I recently overheard someone say, “It’s so easy, even Coach Mike can do it…” Obviously that implies that I can only do easy things. I resent that a little bit. About a year ago I was walking through the airport, and I saw a sign with a stick figure on it – I guess that was supposed to be me or something. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVK0ZR_ufcU).
Not cool. Not too cool at all.
What is loyalty? The DirtBags, the Redskins Appreciation Club band (www.ontherac.com) performed a song for me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xls6-uBZSA) to help me find a kidney donor and raise awareness for organ donation.
“The world needs to know that Redskins’ fans stand by their team, and their team’s fans,” said Thomas Warren, RAC President in the RAC’s press release.
That’s all you need to know. Skins fans stick together. It’s like a fraternity. Two years ago, I wrote 10,000 words in support of Art Monk, the greatest receiver currently in the Hall of Fame, to get into the Hall (http://www.coachmike.net/artmonk.php). My article didn’t even scratch the surface of what other fans did over an eight-year period. The DirtBags did this now classic song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNCSHC1fsoo.
But the point is, what goes around comes around.
The Dirtbags will be performing the song in the parking lot of Fed Ex Field December 6 before the Redskins-Saints game. They’re even letting me sit in on drums. It should be a lot of fun. See the press release for more information.
I’m looking for a donor for a kidney transplant that my doctors say I should have relatively soon. I have polycystic kidney disease. Please see www.mikeneedsakidney.com for more details.
Check out this song the Dirtbags did for me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xls6-uBZSA. The Dirtbags (http://ontherac.com/dirtbags.htm) are the official rock band of the Redskins Appreciation Club. They play in the parking lot of Fed Ex Field before every Redskins home game.
We included in the song a mention of the fact that 80,000 people are on the waiting list for a kidney in the U.S., and more than 10 of them die each day waiting, so the song isn’t just for me but to promote awareness about kidney donation in general.
A lot of those people waiting are much worse off than me because I’m not on dialysis yet. I’m hoping to go directly to transplant. That’s what the doctors recommend if possible.
If you want to donate to somebody, a couple of great sites are www.matchingdonors.com and www.kidneyregistry.org. Everybody has two kidneys and only needs one. After donating you can be out of the hospital in less than two days.
The songs says the Redskins need to draft a new Art Monk, and I need to get a kidney transplant. One of those things is unbelievably important, and it would be really great if it happened.
Of course, the other thing, getting a kidney, is important too.
That’s me in the back of the video on drums. The Dirtbags are also going to perform the song before the Redskins-Saints game December 6 in the parking lot at Fed Ex Field in the Green lot, A 60, two hours before kickoff. I’ll be in the back doing a little bit of drums, hoping I don’t mess up the music. These guys are good, with the President on guitar and vocals, Whiskey Sergeant Major on guitar, and Lefty on bass.
I first heard of the Dirtbags after they did a song about putting Art Monk in the Hall of Fame. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNCSHC1fsoo. It was classic and it got more than 3,000 hits on You Tube. Funny, Peter King changed his tune after that one.
Anyway, just google “becoming a kidney donor” and read up on it for a few minutes. Maybe you’ll decide to donate to somebody, if not now, then maybe at some point in the future.
All this stuff like my website and the videos may seem a little bit unorthodox but the goal is to create more awareness.
Thanks for reading and thanks again to the Dirtbags. I appreciate it. HAIL!
I have a new kidney video up at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1u-rPIP6sw.
In this one, I ask for a kidney donation for a transplant that I will need because of polycystic kidney disease. I mention www.mikeneedsakidney.com and how my kidney function is dropping pretty fast.
Just to do something different, I ask for a kidney in English, Danish, and French. Then I ask for one in an Australian accent. It’s not that I expect or want the donor to be Danish or French; it’s just that those are the only other languages I know a little bit. I had a lot of help with the translation. It may seem a little bit unorthodox, but I just thought it would be a different, interesting thing to do, and I hope that everything I do creates a little more awareness about kidney donation.
I think a lot of people aren’t very aware about kidney transplants and donation. Highly educated people ask me questions that show this.
People who are healthy can donate one of their two kidneys and get along fine, and even be out of the hospital in as little as a day after the surgery, which is done laparoscopically with a small incision. It does take a while to get back to work.
Kidney disease gets less publicity than other diseases or disorders. Part of the reason is that it disproportionally affects poor people who often don’t check on their hypertension and diabetes until it’s too late. Part of the reason for that is because many indigent people lack adequate health insurance. Maybe it will get more attention in the future. Ten years ago there wasn’t much awareness about autism and now there is.
In the video I mention that I’m not just looking for a kidney for myself, but I’m also trying to raise awareness about the fact that there are 80,000 people in the U.S. waiting for kidneys and more than 10 of them die each day waiting.
That’s why I did my previous kidney video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QU7TPvIQMI. I’m a terrible singer and rapper, so naturally I had to do a rap video.
And while I’m at it, I might as well give a plug for the one I did in the beginning of the year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDbIw1d8XLM&feature=related.
For the new video, it was hard to choose from the three takes that I did, because they were all equally bad. I almost fell asleep while watching the video.
***
Quick timeout for Coach Mike’s Mailbag:
Really? It looks more like you fell asleep during the video.
Ha ha. Very funny.
By the way, when are you going to make another movie? Last time I saw you was more than 20 years ago in “The Breakfast Club,” “Sixteen Candles,” and “Weird Science.”
Very funny. Everybody’s a comedian…
At one point you say you are going to “attempt the Danish now…” It’s not like this is a motorcycle jump or a magic trick.
True. Those would have been easier.
(Actual email:) I couldn’t watch your new video it was so boring. Now people won’t watch the good rap one cause they’ll first be bored by your new one and move on. You also are totally repetitive in your blog. You already explained all this. Couldn’t you have left the other one for awhile without adding a new crappy one. And why do you keep saying what a bad voice etc. you have. The whole point is that you need a kidney. Otherwise you could have gotten a professional rapper to do it. You’re really bugging me.
Sorry, Mom. Couldn’t you have called about this instead of emailing? (just kidding. the email was from one of my fans).
Shouldn’t people donate to, say, a single mother of three kids who is already on dialysis instead of an attention-seeking narcissist who refers to himself in the third person? I’ll hang up and listen to your answer.
Let me take the second part first. Coach Mike isn’t sure who you’re talking about. However, I agree that the idea to donate to someone who is more in need is a good one. Check out www.matchingdonors.com.
***
Anyway, my next video is due out at the end of the month and it will be original.
So back to the kidney issue. At some point I’ll have to get a transplant or go on dialysis. Dialysis is a long, tiring process that cleans the toxins from the blood. While it is life saving, it results in death for 20% of dialysis patients each year.
Transplants result in a better quality of life and a better outcome than dialysis. In fact, kidney transplants are one of the few surgeries in which you can go from being extremely sick to just about as good as new, as if you never had the problem.
The waiting list for my blood type (O) is about five years and so far I’ve accrued a year and a half of waiting time. Kidneys from the waiting list come from deceased donors. A kidney from a living donor usually lasts significantly longer than one from a deceased donor. Also, people who receive transplants without ever having to go on dialysis fare better on average than those who are transplanted after having been on dialysis.
In order to be compatible to donate to someone, you have to be the same blood type, though if you’re a different blood type, you can do a paired donation. That happens when you have two unmatched donor-recipient pairs in which the recipients match the other donors, and the hospital supervises the exchange, doing both operations simultaneously or one after the other.
A couple of good sites are www.matchingdonors.com and www.kidneyregistry.org. Matchingdonors has profiles of people looking for kidneys. The National Kidney Registry facilitates paired kidney donations, in which incompatible or poorly matched donor-recipient pairs try to find a compatible match or a more compatible match from a pool of donors.
Sometimes I ask myself if I would donate a kidney to somebody in need. It would be easy for me to say yes, but the truth is we’ll never really know. I feel like I would definitely donate to a wife or a child, (though I’m not married yet and don’t have kids), and I’d also donate to a parent or a sibling. Anyone else, I’m not so sure. So in other words, I’m asking for a kidney from a stranger (or a friend or acquaintance but that probably would have happened by now if it was going to happen). Meanwhile, I’m not sure I’d do it myself. I guess you could call that hypocritical, though it’s honest.
On the other hand, I’ve been working with or volunteering for kids and adults with autism and other disabilities for more than 10 years. I believe that many of the parents I’ve met, while they do an amazing job, wouldn’t necessarily be helping kids with autism if they didn’t have kids with autism themselves.
Whenever somebody helps somebody – saves a person through CPR or rescues someone from a burning building for example – the person says that he or she is not a hero, that anybody would have done the same thing. But that’s not true. A lot of people wouldn’t have done it.
This whole thing – asking for a kidney on a website, in videos, on a bumper sticker, does seem kind of strange. It’s pretty surreal. But do you have a better idea? My hope is to get one for myself, and through my website and my videos, create enough awareness so that maybe at least one other person decides to donate who otherwise wouldn’t. And maybe 5, 10, or 20 years down the road, the seed will have been planted for someone who would someday be ready to donate to someone. Or maybe more people will fill out organ donor cards, or it will become easier to donate like it is in Europe.
Here’s my new video asking for a kidney donation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QU7TPvIQMI. It’s based on Coolio’s song “Gangster’s Paradise.” (Do a youtube search on that to see the original video, which is great). I’m looking for a kidney donor for a transplant that I’ll need in 2010 but the purpose of the video is also to raise awareness for kidney donation for others in need of a kidney. I’m probably the least likely person around to do a rap and to sing, but I did my best (which wasn’t that great) and it was a lot of fun. Special thanks to Martine Marshall who also appeared in my first kidney video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDbIw1d8XLM). Thanks too to Liz Riker for producing.
(Wow. I just looked at the video. I look pretty serious. I was originally planning to do one that was more upbeat but I thought this song fit best for now. Any future ones will be more fun.)
As of October 26, 2009, my kidneys are functioning at 9.1% and getting worse. I have a genetic disease called polycystic kidney disease. See www.mikeneedsakidney.com for updates. Although I’m not on dialysis, my doctors are urging me to get ready for it now. I’m hoping to go directly to transplant because the outcomes of transplants are much better when the recipient hasn’t yet been on dialysis.
I admit that the idea of asking for a kidney in a video or on a website seems unusual, but 15 years ago the idea of meeting someone to date from the internet seemed strange, and now some people get married by meeting that way.
So in the video I mention that in the U.S. there are 80,000 people waiting for kidneys and ten people die each day waiting for a kidney. The average time on the waiting list is three years but it’s five years if your blood type is O. Also, kidney transplants from the waiting list are statistically less successful than those from living donors.
If you want to donate to someone, here are a few websites to check out:
Here are a couple of sites on organ donation:
Or just google “donating kidneys” and see what comes up.
For healthy people, the risks are minimal to donate. Everybody has two kidneys and only needs one. The operation results in some pain, but the donor is out of the hospital in one or two days. All the medical expenses are paid for by the recipient’s insurance.
Again, this isn’t just for myself. I hope to raise awareness for the problem. It’s like for my other website, www.coachmike.net. The main goal never was to get business for myself – I’ve turned down way many more clients than the number who I’ve actually worked for – and I’m very unlikely to add anyone else. Part of the goal of coachmike.net was to raise awareness about autism and my philosophies of what works best.
Anyway, if I can get a donor, that moves everyone else on the list behind me up one spot. If a couple of others ultimately decide to donate because of a website, a video, a blog, or a bumper sticker, then that moves another couple of people up the list. And if a couple of people get the seed planted in their heads and donate five, 10, or 20 years down the line, then that helps as well. So think about that if this seems at all unorthodox or even distasteful to you.
I write like I speak — candidly, honestly, and directly. Some people don’t like it because it’s not always diplomatic or politically correct. But just remember that your friends are the ones who will be honest with you rather than just telling you what you want to hear.
I must have met a bunch of people in the last few years who are really into dog rescue programs, which is great. I just wish people treated people equally as well as they treat dogs. Not necessarily better, just equally as well. We also place a higher importance on recycling tin cans than donating organs.
Besides the music, I borrowed a lot of the lyrics for the video from Coolio. I also snuck in a couple of lines that were tributes to two of the best, earliest and most influential rap songs of all time — “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugar Hill Gang and “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. I even got a reference to Len Bias in there.
I went to Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia on October 21 because I had never been there and I also wanted to see the fall foliage. The leaves had actually not quite peaked yet – there were a lot of yellows but not a lot of oranges and reds.
Shenandoah Park in Virginia in the Fall
I did get to see a bear for the first time ever outside of a zoo, though. I was just thinking earlier, “I’ve never seen a bear. It would be cool to see one.” Then as I was driving north on Skyline Drive just north of Route 211, I saw a bear high up in a tree, probably about 30 yards up the tree, just west of the road. It was a young black bear, probably about three and a half feet long. It climbed down the tree and then walked deeper into the woods. Just as it was getting out of eyesight, I thought there might have been another one but I couldn’t tell for sure. Pretty cool. Here’s the shaky video I took. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnLWjh4pJ2U
As for the scenery, it was pretty nice. I imagine that the leaves probably are peaking right now although some of them would have already turned brown.
This is the world debut of my new video: The Most Interesting Man in the World, a takeoff on the Dos Equis commercial.
Here are my other videos:
