Local third-grade teacher in need of kidney donor

BLACKFOOT — Three years ago, Tyler Wood received a worried call from his doctor.

At an earlier appointment, they’d take Tyler’s blood to run labs, which seemed like a normal thing to him. It turned out that when the doctor sent over those labs, he’d accidentally added a test on Tyler’s kidneys to the order.

That test showed he was experiencing some kidney failure, and that his kidneys could be “dying.”

Tyler’s doctor wanted him to come into the office to give him an IV in case the problem was being caused by dehydration. When that didn’t help, his doctor sent him to a specialist.

The specialist was confident they could help Tyler and figure out what was causing his kidneys to fail, but no answers came back from the tests they ran.

“They can’t figure anything out on it. They ran every test, and everything’s come back negative,” Tyler said.

The kidney failure diagnosis has wreaked havoc on Tyler’s life.

Before his diagnosis

Before Tyler became a school teacher, he was a furniture salesman. He enjoyed his job and working with his family, but his wife, Cimbrian Wood, was a teacher and he admired what she did.

Wanting to be able to spend more time with her and their three boys, Tyler made the career change to teaching. He’s now been teaching third grade at Fort Hall Elementary School for four years.

“I just love helping kids, and I love seeing the smiles on their faces when they get that aha moment, when they finally click on something,” Tyler said.

Now, Tyler and Cimbrian Wood have four boys, and they love to spend time in the outdoors — camping, hiking, snow skiing, “just really anything outside.” Every year, they go on a camping trip with their extended family to Redfish Lake.

But as time since his diagnosis has passed and his kidneys continue to lose functionality, every aspect of his life before has been affected.

A worsening condition

Things that once came easy for Tyler started to sap his energy as his condition worsened. At 35 years old, he’s found that the things he used to love doing now deplete him quickly.

When his family goes on camping trips or on outdoor excursions, he can’t do the same amount of activity as he used to because of his energy level.

“Especially with my kids, they want to play more, they want have fun with me, more outside things definitely, but I just don’t have the energy to do it,” Tyler said.

He can’t eat the same amount of food that he used to because his appetite just isn’t there.

“It just feels like your life’s falling apart because it’s your own body falling apart. It’s just failing on you,” Tyler said.

When the family goes outdoors, Cimbrian has had to bear more of the weight. On long bike rides, she has to pull the kids behind her. For hikes, she packs the backpacks. This has been hard for Tyler because things like that were always his job.

When Tyler and Cimbrian communicate, she has to remind him, “We’re in it together, and I’m here for him. And it’s OK for me to help him, and that’s what we’re here for.”

In search of a miracle

Today, Tyler is at 15% kidney function and is starting dialysis. He’s on the waiting list for a kidney, but is told that it could take six years for him to find a donor.

The doctors tell Tyler that he won’t die as long as he stays on dialysis, but that’s not a permanent fix for his condition. His sister, Shani Hessenthal, compared it to a Band-Aid.

It would be better for him to find a live donor, but he has exhausted his options. In this three-year span when Tyler found out about his condition, all of his eligible family members have been tested and are not physically able to donate one of their kidneys.

Hessenthal said that finding out she couldn’t donate to him was “devastating.”

“It’s been difficult to know that we can’t fix it. We just have to share the news and hope that somebody that can steps in and it matches,” Hessenthal said. “it’s just devastating to know that I can’t be that person for him.”

For the Woods, someone deciding to donate their kidney would change their lives.

“It would just be a miracle. It be an answer to many, many prayers that we’ve had since, since the beginning,” Cimbrian said.

If someone was interested in donating, they would go to Intermountain Healthcare’s donor registration sheet.

“It would give me my energy back, it would give me my life back in a sense to be where I could be the normal father and the great dad that I should be. So it would just be life-changing for me,” Tyler said.