By Karie Angell luc Columnist May 1, 2012 10:58PM

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It's 32 degrees at 4:24 a.m. April 11 at Evanston Fresenius Dialysis (2953 Central St). Kay Stoyanov's Northbrook Walgreens closing shift ended maybe five hours ago. | Karie Angell Luc~for Sun-Times Media

Updated: May 2, 2012 12:53AM

Kostadin “Kay” Stoyanov’s wait for a kidney may actually end within five years.

Last February, Stoyanov, a Northbrook Walgreens photo specialist, was interviewed for the kidney transplant list. After his Walgreens medical insurance kicks in June 30, Stoyanov, of Skokie, will officially be on the insured transplant list.

“The transplant kidney list is just a list that every hospital has, so basically I will be put on the Northeastern kidney transplant waiting list,” said Stoyanov. “You can also be put on other hospitals’ waiting lists or even other states.”

“I’m just basically done with the first step, now the hardest part is waiting, you know, that you are on a list, waiting.”

He simply wants to “get a kidney and just live a normal life.”

Stoyanov, who turned 28 last Friday (April 27), had the day off from Walgreens, but reported to his Fresenius Evanston Dialysis Center three-day-a-week morning treatment.

“I still (had) dialysis,” he said. His birthday included “dinner with my friends” at Maggiano’s Little Italy restaurant at Westfield Old Orchard Center.

In 1992, he traveled from Bulgaria to Chicago Children’s Memorial Hospital with his parents Elena and Ognian Stoyanov, who thought their son’s protein in the urine condition (causing kidney failure) would be quickly remedied.

But Stoyanov, then about 8, needed a kidney transplant. He hasn’t seen his sister Gergana in person since.

Stoyanov says there is no cure for him.

“If I didn’t (have dialysis),” said Stoyanov, “what would happen is my lungs would fill with water and I couldn’t breathe,” with his heart “pumping harder.”

Without dialysis, death would occur “probably, say, a few weeks, maybe.”

According to Fresenius statistics, more than 72,000 patients are on the kidney transplant waiting list, with 18,000 receiving a new kidney each year. Most kidney failure patients are on dialysis, totaling 368,000 Americans.  

“A kidney transplant is often considered the best form of treatment for kidney failure, but it is not a cure and it is not possible for everyone,” said Brian Brandenburg, Fresenius Medical Care regional vice president.

“If patients with kidney failure are not good candidates for transplantation or if they are waiting for a kidney, Fresenius Medical Care can help them find a dialysis treatment option that best fits their medical and lifestyle needs.”

Chronic kidney failure affects more than 2.1 million patients worldwide.

“We want people to know that patients with kidney failure can live a long, full and productive life while on dialysis,” reminds Brandenburg.

Said Stoyanov, who rarely uses an alarm to wake up for his tri-weekly 4:15 a.m. Evanston dialysis appointment: “Yah, I’m always a little tired, but you get used to it, you function okay.”

That April 11 morning he waited for dialysis, the temperature was 32 degrees.

His Walgreens black and blue sport bag held “a blanket, a sheet to cover the chair, a pillow, headphones for the TV, gloves, because your hand hooked up to the machine gets cold.”

Stoyanov watches Netflix on his phone.

“I usually watch a movie and sleep the rest of the time (until about 8 a.m.)

“It doesn’t hurt,” he said, of his fistula arm access, “but it (dialysis) does make you light-headed because it takes out your liquid, being lightheaded puts you to sleep.

Stoyanov, with no working kidneys, cannot produce urine like others.

“A lot of people say, “I’m praying for you, how are you doing?” said Stoyanov, of Walgreens customers who read about his story last February in the Northbrook Star.

“I’m living a normal life,” he said, “what’s normal to me.”

Stoyanov hopes to marry and “maybe travel more but I can’t.

“I’m going to try to basically get my sister Gergana documents to come to the United States to donate a kidney, she’s the same blood type.

“She (Gergana) said she would do it.”

Stoyanov encourages organ donation.

“You give people a second chance at life,” he urges.

“When you die, you don’t need your organs so you might as well help out people to live a better, longer life.”

Of inspiring others: “I don’t know, I don’t think I am, this is normal to me. If somebody was in my same shoes, I imagine they would do exactly the same thing, to fight, not give up, you know...

“And eventually,” said Stoyanov, “it will get better.”

Learn about kidney donation at http://www.kidney.org/transplantation/ and www.ultracare-dialysis.com.

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