Compare school pictures of Rosemarie Rothe, 64, to her daughter's, and it's obvious Anne Simmons grew up looking a lot like her mother.
They look alike, think alike and now they share one more thing -- a kidney.
"We both have a scar, but mine is longer," said Simmons, 41. "And mine looks real clean because they glued me."
The road to getting there took roughly two years. It began when Rothe and her husband, Alan, moved to Las Vegas three years ago. She noticed problems with allergies, being out of breath a lot and having an "all over funky feeling."
It was determined the Siena Country Club resident had a low-functioning kidney. She went on special medications for a year, but eventually had to be treated with dialysis three times a week, which took nearly four hours each treatment. Luckily, Rothe was a candidate for in-home analysis which cleansed her blood as she slept.
About that time, the search for a donor began. Doctors told her it could be a two- to three-year wait if she went on the donor list. Family members, including her seven children, agreed to be tested to see if they could be donors.
Simmons' testing had to wait as she was already undergoing fertilization treatments, trying to start a family. Rothe insisted that took precedence over her own needs. When Simmons and her husband exhausted possibilities of getting pregnant, she was tested and found to be a perfect match.
The surgeries were on Sept. 13. Simmons' was done first and the procedure included cutting through muscle and removing one of her ribs.
Then her mother was prepped for surgery.
"Before they put me out, I looked over and saw it (the donor kidney)," Rothe said. "It really does look just like a kidney bean."
Her low-functioning kidney was left inside her. Her muscle did not have to be cut, nor did she lose a rib. As soon as she was awake, she felt the difference.
"I could tell right away," she said. "People were in awe. I was up and walking, feeling absolutely great. I didn't realize how bad I'd been feeling until after I had the surgery."
Simmons had a tougher time and says clothing with waistbands now fits funny with that bottom rib missing.
"And sneezing and coughing ... they're quite an adventure," she said.
Rothe felt so good, she hung window cornices for her daughter two weeks after surgery. She also kept up with her directing duties for the Siena Players, a theater group that put on the production, "Viva Las Vegas" in November.
"She didn't just give in and say, 'I can't do it,' " said Melba Bennett, a member of the Siena Players. "She's not the strongest person physically but she's dynamite."
Simmons is now off all pain pills. Her mother, however, has to take 11 different medications daily, down from 15. Rothe and her husband have a new ritual -- filling her oversized pill holder each Sunday.
Rothe said the experience has caused her to have a new outlook on life.
"I don't put off things or take things for granted," she said.
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