PJ and Tracy Spraggins are a perfect match.

Rival fans

Sure, there are differences for the Center Point couple married for about 12 years.

PJ went to Alabama State University and Tracy is an alumnus of rival Tuskegee University.

PJ is a professional drummer who also knows his way around the keyboard, and Tracy is a school teacher who has taught herself to play bass guitar.

She stands about 5 feet tall with heels, and he’s about 5’9″.

But when it comes down to what really counts, PJ’s kidney – removed and placed into his wife on Feb. ­24 – matched and made a life-saving difference.

“When they removed the kidney from me and placed it in Tracy, she started producing urine almost immediately. They told us that in most cases, it’s usually a little while – a day or so – before that happens,” says PJ.

The best kind of care

The couple traveled to Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville for the transplant. PJ was in the hospital four days, and Tracy was there eight days.

The transplant means new life for Tracy, who had been on dialysis a couple of years since the autoimmune disease lupus attacked her kidneys, rendering them ineffective.

“Lupus can attack various organs in the body. It attacked my kidneys,” Tracy said.

Doctors have told the Spraggins the transplanted kidney has eradicated Tracy’s lupus.

Getting ready to give

“That means no more steroids,” says Tracy, recalling the side effects the medication brought, such as swelling and weight gain. She is also off of her daily regimen of home dialysis.

Before the transplant, Tracy spent eight hours a day connected to a dialysis machine, six nights a week, starting at 9 p.m., getting up in the morning to disconnect and begin her regular day of activity.

The Match

PJ and Tracy were introduced by a friend in 2001 when Tracy was in graduate school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Tracy Spraggins

“My friend met PJ when he was playing drums at Ona’s Music Room,” Tracy said. “She told me she wanted me to meet this musician. I told her I don’t fool with musicians. I was focused on my master’s program, and I didn’t have time.”

The friend continued insisting she meet this guy, and eventually Tracy and PJ began having telephone conversations, but that was difficult.

“He called and I told him I would call when I had more time,” she said. About a month after their initial contact, she finally called him and the relationship began, but not without a few bumps.

PJ wanted her to hear him play the drums, but Tracy said, “I don’t do clubs.”

He finally talked her into going to hear him at a club, but he had a flat tire on his way to pick her up and could not get her before time to go on stage. “I asked her to meet me at the club and she said no. She told me I could come by her house to visit later.”

The courtship took off and they spent hours talking on the phone, discovering how much they had in common. They married in May 2003.

Matchmaking started early

Even though they spend hours making music together, they had no idea that they could be a perfect match for a transplant.

Tracy learned in 2013 that her kidneys were failing. She began to search for a donor. Her sister, Paula, had a kidney transplant after being on a waiting list nine years and died about a year later. Tracy did not want to spend nine years on a waiting list.

“I said why not test me,” PJ said. “I didn’t know that something in me could help her have a better quality of life. But I was willing to do whatever I needed to do to help her feel better. It was a big decision. I had never been sick in the hospital. ”

The test revealed PJ as a match for his wife, but he had some work to do to get ready – he had to lose weight and get in shape.

“I was told I had the propensity for high blood pressure,” he said.

Those words would prevent him from being a donor for a procedure in Birmingham, but in December 2014 they received word from Vanderbilt Hospital that they were cleared for the transplant.

The couple made the three-hour trip to Nashville with huge support from their parents, friends and co-workers. There were benefit concerts, organized efforts for educators to contribute their unused sick leave time to Tracy, online funding campaigns and regular Facebook updates.

The entire process has brought family and friends together, and it has made the Spraggins an even closer couple.

“You have to take those vows seriously – in sickness and in health,” PJ says. “We’ve seen excellent examples among our parents. We know this is how marriage is supposed to be done. My parents and Tracy’s parents have been married 40 years or more.”

Twelve years of marriage have been filled with highs and lows, but the challenges of illness and the transplant have taught new lessons on the value of marriage, Tracy said.

“If you can overcome something that is critical in marriage,” she said,
“you can overcome anything.”

— Sherrel Stewart