We’ve told many stories with the folks from the National Kidney Foundation to support events like the Kidney Walk on October 6th at UMBC. But, when you meet Sam Cosby and hear his inspiring journey, you might want to do more than just walk and run. Are you a match?

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

kidney, national kidney foundation, sante, podcast, year, baltimore, umbc, wife, life, good, walk, dialysis, october, hopkins, radio, owings mills, swap, sam, day, story

SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Sam Cosby

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W N, S T, toss Baltimore, Baltimore, positive. It is a busy, busy time of the year. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. As long as baseball team keeps playing, the football team can figure out a way to win. Luke is making his way from Owings Mills to Camden Yards, all of it powered up by our friends at wise markets, in conjunction with our friends at Jiffy Lube, multi care, keeping Luke and powered up and out on the road. Our friends at the Maryland lottery have me going from crab cake to crab cake on October the 11th. We’re going to celebrate our birthdays. Luke and I. His birthday is a second. Mine’s 14th, right near Sammy Hagar and Jim Palmer, we’re going to be at Pizza John’s. Jim Palmer would like pizza John’s? They don’t. They don’t have was it the chocolate cake that we talked about a couple of weeks ago with Jim Palmer, but they got great Pete’s pie and also a great crab cake on the 11th. We’ll be doing that. I’ll be giving away the Raven scratch offs. We will be in the sister neighborhood, dare I say to Dundalk Essex. We’ll be there down on back river neck Road, having a good time telling the Pizza John story, and hopefully telling a story. The Orioles being in the American League Championship Series. I’ve told lots of stories around here. I have many friends in the in the kidney space, National Kidney Foundation, two, three times a year, we do a little something for them. They have a couple little Super Bowls. I love the Sante event. I’ve I’ve gone and supported that many, many times downtown, we are up now on the kidney walk because it’s, it’s fall time right now, and they always try to inspire me by sending me some inspirational person, much like my wife and leukemia in the bone marrow space that I get cool people telling cool stories about how they are walking the walk of Life after having kidney issues. Sam Cosby joins me now. He is going to help me make this podcast number one in the world, because that’s what he does. But he has a kidney story tell. And have I met you at sante or something? I haven’t been to the kidney walk as it always happens, like it’s happening October 6 this year before the Ravens play Cincinnati on the road and over at UMBC, people can come, but I’m much more likely to be at the one where you you feed your face and and dance and have a good time. You know,

Sam Cosby  02:07

sante events always a good time, always great food, great people, great music, all that, and great

Nestor Aparicio  02:14

storytelling, like with people like you, who the National Kidney Foundation, Patty sends her best to me each and every year. I saw Vanita about three times. This year, you know, off the beaten path, doing other things from last year, sailing and doing all that. Give me your story, Sam, because, I mean, you’re here to inspire me today, or at least my friends at cole roofing tell me that.

Sam Cosby  02:35

Oh well, it starts. Starts in 2009 I got diagnosed with IGA nephropathy. I was, I can’t

Nestor Aparicio  02:43

even spell that. Go ahead, I go, what is that? It’s,

Sam Cosby  02:47

it’s a pretty unique disease, but it basically, it’ll kill your kidneys eventually. Okay, so it was something I didn’t know I was born with, and in 2009 summer, right before I went to college for the first time, or No, I was coming back, going back for sophomore year,

Nestor Aparicio  03:07

and you’re a 19 year old kid at this time, right? Yeah. And

Sam Cosby  03:11

I just, I was sleeping all the time. I couldn’t I had no energy to do anything. I was sleeping like, 18 hours a day, and something was wrong. So I went to Hopkins, where my mom works, and and got diagnosed. It also found out my brother had had the same thing. So

Nestor Aparicio  03:31

for you, when you find this out, my wife was diagnosed with leukemia in 2014 we traced it back to 911 she was a 911 first responder in the program, like all of that. So I think when you don’t get an answer and they say it’s genetic or environmental in some way, the things that doctors and by the way, my wife fought 155 nights at Hopkins, so I kind of inspired me to do this kind of work, just in a general sense, without chasing Lamar Jackson or Adley rutschman or gunner Anderson around, which I can do in my dreams on television. But I would say for anybody that’s walked the walk and been through this, there’s that moment where the doctor says you have blank and this might kill you, and you’re going to need to be brave, and you’re going to get needles, and there’s going to be blood and all these things that doctors and fear and call work, call your loved ones, just, just all of that from a battle standpoint, but trying to understand you said that you were diagnosed and what happens at that point in your life and where you are and your collegiate experience, right? So

Sam Cosby  04:33

the situation I went into is I went at, well, I went to Hopkins. They immediately put a port in my my, you were already sick. Like, yeah, okay, I was sick. I was I was probably two weeks from dying, and, you know, if I didn’t go to the hospital or, you know, get a dialysis treatment. So anyway, they put a port in me. I went on dialysis immediately, and we tried. To find a match for a kidney transplant. So,

Nestor Aparicio  05:03

and we had the same situation with there goes, my hero, and you need a transplant, and you need a bone marrow donor, and it’s probably somebody you don’t know. It might be somebody you’re related to, um, for you with finding a match, and that period of time where you were clearly in peril to the point where you are today, which is living your best life and walking your best kidney walk on October the sixth over at UMBC. Give me that pathway in 2009 where you are. And it’s always in my life, whenever my wife would say I’m like Mary Lou Henner, I remember everything in my life, but I think, Okay, 2009 you know Joe Flacco and the Ravens, and where was I and where, you know, how, what was I doing in my life? And I’m thinking your life was shut down. And there’s that point between there and here that only, you know, that road.

Sam Cosby  05:52

Yeah, I, you know, some people want 2009 Joe Flacco back. I think. Anyway, there is.

Nestor Aparicio  06:01

You’ll never find a bigger Joe Flacco fan than me. I’m the Flacco guy.

Sam Cosby  06:06

Bigger than bigger than Stavros. My all time,

Nestor Aparicio  06:08

all time, favorite athlete, and I’ve covered them off. I do this professionally. Used to, at least till they threw me out. But Joe’s the best of the best. Joe would have been the guy in 2009 did I say Joe? Dude, I got this dude named Sam. He’s he’s in peril. Give him a call. He would have been the dude calling you. Yeah,

Sam Cosby  06:27

I heard he’s great guy. That’s good to hear. But yeah, back to 2009 I was trying to maintain a snowboarding career. I was going to Montana State for economics and

Nestor Aparicio  06:42

Montana State was that, where is that? That’s not Bozeman. It’s in Bozeman. Okay, alright, I’ve been to Bozeman.

Sam Cosby  06:48

Nice. Yeah, it’s, it’s gotten very popular after Yellowstone and all that. Yeah, the

Nestor Aparicio  06:53

day I was there, the fires were going on, and Big Sky was just like, I had brown soot coming out of my nose. You know, it’s like, people don’t understand those fires. You know, you can’t rake them away, yeah, but, but nonetheless, you’re in Montana when this happens. You’re not local at that time, no,

Sam Cosby  07:09

well, I was, I was going back. I was planning on going back to Montana for sophomore year, but because I got put on dialysis, we bailed out of sophomore year of college, and I ended up trying to take classes at CCBC, trying to go to UB University of Baltimore.

Nestor Aparicio  07:29

I am alum of both. So there, and they didn’t call it CCBC. They called it Dundalk community college by its God given name at the time. Yeah, but I mean, that was the same pathway I took in life. I went to UB to do what I did, and there’s something, you know, school, close to home and all that. But for you, I would say you’ve already plugged Hopkins and mentioned mom and mentioned treatment. My wife was blessed to be 1.6 miles from from Johns Hopkins to have her life saved. If you’re in Montana, you’re not going to get the same kind of care, right? No,

Sam Cosby  08:01

those hospitals are, I mean, if you break your leg or that’s fine, but I wouldn’t go there for kidney treatment be I mean, National Kidney Foundation is all over the country, but you know, locally to be at Johns Hopkins and their nephrology program, there was a guy named Bob Montgomery and then John sparati, who’s my current nephrologist, that are just fantastic. And, you know, I was very lucky to only be on dialysis for about nine months before I was able to get that, that swapped kidney. Alright,

Nestor Aparicio  08:33

so let’s talk about the swap kidney, because National Kidney Foundation does a lot of things. You know, I’ve had Dick Cass on my show back when he was the president the team, before he threw me out that he was a donor. It is an unbelievable story, and people that step forward for all sorts of reasons. It’s between them and their Creator and helping people and everyone like you has every somebody like them and who came along and you’re on that list waiting. And I know what that’s like. I mean, I remember when the doctors had here, here are the five matches in the world that could save your life. We’re hoping the 19 year old kid steps up. So for you, What? What? What was your pathway to survival? Literally.

Sam Cosby  09:21

So I was, I was lucky to have a lot of I have a lot of family. I have a big, big family, especially on my mom’s side. And, you know, we had, we had people try and, you know, test their way into the kidney swap, and nobody matched. So eventually, a family member of mine donated to get the swap, and then I believe it was like a 36 way swap at, you know, through Hopkins and

Nestor Aparicio  09:51

explain swap. Yeah, I don’t know that I’m familiar with this, and I’m conjuring up what it might be, and you’re going to explain it to me. And I think it is what. I think it is. That’s kind of crazy, you know? I mean, again, my wife had a bone marrow transplant from the same man twice in Germany. He’s now 31 living his best life, hanging out, going to football games and Frankfurt with my wife and, you know, like all that, but like the odds of all of it, it’s when I tell people that they’re like, that’s some crazy shit. You know what? I mean, they can’t believe it. I think when I hear the kidney side of it, it’s even more unbelievable, because this kid literally sat in a suite and gave blood that went through a machine, and it wiped him out, and he took some shots, and it was painful, but it’s not the hip thing that people thought 30 years ago. He literally, from his perspective, he gave blood, but times 10. But what a kidney donor goes through is a whole different thing. And I’ve heard that story, yeah,

Sam Cosby  10:45

it’s pretty amazing. The SWAT program now, I mean, it’s way bigger than 36 ways, you know, it’s, I think there’s 80 hospitals in it, and it’s basically sharing a database of kidney donors and trying to match them up. You know,

Nestor Aparicio  11:01

I end up I’m willing to give when the time comes call me.

Sam Cosby  11:05

I actually, mine came from a woman in Boston. I don’t know her name, that’s all I know, but it came down from Boston, and my family member was able to give to a person locally. So wow, it’s give and take, and it doesn’t. It’s not immediate, but I’m actually back on that, on that kidney list. I’m back on dialysis, unfortunately. And yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  11:29

you said you’re current. And I, I don’t even know how to spell nephrologist. I’m going to you’re teaching me things today. That’s not a new term, but it’s one I haven’t thought of in a while. Well, people ask my wife every day, you know, for the rest of how you how, well, you’re okay. I’m always like, Yeah, I’m kind of cool man. Like, I’m past the five year point. I have a whole new she has a completely different DNA. If she bleeds, she leaves his blood at the scene of the crime. They’re twins. It’s weird. I say that out loud because people like, really, really, so there’s all of that, but, but my wife is, like, graduated. She doesn’t even do like, once a year anymore, and that would freak us all out, if she had to. I think at this point, where are you on your journey? Are you still in peril in in some way? Are you okay?

Sam Cosby  12:15

I had, I had 14 good years with my kidney that the kidney swap that I got in 2000 I guess it was 2010 the winter. And, you know, eventually the the disease I was born with, IGA nephropathy. It it takes it takes down the kidney that you have. So 14 years is a really good run. I think most kidney transplants last five to 10 years. So anyway, I

Nestor Aparicio  12:44

did not know that math. I thought like, you’re good for because my wife feels like, God willing. You know that her DNA, the motherboard this Blaze explained to me, working fine. Kidneys don’t work that way, huh?

Sam Cosby  12:58

I mean, depends on what your what you have in your own DNA. How you know how good you are with taking your medications? I’m sure, how healthy a lifestyle you live, but you know you get over 10 years with a kidney transplant, you’re doing really well. So well

Nestor Aparicio  13:13

I’ve never I You’re really educating me. Sam Cosby is our very courageous guest here. And tell everybody about the walk, and tell me where you are with the walk, and then we’ll get back into your own personal situation. We can help you. But this is, this is what people do to help is they get together and eat and drink it sante, and they get together and they walk on October 6 at UMBC, right,

Sam Cosby  13:34

yeah. And the walk, the walks even bigger than sante. I mean, 2000 people are expected. We’ve got marching bands coming. We’ve got coffee, we’ve got, you know, a ton of exciting stuff for for everybody that’s going to participate. All

Nestor Aparicio  13:51

right, so I get everybody out to, it’s kidney walk.org/maryland, very easy. It’s going to be at UMBC. It’s right on the campus. It’s gonna, it’s gonna happen in the morning on on Sunday, the sixth. This is before the Ravens plays. You get over there, you can park, free parking all that everything is up. They have, like, a whole kidney walk toolkit, if you click on here and you can find all these cool people raising money and doing different things for people like Sam here, and there’s a whole contact sheet here, everything you need at kidney walk.org, backslash, or to be forward slash. Marilyn, but just go to just just Google kidney walk, National Kidney Foundation and Kf, our friends Patty, our friends Asante and Karen Sagal, trying to find me with inspirational people. So where are you? So you are in search of a kidney? Is that correct?

Sam Cosby  14:39

I am i I’m lucky to have, I have a donor already set up. So right now, we’re looking for a match through that swap program I mentioned. And okay, so

Nestor Aparicio  14:49

I need to educate people about that swap program. That’s important. Yeah,

Sam Cosby  14:52

yeah, absolutely. And so when you do it, the Kidney Foundation actually covers the costs. Of your donors, like medical everything it so putting them up in the hospital, any support they need after it’s pretty amazing. That’s, that’s kind of what, well, what led me to participating on the board?

Nestor Aparicio  15:15

I’ll tell you what, man, I’ll let you go do your thing. You live your best life. Try to have some fun between here and there. You’re gonna be okay. We’re gonna make sure you’re okay. National Kidney Foundation is putting this thing together on the sixth of October. Get on out, walk. Can’t promise you good weather, but it’s October 6. It can’t suck. I mean, it’s maybe a little rain, but let’s you know, there won’t be no be no snow. And you know, I mean, here in your story, me, if the Orioles are eliminated by them, people can come out and make themselves feel better by walking. Fjords are still playing. You come out make yourself feel better, because it’ll be an off day for the Orioles in New York next week. I’m trying to be positive about that. As the Ravens take on Cincinnati, we’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake tour, not every week in October, because I’m planning on the World Series. Our friends at the Maryland lottery send us out with these Raven scratch offs. We’re Costas this week, and we’re going to be a pizza Johns on the 11th, also with our friends at Liberty. Pure solutions, eating all of these oysters with the hours on the on the months, we have 26 oysters in 26 days to promote the oyster recovery partnership and all that they’re doing right now. We’re promoting the National Kidney Foundation. So for folks that may want to help, you may want to help away, what is the way that they can do that? Like, all right, I’m in I’m listening. I want to help. National Kidney Foundation is a great facilitator for anybody that would want to donate, or think about donating, or try to get information on donating. Yeah.

Sam Cosby  16:36

I mean, the first thing is educating yourself. But, I mean, the fact is, most people only need one, like half of a kidney. So anybody can donate a kidney, and it’s a big it’s a big ask, but you can find out about it on, you know, the Kidney Foundation website, and you can hear more about the walk on kidney walk.org/maryland

Nestor Aparicio  17:01

alright. Good, good, good. Hey, man, take care of yourself. Hang in there. If you enjoy sports or what do you do? What do you do for fun? You’re like, you were like a skiers, like you’re an X Games, you’re one of those kids, right? It

Sam Cosby  17:14

was, there was a time that was, I haven’t, haven’t been on a snowboard since 2009 I guess. But I play a lot of golf. I’m at the green Spring Valley Hunt Club, and then doing a lot of sailing at my, my family’s business, Annapolis sailing school down alright.

Nestor Aparicio  17:33

Well, then you’re, you’re, you are living your best life. I love to hear that, so take care of yourself. I hope to see you on the sixth. Hope to see you at sante. And you know I’m I’ll be awaiting good news on you. Sam Cosby, alright,

Sam Cosby  17:45

yeah, thank you.

Nestor Aparicio  17:46

Thank you so much. And I gotta Yeah, and you’re in the real world. You do digital marketing and podcast, right?

Sam Cosby  17:51

I have a business called Club Road associates. We sell podcast and YouTube ads. It’s all Maryland based, kind and named after the street I grew up on so well,

Nestor Aparicio  18:03

Imma, reach back to you in the real world because you asked before went on, like, if I had ever, like, listened to a podcast, or heard of a podcast, and see, I’ll be honest with you. Full shoot here. Um, when people ask me if I have a podcast, I’m like, I’ve owned a radio station for 26 years and broadcast 40,000 hours of live radio. Like, I to say, I have anybody can have a podcast. You there had to be some pre qualifications to be on the radio back in the day. So I’m always like, sort of not offended by it, but I know it’s what the kids are buying these days, right? And and I have a podcast. You can download it, you can subscribe to Baltimore, you can go to Apple, you can do all of those things, but I’m still, like, you could see me on the radio. I’m at am 1570 you know what I mean? So I’m a little old school in that way. But the podcast world really is the future, right?

Sam Cosby  18:52

I think so maybe, maybe even more YouTube, but, yeah, but it’s been built

Nestor Aparicio  18:57

off of what I’ve laid, and Howard Stern is laid, and what radio was, it’s radio on demand, basically, if we were going to call it something, I guess the word pod came from the iPod, and it’s a podcast, and I capture it and pull it and listen what I want, but it’s basically a conversation on demand, is all it is. I mean, you, but then the more than that, because a lot of podcasts are a little bit more theatrical and sort of the old way of radio in the 1930s and 40s that were episodeal in that way, and telling stories, but it it’s been a great gateway for me, because people are used to listening to me jibber jabber all the time. Anyway,

Sam Cosby  19:33

yeah, maybe I can. Maybe I can bring you some more support, more sponsors. I

Nestor Aparicio  19:38

love my sponsors. Did I tell you that? Have I tell you that? Have I told you about the Maryland lottery? I told you about wise markets, I told you about Jiffy Lube. We’re all here. I love them all as well. They power us up. We hope you support them all, including all of our restaurants, all the places we have crab cakes. Great time to tell folks they are the the reason we get powered up that we can help support the National Kidney Foundation, amongst many other things, here this month. Am you been a great guest. I will hit you on the digital side. We’ll organize that. We’re going to get you kidney we’re going to walk on the sixth of October over at UMBC, get out to kidneywalk.org. The National Kidney Foundation, doing really important work beyond just feeding me different souffles and delicious things at sante and drinking me all up. You can support them anytime@kidneywalk.org I am Nestor. We are wnst. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, from Owings Mills down to Camden Yards, baseball, my fingers crossed and football, my fingers my toes crossed back for more. Baltimore, positive. Stay with us. You.