Charlene Kubiak:  

Life After high school, I had a number of jobs. I worked as a nurses' aide, unit secretary, and medical records clerk. I went to Calvin for 1 1/2 years before dropping out to work full time. I married and had 3 wonderful children: Bob,28; Tracie,26; and Stevie, 24. Our daughter married a wonderful man, Brian, and blessed us in 2001 with a darling granddaughter, and 2 wonderful grandsons in 2003 and 2005. I returned to school and got a degree in Health Information and I now help with software implementations for a computer company. I have been given the opportunity to travel to a lot of different places in the country and to get to know a lot of different people. This has been both challenging and enjoyable. Our family has faced a number of challenges. My husband had kidney failure and was on dialysis for 2-3 years before receiving a kidney transplant. We then discovered that the disease that caused his kidneys to fail was familial amyloidosis, and the only treatment was a liver transplant which he received in September, 2001. He has been sick and in the hospital many time since then, which has been a lot to deal with. We have found the difference that a hospital makes. At St. Mary's in Grand Rapids, the nurses were more responsive and the physical therapists listened to Bob and tailored their treatment to what would work for him. At University Hospital in Ann Arbor, the nurses on the transplant floor were too busy, and the average wait time for any response was 30 minutes--even when the...Expand for more