Utah Jazz GM Justin Zanik talks about his kidney transplant | UTAH JAZZ

Utah Jazz GM Justin Zanik talks about his kidney transplant | UTAH JAZZ

I got news about 3 weeks ago and I have now have a surgical date April 2nd they went into the registry and there is a donor who is as good of a match as if it was from my own family and so April 2nd I have a kidney Transplant my wife had been telling me over the summer this past summer that she thought I was more tired and I said of course I’m tired I’m a NBA general manager and I’ve been across the Pacific twice and flown 25,000 Mi over the period of 3 weeks did the physical

Everything was really really good um except for one thing my kidney function was at 14% that is not good that is technically kidney failure and I kind of knew it from my family history my dad um was transplanted almost 21 years ago still alive doing great uh in good

Health um he had a genetic disease called PKD which stands for polycystic kidney disease and I kind of always knew that I’d have to deal with it never knew that I actually had it but knew that that could be a possibility and obviously the doctors were surprised um I still felt

The same I hadn’t had any events that would make me feel like I needed to go to the doctor so I ended up doing a bunch of research you know your first thoughts are like what’s going to happen to me um you know what’s dialysis like when’s that going to happen transplant all

Those things you know run through your mind and what we wanted to do was you know get a transplant there were a lot of things that we needed to do um and learn about about organ donation transplant and I think a lot of people just assume like organ donation is the

Box you check on your driver’s license and you know if something happens to you but what’s really cool about iCal technology now and science um it’s been going on for a while is a living donor transplant this system has allowed people access to better outcomes from organ transplant you know 20 years ago

30 years ago you’re you’re just the people that you know um the people that in your circle what’s unfortunate with the genetic disease is that my family which is usually a 50% chance of having a great match weren’t going to be eligible so it was going to be

Me being okay with talking about it and in my job and in my career I’ve always been a fixer I’ve always been the one that helps fix everything else um and support so it was hard for me at the beginning to talk about me needing to be

Fixed and needing help um but once I got over that I started talking about it um internally uh with our Jazz family and and my family and friends and the support and respon response was just humbling um I had a lot of people people that you don’t ever expect just saying

Hey I’ll go get tested for you kidney transplants are one of those gifts that you can give to people to prolong their lives while you’re still alive and it was really interesting of just learning about the process and how streamlined it is and how uh it’s been able to optimize

Outcomes for patients to extend their lives there’s a lot of assumptions um of what people think organ ation is or think what a transplant is or you know can you live your own life can you live a good life yes I can live the same life

That I have right now for a lot longer now the recovery they’re supposed to kick me out of the hospital in 3 to 4 days um and then there’s the recovery from the actual surgery the incision and things like that but um mainly getting the levels right and the drugs right

Because I’ll be on anti-rejection drugs my entire life that balancing part but things go well they say I can be back to work in 3 weeks which is amazing the scheduling of it really makes a lot of sense we’re about to finish the season we’ll have exit interviews and other things that

I’ve basically been doing a little bit earlier this year um and then I’ll be back before the combine when all of our pre-draft stuff so this kind of month between the end of the season and when we start our pre-draft process is is a perfect time for me to be to recover and

Come back and start watching workouts and be a part of the group The Lesson that I’ve learned especially as you get older in your 30s and your 40s and your 50s that it’s really really important to get a physical every year there are just so many things

That if you know that doctors and Science and medical personnel can address but you don’t know you don’t feel I didn’t feel any different I didn’t you know you go and talk to everyone here like a lot of people that don’t know about this are going to be shocked

It’s like go see your doctor go see him once a year and it’s it’s a pain sometimes we’re all busy we have family and we have kids and we have our careers and sometimes it’s easy to just put that to the side about our own health especially if we feel okay

And the best thing you can do to take care of yourself is to go have one someone take a look do once a year

Learn more: https://www.nba.com/jazz/news/we-are-humbled-justin-zanik-family-express-gratitude-ahead-of-kidney-transplant

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