Danette Smith: Life after Wilson’s Disease

Life after Wilson’s Disease  – My Guest, Danette Smith, Ambassador at Mid-South Transplant Center. “Organ donation is not a tragedy, but it can be a beautiful light in the midst of one.” Most people will face an emergency or life alerting event at some point in their life.  It is never about what has happened to us, but rather what we do next.  I know you have heard several quotes like, “every dark cloud has a silver lining” or “my set back is nothing compared to my comeback”.  Having a positive mindset can many times determine how we make it through the storm.  Danette Smith would find herself having to draw on every positive thought she could muster and as she explains, she needed the help of her family and friends. In 2016, Mrs. Smith started having a series of unexplained symptoms that would send her down a long road of seeing doctors and having tests ran to find out what was causing the issues.  Eventually, Mrs. Smith was diagnosed with a rare form of Stills Disease.  This condition is usually found in children but Mrs. Smith had developed this condition well into her adult years. Several years went by with her managing this new illness in her life when she found herself becoming increasingly more sick, with new symptoms.  This again set her progress back and in 2021 Mrs. Smith found herself with a new diagnosis of Wilson’s Disease, which is an abundance of copper build up in the liver causing cirrhosis.  She explains how her condition continued to deteriorate until she was at death’s door.  A liver transplant was the only thing that could help and it was this tragic event that led her to become a volunteer and mentor for organ transplants.  Mrs. Smith could have easily considered herself to be the victim of some unfair breaks in life, but instead she sees her years of struggle as a gift that now she can use to help and encourage others to press on when life deals you a tough hand. Please continue to listen and support this podcast and be sure to check out my social media content on my website http://MotivateWithCoachCamp.com   Also, if you are interested in becoming an official sponsor of this podcast please click the link below to learn more.   👉 SPONSOR THIS PODCAST -  https://bit.ly/443wPRj 🔗 WEBSITE - http://www.motivatewithcoachcamp.com 📺 WATCH - YouTube and Facebook 🎧 LISTEN - Apple and Spotify   This episode was recorded at SRP Studios and Produced by Shelby Row Productions LLC SRPStudiosLLC.com