved to donate the kidney yet.

I felt uncomfortable. What if something went wrong and the donation didn’t happen? I had to remind myself to stay grounded. It was important to open my heart to receive the thanks coming my way, but I needed to remain centered to remember why I was doing this. A son needed help to live.

As the detailed donation testing commenced, momentum kept rolling.

All of my MRIs, Cat Scans, and blood work came back looking great. At 45 years old, I was glad to discover I was completely healthy. I thought this was going to go so well, that I tentatively told Westchester Medical that I would like to donate my kidney within a month.

As my case went up for final review at the monthly hospital board meeting, it was apparent that I was a great candidate. The kidney surgeon wanted to see one more thing before signing off, an MRI of my prostate given that my PSA number was slightly elevated for my age.

So, I scheduled a test with a local urologist and he became immediately concerned about my elevated PSA number. So much so, he wanted to biopsy my prostate first without looking at it as an image.

This was contrary to what the kidney surgeon ordered. It immediately put me in an uncompromising position of having to tell someone no.

I decided I had committed to the kidney surgeon first. I was all in with him or nothing. I told the urologist to please order the MRI first, but he refused.

What the heck?

I didn’t know how to proceed at that point. Everything had gone so well and so smooth up to that point. It reminded me that a little adversity was par for the course. Of course!

How could Tim, Tony, and I go through this procedure and not have some adversity? Tim, Tom Cunningham, and I wrote Adversity to Advantage to help work through overcoming adversity for goodness sakes! I laughed at that thought and went on my way.

Difficulties, though, continued to bog the situation down. I got the MRI scheduled on my own through a friend and went in for the test. I had taken my clothes off and was sitting in a gown right in front of the machine when a technician burst in the room and said, “this is the wrong MRI machine. You need another one.”

“What?,” I muttered. “The wrong MRI machine? What’s the difference? Aren’t they all the same?”

I didn’t know but I was more confused than ever. I thought, “are we ever going to get this test done? Will I ever be cleared to give my kidney?”

I’ll be honest. It seemed like a long way off.

Weeks had passed trying to get this MRI image done and the process had bogged completely down in neutral. Still, I reminded myself that this was on God’s time and not mine. All would be well. All was well in that moment.

Well lo and behold, soon after I got home from the almost MRI, the urologist called and said he had changed his mind, that he was willing to order the MRI for me.

Yes! Finally, some help and synergy! I pointed up to acknowledge the heavenly intervention.

Just a few days after that, I had the correct MRI test run.

The results were good. My prostate was healthy and normal. No more tests needed to be done. I was free to schedule the kidney donation on my own schedule.

The coast was finally clear.

However, one thing stood out to me.

The time had come for me to truly step up for my friend Tim and his son Tony.

To read Part 1, click here.

Coming in May
Time Drawing Near and A Battle With Fear