Published August 2026
When your health begins to slip away, you realize something powerful: Ain’t no worries until you’re worried about your health.
Kendall Brunson knows this reality well. After 7 1/2 years on dialysis, he finally received his lifesaving kidney transplant at Jefferson Health. Transplant provided him with a new-found freedom, allowing him to return to his passions of music, nature, and writing. Whether he’s playing his trumpet at local military ceremonies, protecting local parks, or advocating for organ donation, Kendall his always giving back.
His first big endeavor post-transplant was writing his book Kidneys Kount – The Chronicles of Kenny & Kimora, a children’s book inspired by his transplant experience. This incredible resource is one of many ways he advocates for the transplant community as he is also a dedicated volunteer ambassador, even attending this year’s Transplant Games of America in Denver.
Thank you to Kendall for attending our July Staff Meeting and sharing your incredible story with our staff. We especially enjoyed hearing his poem “Ain’t No Worries Until You’re Worried About Your Health,” read it below.
We spend our days chasing shadows of things we think we need— a little more money, a little more love, a little more time to prove something to someone.
We worry about bills stacking up on the kitchen table, about a relationship that slipped through our hands like water through loose fingers, about dreams that didn’t quite become reality.
We say, “I’ll figure it out.” We say, “It’ll be alright.” Because in the grand scheme of things, those worries feel heavy— until something heavier arrives.
Then one day the doctor’s voice gets quiet, and the room feels smaller than it did before. Words like chronic disease, CKD, dialysis, start sounding like storms rolling in over a clear sky.
Suddenly the worries change. You’re not thinking about late rent or who left your heart in pieces. You’re thinking about numbers, about creatinine,
about appointments, about whether your body will keep doing what it used to do without asking.
You learn the rhythm of machines, the quiet hum of dialysis chairs lined in rows,
people sitting in patience and courage three days a week, four hours at a time,
fighting a battle no one can see.
You begin to understand how precious a working organ is— how miraculous it is
that two small kidneys can mean the difference between surviving and truly living.
And somewhere in that struggle hope shows up wearing a different name: organ donation.
A stranger’s generosity. A second chance wrapped in sacrifice. A reminder that humanity still shows up for one another when life hangs in the balance.
Because the truth is simple and humbling all at once— You can lose money and earn it again. You can lose love and find it again. You can rebuild dreams brick by brick.
But when your health begins to slip away, you realize something powerful: Ain’t no worries until you worry about your health.
So, take care of the body that carries your story. Drink the water. Eat with intention. Move with gratitude. Listen when your body whispers before it has to scream. Protect the life inside of you and honor those fighting to keep theirs.
Because at the end of every loss, every lesson, every second chance—The greatest wealth you will ever hold is simply this: Your health.
Take care of yourself.