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<p>MOUNTAIN TOP &#8212; Because he received &#8220;absolutely&#8221; the best Christmas present ever on Dec. 24, Tom Snyder has had the motivation and energy to eat right, walk several miles a day and lose close to 40 pounds.</p><p>&#8220;I started Jan. 1,&#8221; he said of the walking regime, noting he&#8217;ll stroll around his Wright Township neighborhood at 3:30 a.m. if that&#8217;s the only time his schedule allows.</p><p>Taking care of himself means he&#8217;s also taking care of the generous gift that he always carries with him.</p><p>&#8220;Somebody gave their life to give me a better shot at life, a better quality of life,&#8221; said Snyder, whose eyes moistened during a recent interview as he thought about the donor &#8212; a person he doesn&#8217;t know, but to whom he&#8217;s extremely grateful &#8212; whose kidney has been doing the work Snyder&#8217;s own diseased kidneys had been unable to do.</p><p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t realize how much I was pushing myself just to get through the day,&#8221; said Snyder, 49, reflecting on the weeks before the transplant when he felt fatigued but chalked it up to the long commute &#8212; 2.5 hours one way &#8212; to his job in the Philadelphia area.</p><p>He&#8217;d known since 2002 that a disease called IgA nephropathy was affecting his kidneys, and he&#8217;d managed it with medication until it progressed so far that he became one of more than 100,000 people on the national transplant waiting list.</p><p>Fortunately for people on the list, a recent development increases the odds they will be matched with a new organ before it&#8217;s too late. The development of new antiviral medications allows surgeons to transplant organs from donors who had the increasingly common infection Hepatitis C.</p><p>Out of the 101 transplants Geisinger Health System surgeons have performed during the past 12 months, Dr. Michael Marvin noted, 47 were from the HepC program.</p><p>&#8220;What&#8217;s dramatically changed is the drugs available,&#8221; Marvin, who is Geisinger director of transplantation and liver surgery, said in a telephone interview. &#8220;HepC is not just treatable, like HIV, but actually curable, with relatively minimal side effects.&#8221;</p><p>Transplant recipients who received a HepC kidney usually take antiviral medication for 12 weeks, and then go on to live with the benefits of a new organ.</p><p>&#8220;I was all for it. It&#8217;s a no-brainer,&#8221; Snyder said, explaining he was happy to receive a call on Dec. 22 letting him know a kidney, which happened to be HepC-positive, was available for him.</p><p>Snyder expected to receive that kidney, until he received another call, on Dec. 23, telling him a different kidney, an even better match from a younger donor, was available. That kidney, which was not HepC positive, is the one he received on Christmas Eve.</p><p>But, whether his new kidney was to be HepC positive or HepC negative, Snyder said, he is grateful for it.</p><p>Noting he started to feel better within a day and a half after his surgery, he said the new kidney has allowed him to return to work &#8212; for a manufacturing company that installs laboratories in hospitals &#8212; to walk six or seven miles a day, and to plan camping trips with his wife, Judy, and 16-year-old daughter, Lily. The couple also has three adult daughters, Danielle, Amanda and Holly.</p><p>&#8220;It was a blessing, a great gift,&#8221; Snyder said.</p><p>Marvin was part of the team that performed Snyder&#8217;s transplant at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, and four months later, said the Mountain Top man is past the greatest risk of his body rejecting the organ. &#8220;The most risky time is around the time of transplant and he&#8217;s past that. It&#8217;s fantastic,&#8221; Marvin said. &#8220;The thing that&#8217;s important for him now, and for all recipients, is to take their medicine and drinks lots of water.&#8221;</p><p>Marvin is delighted that the HepC program is making more organs available.</p><p>&#8220;There are people dying every day for lack of organs,&#8221; he said, encouraging potential donors to sign up. &#8220;It&#8217;s a chance to save someone&#8217;s life. It enhances someone&#8217;s life as well. All the major religions agree with organ donation.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;One of the biggest concerns I hear is that people are afraid they won&#8217;t be taken care of (after an accident) if it says on their driver&#8217;s license that they&#8217;re an organ donor,&#8221; the surgeon said.</p><p>If you&#8217;d rather not have it listed on your license, he said, you can sign up through an online portal that each state has for potential donors. &#8220;No one has access to that except the donor network.&#8221;</p><p>Addressing another concern, Marvin said, that even if you have a health condition that affects one of your organs, your donation might be able to help someone who needs a different organ. &#8220;Don&#8217;t say, &#8216;Oh, they wouldn&#8217;t want my organs.&#8217; &#8220;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Tom Snyder, 49, of Mountain Top, shown at his truck, said he is taking better care of himself through diet and exercise because he wants to take care of the kidney he received late last year. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_Synder-Kidney-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Tom Snyder, 49, of Mountain Top, shown at his truck, said he is taking better care of himself through diet and exercise because he wants to take care of the kidney he received late last year. </caption0><photoCredit0>Tony Callaio | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_Synder-Kidney-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Kidney transplant recipient Tom Snyder, 49, of Mountain Top, stays active and is looking forward to taking his wife, Judy, and daughter Lily on several trips in their RV this summer. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_Synder-Kidney-2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Kidney transplant recipient Tom Snyder, 49, of Mountain Top, stays active and is looking forward to taking his wife, Judy, and daughter Lily on several trips in their RV this summer. </caption1><photoCredit1>Tony Callaio | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_Synder-Kidney-3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">When he&#8217;s not walking outside, transplant patient Tom Snyder, 49, of Mountain Top, walks on a treadmill at his home. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_Synder-Kidney-3.jpg</photo2><caption2>When he&#8217;s not walking outside, transplant patient Tom Snyder, 49, of Mountain Top, walks on a treadmill at his home. </caption2><photoCredit2>Tony Callaio | For Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_kidney2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Kidney transplant recipient Tom Snyder, 49, of Mountain Top, stays active and is looking forward to taking his wife, Judy, and daughter Lily on several trips in their RV this summer. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_kidney2.jpg</photo3><caption3>Kidney transplant recipient Tom Snyder, 49, of Mountain Top, stays active and is looking forward to taking his wife, Judy, and daughter Lily on several trips in their RV this summer. </caption3><photoCredit3>Tony Callaio | For Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_kidney3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">When he&#8217;s not walking outside, transplant patient Tom Snyder, 49, of Mountain Top, walks on a treadmill at his home. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_kidney3.jpg</photo4><caption4>When he&#8217;s not walking outside, transplant patient Tom Snyder, 49, of Mountain Top, walks on a treadmill at his home. </caption4><photoCredit4>Tony Callaio | For Times Leader </photoCredit4></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_kidney1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Tom Snyder, 49, of Mountain Top, shown at his truck, said he is taking better care of himself through diet and exercise because he wants to take care of the kidney he received late last year. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo5>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_kidney1.jpg</photo5><caption5>Tom Snyder, 49, of Mountain Top, shown at his truck, said he is taking better care of himself through diet and exercise because he wants to take care of the kidney he received late last year. </caption5><photoCredit5>Tony Callaio | For Times Leader </photoCredit5></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>More organs available due to advances in antiviral medication</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mary Therese Biebel</p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

New kidney ‘a blessing, a great gift’ for Mountain Top man