Brin Jinright, 14, visited Hawaii this summer through Make-A-Wish as she dealt with late-stage kidney failure. Brin received a kidney transplant on July 10.
After months of uncertainty and being in and out of hospitals, a Beaver Crossing girl and her family got an unforgettable vacation.
Brin Jinright, 14, her mother Jody and her twin seven-year-old brothers Jarret and Jagger traveled to Kauai, Hawaii, in April, thanks to Nebraska Make-A-Wish.
Two months after that vacation, Brin received a new kidney from a live donor.
Last May, Brin said she and her dad went to an air show in Lincoln. Near the end of the day, she noticed her shoes were getting tight and she had to keep loosening her laces. Her ankles became swollen, too, and it progressed to her other extremities.
Jody said the swelling caused Brin to gain more than 15 pounds from retaining fluids.
Brin was taken to the emergency room, where they thought she was suffering from a urinary tract infection. When she visited her primary care doctor, they found her creatine had spiked, which signaled something was wrong with her kidneys.
Jody said their doctor immediately sent Brin to Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, where she was admitted to the hospital.
After months of hospital visits, blood transfusions and biopsies, Brin and Jody said doctors still aren’t 100 percent sure what caused Brin’s kidney disease.
“It’s an out-of-a-textbook thing,” Brin said.
Jody said it’s a form of glomerulonephritis, inflammation of the kidneys, which might be caused by an immune response. She added that it’s not a clear-cut diagnosis and it may be a conjunction of several things.
After several treatments, Brin was at end-stage kidney failure.
Brin was nominated for Make-A-Wish by Kelly Stutzman, a friend of the family. Brin said she didn’t get a vacation last year because of her hospitalizations.
“I just kind of wanted a summer,” Brin said.
In February, Make-A-Wish revealed Brin would receive her wish to travel to Kauai at a luau at Chez Bubba in Goehner with friends and family there to celebrate.
“It meant a lot that, a year later, we still had all that support for Brin,” Jody said.
The reveal was a surprise for Brin—she said she thought she was going to someone else’s birthday party.
“I didn’t expect [the reveal] to be so soon,” Brin said.
Brin, her family and Katie Speer of Cordova, who paid her own way, arrived on Kauai April 26 in the evening. Brin said she didn’t see the island until the next morning.
The group had adjoining, ocean view rooms where they could look out at the palm trees and gardens. That’s the view Brin saw the next morning.
“I was blown away—it was so gorgeous,” Brin said. “Looking over the balcony was just amazing.”
Brin said she and her family went snorkeling, kayaking, zip-lining and went to a luau that had a hog on the spit. They also went sight-seeing at Waimea Canyon.
With everything they did, Brin said she couldn’t pick a favorite activity.
“It’s hard to pin point because everything was a new adventure,” Brin said.
When snorkeling, Brin said they saw nine sea turtles.
“There’s different kinds of fish everywhere,” Brin said.
She said the locals were kind and generous.
When the group was on a kayak tour, they ate fresh pineapple during a break and saw 15-foot cliffs that Jagger jumped off into the water. Brin said they mentioned to their guide that ziplining would be fun.
Josh, the kayaking tour guide, had a friend who led zip-line tours. They organized the zip-lining for free.
“That’s a little bit of the hospitality on the island,” Jody said. “They want to take care of you.”
The zip-lines went through trees, Brin said, and the last one was half a mile long.
“You could barely see where you were going,” Brin said.
The group traveled back to Nebraska May 2.
Jody said when people think about Hawaii, they think of relaxing on the beach, but that wasn’t the case on this trip.
“It was action-packed,” Jody said. “From sun-up to sun-down, it was busy, busy, busy. We had a lot of good adventures as a family.”
Jody said last summer, when Brin was in the hospital, it was difficult to have the family together. So for Make-A-Wish to coordinate six days’ worth of activities was special.
“It was a blessing,” Jody said.
Following the vacation Jody’s goal was to keep Brin out of the hospital. She went through training to do Brin’s dialysis treatments at home, track her vital signs and manage medications.
“I’ve watched her go through so much,” Jody said. “I wanted her to stay home and get back to a normal teenage life.”
Even though Brin’s daily dialysis treatments lasted eight hours, she still had a busy summer.
Brin has her school permit and went through drivers’ education this summer. She also made the cheer team for Centennial, where she will be a sophomore next school year, and has begun conditioning with the softball team.
Brin was added to the national organ transplant list in early June, and on July 3, they got word that a live donor was a match.
Jody said the news was a complete surprise.
The donor wishes to remain anonymous, but Jody said this woman is one of Brin’s former teachers at Centennial. She saw Brin go through her illness and wanted her to be healthy in time for the school year. This donor took the initiative to see if she was a match for Brin.
“We were completely surprised,” Jody said.
“I was super excited,” Brin said.
Brin said she wanted to get the surgery over with. She received her transplant July 10 and said the first day out of surgery was rough. Brin went home on July 14.
“I’m determined,” Brin said.
Now, Brin is off dialysis, though she still has to take around 46 pills each day.
With these medication changes, Brin also has regular visits to the transplant clinic in Omaha to monitor her lab values to ensure she’s not showing signs of rejection.
“She’s been feeling great,” Jody said, adding that she’s eager to continue softball conditioning once her restrictions are lifted.
Jody said when Brin first got sick, and even now, friends and community members have reached out to support the family.
“Our community has been so great,” Jody said. “She had a huge outreach of support.”
Even on the worst days, Jody said Brin has always had a smile and positive attitude.
“Brin is a strong, brave, confident girl,” Jody said. “Her attitude and her faith has gotten her through her medical journey.”
This story was corrected at 11:22 a.m. on Aug. 9.
