McAffee 1

Tazia McAffee

Dr. Haslam

Engl. 2010-2

12 February 2021

Profile: Caroline White

Caroline White has gone through many hardships, but this hasn’t stopped her from

always living her life to the fullest. Her biggest regret was “Not doing more in high school,”

(White). She wishes she would’ve joined more clubs and connected with more people. “I used to

be very shy, but when I got sick, I realized that life is short, so I want to meet new people and try

not to be so reserved,” White said. At the young age of 28, White first got sick. She went on to

say, “I had never even had strep throat as a kid, then all of a sudden I was peeing blood.” As

soon as this happened, she began to worry. However, White thought it might pass, so she ignored

it and went about her day. When it happened again roughly a week later, she decided to go to her

doctor to ask if something was wrong.

She went to her Primary Care physician at the Granger Medical Clinic and wasn’t as

worried as she was. She had looked it up and it had said there were many reasons why blood

might be in your urine, and suggested to go check it out, but don’t be alarmed. When she finally

got in the room, her doctor’s Physician’s Assistant (PA) helped her. The PA checked with his

physician, and ultimately advised that she go to see a urologist just to be safe. “At this point I

was a little more worried, I don’t know exactly why they wanted me to go to a urologist, but it

made the whole situation seem a lot more serious.” They gave her a recommendation for a

urologist in the same building and told her to call and schedule an appointment. She did just that

and her appointment was scheduled to happen in two weeks.

 McAffee 2

Two weeks went by and she tried not to think about it. Although this was hard for her. As

she continued to urinate blood it was a constant reminder that something might be wrong. She sat

down at her appointment and felt “worried and confused.” However, this isn’t uncommon. “As

much as 20 percent of the population suffers from "white coat syndrome," in which blood

pressure surges when measured in the doctor's office,” (Sine, para. 4). “I felt like this all came

out of nowhere, I hoped I didn’t get a kidney infection. I thought maybe I had a UTI that went

unnoticed or something.” Finally, the Doctor came to take White back. This was unusual for her

because she usually only saw the MA or PA, never the actual doctor. “Maybe since it was my

first time at a urologist,” she said. The doctor wanted to test some samples of her blood and

urine, to try to figure out what was going on. When the samples came back, the doctor informed

her that he wanted to do more tests because her urine had traces of blood in it. She was anemic,

and her white blood cell count was low. The doctor decided to recommend an ultrasound. This

had White extremely worried because she knew that more testing meant that something might be

wrong. They scheduled her ultrasound for a week later at Jordan Valley Hospital.

During the ultrasound, they saw that there was a solid spot in her left kidney, which

indicated the presence of a mass. The doctor talked with her and warned her that the tumor might

be malignant, or cancerous. White shook her head, but she was panicking instead. Almost

immediately, they decided to do a needle biopsy on the mass. Her surgery was scheduled for the

next morning. Now she really started to panic, she began to pick up the phone to call her mom.

She didn’t want to worry her before, but she knew that now was the time. “I called and basically

told my mom that the doctor told me I might have cancer. My mom tried to hold it together, but I

heard her voice waver and it seemed like she was holding back tears,” (White).
 McAffee 3

The next morning, she had her needle biopsy. They sent the results down to pathology

and determined that Caroline had stage two cancer. The American Cancer Society explains how

a doctor determines the stage of renal cancer, “The tumor is larger than 7 cm across but is still

only in the kidney (T2). There is no spread to lymph nodes (N0) or distant organs (M0),”

(American, pg. 4). This was the case with Caroline. She would start chemo and radiation almost

immediately. “I did everything right, but after 3 years of chemo, radiation, and dialysis, it still

wasn’t working. They said we were dealing with an aggressive cancer and wanted to recommend

transplantation,” (White).

White agreed to try to receive an organ from the United Network for Organ Sharing

(UNOS). This involved a lengthy waiting process, where she would be put on a waiting list until

an organ was available. However, she had no idea when that would happen. She was also getting

sicker by the day. “People think the cancer made me feel worse day after day, but really it was

the chemo that made me sick. It drained me of my energy, took my hair, and left me in a constant

state of nausea,” White said. White remained on the list for 2 years and 3 months before

receiving her organ transplant, and this is not unusual. “In general, the average time frame for

waiting can be 3-5 years at most centers and even longer in some geographical regions of the

country,” (National, para. 12). Now, White has two healthy kidneys. However, because of the

transplant, she will have to be on anti-rejection medication the rest of her life. Therefore she will

always be immunosuppressed, making COVID-19, among a variety of other things, very scary

for her.

The last question I asked White in my interview was “If you had the opportunity to

receive a cloned organ, would you take it?” She responded with “Yes, I would have a working
 McAffee 4

immune system and who knows, maybe I could have skipped the transplant list too. So, yes, hell

yes.”

Cloned Organs can be very beneficial to people like White, who had the struggles of

waiting on a transplant list for years and now have to have a weakened immune system to

prevent rejecting the organ. “In the laboratory, scientists have cloned stem cells from human skin

and egg cells. This is significant because the process could eventually be used to produce organs

or other parts that are genetically identical to the patient's own, and therefore, pose no risk of

rejection when transplanted,” (Tate).

 McAffee 5

Works Cited

American Cancer Society. Kidney Cancer Stages: Renal Cell Carcinoma Staging. 2019,

www.cancer.org/cancer/kidney-cancer/detection-diagnosis-staging/staging.html.

National Kidney Foundation . “The Kidney Transplant Waitlist – What You Need to Know.”

The Kidney Transplant Waitlist - What You Need to Know, National Kidney Foundation, 5 Nov.

2020, www.kidney.org/atoz/content/transplant-waitlist#:~:text=Once%20you%20are%20added

%20to,geographical%20regions%20of%20the%20country.

Sine, Richard, Beyond “White Coat Syndrome.” (2008, July 31). WebMD,

https://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/features/beyond-white-coat-syndrome

Tate, Karl. “How Stem Cell Cloning Works (Infographic).” LiveScience, Purch, 16 May 2013,

www.livescience.com/32079-how-stem-cell-cloning-works-infographic.html#:~:text=In%20the

%20laboratory%2C%20scientists%20have,risk%20of%20rejection%20when%20transplanted.

White, Caroline. Personal interview. 11 February 2021.