Ellaina Davidson longs for a time when she doesn’t have to take insulin shots multiple times a day.

Not having to travel to North Vernon for four-hour kidney dialysis three times a week also would be nice, she said.

Kidney and pancreas transplants would change her life — no more Type 1 diabetes, renal failure or dialysis.

“You know how amazing it’s going to be to look at a chocolate chip cookie and say, ‘I’m going to eat that, and I’m not going to die today,'” the 31-year-old Seymour woman said.

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She also wants to buy her first jar of Nutella and enjoy it.

“It’s just the small things like that that you think of,” she said. “You don’t think of the huge ways it’s going to change your life. You just think of all of those small little annoyances you’ve had, and those are all just going to be gone.”

Davidson hasn’t had function in her pancreas since she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 6, and later on, her kidneys lost all function.

For three years, she tried to get on the transplant list through a center in Indianapolis, but it never worked out.

Shortly after her information was faxed to Jewish Hospital Trager Transplant Center in Louisville, Kentucky, she had all of her examinations completed. Then she attended orientation to meet the transplant team and learn how transplants work.

Davidson’s mother, Traci Whipple, said a nurse told them the chance of a pancreas and kidney transplant are limited because the pancreas donor must be deceased. The nurse also said the wait list can be long if a person just needs a kidney, but it is much shorter when a person needs a kidney and a pancreas.

“As far as diet and exercise and being limited on what I can and can’t do, it’s going to open up so many new possibilities for me,” Davidson said of the transplants. “It’s going to be a whole new life for me, one that I’ve never been able to live before.”

She would be able to work full time again, and most importantly, she could do more things with her sons, Miles, 7, and Bannon, 5.

“They’ve always known me as being sick, in and out of hospitals,” she said. “They are used to getting that phone call, ‘Mommy can’t come get you this week because she’s got to be in the hospital.’ They’ve been juggled around with the dialysis schedule, and I think it’s going to be so much bigger for them to have kind of a normalish mom.”

Whipple has organized fundraisers to help with her daughter’s travel, food, medicine and other everyday living expenses.

Handmade keychains from June Bug Boutique in Seymour may be purchased, Donate Life bracelets will be sold and a benefit motorcycle ride, sponsored by Saw Brothers Bike Club, is set for April 28. Registration starts at noon that day at Brewskies Grub & Pub in Seymour with kickstands going up at 1 p.m. The cost is $15 for a rider and $20 for a couple.

Following the ride, there will be a raffle and silent auction, and a band will play from 6 to 8 p.m. T-shirts may be purchased through Traci Royalty Whipple on Facebook or the day of the ride.

Anyone interested in donating items for the raffle and silent auction may contact Whipple through Facebook, Lori and Chad Keithley at Brewskies or Mark Hobson through Saw Brothers Bike Club. Donations also may be made online at gofundme.com/ellainadavidson.

After the transplants, Davidson said she will have to take anti-rejection medicine for the rest of her life. It’s about $600 a month, and insurance may not cover it. Plus, she will be out of work for about six months to heal from the surgery.

“It fills my heart to see people helping,” she said. “My whole life, I’ve tried to instill positivity in people. It’s like I gravitate toward people who are having a hard time in life, and I feel like it’s so that I can help them. This kind of feels like in a way that I’m being rewarded for my positive outlook through my whole life.”

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin, which is a hormone needed to allow sugar to enter cells to produce energy, according to mayoclinic.org.

“I just remember I was sick all of the time,” Davidson said. “We never could figure out why. I was in the doctor’s (offices) all of the time. Back in the ’80s, they thought it was colic, and it was this and it was that. They didn’t think to test a young child for diabetes.”

Treatment focuses on managing blood sugar levels with insulin, diet and lifestyle to prevent complications, according to mayoclinic.org.

“As far as diet and exercise and being limited on what I can and can’t do, it’s going to open up so many new possibilities for me. It’s going to be a whole new life for me, one that I’ve never been able to live before.”

Seymour resident Ellaina Davidson on the importance of her receiving kidney and pancreas transplants

Davidson said it was scary when she went to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis to learn how to do insulin shots. She practiced by using an orange and an insulin syringe.

“It hits you even then that you have to do this at a young age for the rest of your life or your inevitable is going to happen,” she said.

People often would say to her, “I couldn’t do that. I would just die.”

“When you’re literally faced with that option to do it or die, you just do it,” she said. “You just do whatever gives you more time.”

When she started the shots, she discovered she was insulin-resistant.

“We had to go through the very few insulins they had back then to find ones that worked, and that was kind of trial and error,” she said. “They would put me on it for a month or so, and sugar was still high, so we would start over from ground zero trying to find the perfect balance.”

She started taking two shots a day, but it went up to 10 a day when she hit puberty and remained at that level for 15 years.

Initially, she was put on a calorie-counting diet.

“For every little thing I ate, I would have to take a shot for it,” she said. “It could be something just minute that you wouldn’t even think about, and it would skyrocket my sugars, and I would be in the hospital.”

She had doctor appointments every three months, but in between, she often found herself in the hospital for high blood sugar levels.

“It would be nothing for me to walk in with 1,500 to 1,800 blood sugar and the doctor say, ‘She should technically be dead right now,'” Davidson said.

At 15, she switched to Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville and changed to a carbohydrate-based diet. She could eat lean meats and vegetables but could not eat sweets and had to watch her intake of bread and dairy products.

After she had her second son, her kidneys started to shut down. One time, after working a 10-hour shift at Aisin, she built up 32 pounds of fluid in her body.

That led to her starting kidney dialysis, going to DaVita Dialysis Center in North Vernon every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for four-hour treatments.

Whipple, a licensed practical nurse at Schneck Medical Center’s pain center, said a nurse practitioner told her it was urgent for her daughter to start dialysis.

“We always knew that dialysis would be in her future. We just didn’t know when,” Whipple said. “Her pancreas has never produced insulin, and her body was resistant to the injections, so her blood sugars were always high — high being above 500. Normal for her age at that time was 80 to 220. The higher the sugar, the worse the kidney damage.”

Davidson also has to have frequent surgeries on her fistula for dialysis. Whipple said scar tissue builds up around the fistula, which causes sluggish treatments. The nurses are not able to remove the fluid needed without causing symptoms, including arm pain, abdomen and leg cramping, nausea, vomiting and increased blood pressure.

In January, a surgeon made a large vessel by connecting a vein and an artery together. Scar tissue will continue to be removed about every six months until the fistula properly works, Whipple said.

For the past year, Davidson has worked part time at Circle K on North Ewing Street in Seymour. She said she is fortunate to have an understanding boss and co-workers, and customers also ask how she is doing.

“I want that social interaction so I’m not cooped up thinking about myself,” she said. “I like to stay positive about it, and I think if I’m just sitting at home thinking about everything going on, it will really put a damper on my demeanor.”

Davidson said she’s lucky to have people at dialysis to interact with and share stories and have family members and friends who support her.

If it wasn’t for her kids, she said she wouldn’t have made it this far.

“I would have just given up because (dialysis) is that bad sometimes. It’s not glorious by any means, and it’s not fun and games. It’s painful, and it makes you feel sick,” she said. “But when you have such a strong reason to keep going, you’re going to do it. My kids are my everything, and I know that they need me in their lives as they are growing up, so you just do what you’ve got to do to make it another day.”

A positive mindset has helped her persevere through her struggles, which also include a flesh-eating disease when she was 16 after a fall and going blind in both eyes for a while after her first pregnancy.

“I’ve worked my entire life to show people that I’m just as normal as everybody else,” she said. “I just have health issues, and I don’t let them bring me down. Everything meant to just tear somebody down, I’ve gained from it, and I think it’s really made me a strong person.”

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Fundraisers have been set to help with Ellaina Davidson’s travel, food, medicine and other everyday living expenses.

Handmade keychains provided by June Bug Boutique in Seymour may be purchased, Donate Life bracelets will be sold and a benefit motorcycle ride, sponsored by Saw Brothers Bike Club, is set for April 28. Registration starts at noon that day at Brewskies Grub & Pub in Seymour with kickstands going up at 1 p.m. The cost is $15 for a rider and $20 for a couple.

Following the ride, there will be a raffle and silent auction, and a band will play from 6 to 8 p.m. T-shirts may be purchased through Traci Royalty Whipple on Facebook, and they also will be sold at the ride.

Anyone interested in donating items for the raffle and silent auction may contact Whipple through Facebook, Lori and Chad Keithley at Brewskies or Mark Hobson through Saw Brothers Bike Club. Donations also may be made online at gofundme.com/ellainadavidson.

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