Julie Wallace was Justin Lister's pharmacist when they fell in love and later decided that Wallace would give Lister her kidney.
(Courtesy Justin Lister)When Lister met Wallace, his kidneys were functioning at less than 10 percent.
Over the next couple of months, their friendship blossomed from casual conversations at the pharmacy counter to breakfasts out. Then Wallace started driving Lister to his dialysis appointments.
Eventually, they fell in love and, in March, moved in together.
"There was just something about Justin," Wallace said, pointing to his good attitude throughout his struggles.
Wallace said she broached the idea of being his kidney donor after attending classes with Lister as he prepared to get put on the kidney transplant list, where he would have likely stayed for some time.
But the odds of Lister's new girlfriend being a match weren't great. His mother had already been rejected as a possible donor.
"I just didn't ever consider it as a possibility," Lister said, "because the chances were so remote."
But tests showed that not only did they both have A-positive blood types, they were a tissue match as well. Still, Lister said, his relationship with Wallace didn't make it any easier to accept her offer.
"I felt funny about taking someone else's kidney," he said.
On Oct. 21, after 3½ months of medical testing for Wallace, including a mammogram and kidney function tests, and psychological evaluations for both, they were wheeled into the operating room at the St. Francis campus of Via Christi Regional Medical Center in Wichita, some 50 miles south of McPherson.
"I thought she was an angel, I swear," Lister said. "I knew that God had sent her or something."
Wallace went in first to have her kidney removed and Lister followed to receive the organ. Wallace said she chose to have an open incision versus a faster-healing laparoscopy because there was less chance of complications for the kidney.
"The first thing I did, after anesthesia, was to ask if she was okay," Lister said, adding that it's something he doesn't remember doing.
The couple's doctor, Dr. Charles Shield, said although they see all different types of transplant couples, Lister and Wallace's story was certainly unique and it was fun to get to know them.
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