Back in the Saddle

As a woman who can jump on and off horses running at full speed, Jennifer Nicholson knows how to work through the pain.

When the internationally known trick rider and executive director of Riata Ranch in Three Rivers started not feeling well at the beginning of the summer of 2023, she thought she must have a 24-hour bug. When that feeling continued to come and go throughout the summer, the 61-year-old blamed it on getting older. Finally, in the fall she went to her doctor to say that something wasn’t right.

“I’m here to tell you that if you are experiencing a symptom, or something that feels different, please just go get it checked out,” Nicholson says. “It could be nothing, but it could be something.”

For Nicholson, it was something. She had chronic fatigue by December 2023, and her primary doctor sent her to Kaweah Health nephrologist Tariq Javed, MD, a doctor who specializes in kidney diseases. Nicholson’s kidneys were only operating at 8 percent and she was in stage 5 renal failure, so Dr. Javed sent her straight to the hospital.

“I had no pain, no swelling. I saw no change,” she says. “Dr. Javed didn’t understand how I was able to do everything I was still doing.”

Dr. Javed agreed that it was unusual that she was able to be so active, but he added that kidney disease can sneak up on you.

“Kidney disease is a slow disease,” he says. “Slowly people have symptoms, like fatigue or no appetite, that can be dismissed as related to age. A lot of times people wait until they really aren’t doing well before they come to me.”

Dr. Javed says it is important to see a primary physician when not feeling well so they can check everything. Those with diabetes and high blood pressure have an increased risk of kidney failure, he says.

Nicholson started dialysis at Kaweah Health Dialysis Center right away after being released from the hospital. Fortunately, she was a candidate for home peritoneal dialysis. With peritoneal dialysis, the patient has a fluid pumped into their abdomen that removes waste and chemicals. 

“All I knew was I wanted to get back to my life, I wanted off dialysis,” Nicholson says. “Dialysis is not a cure, it is only a treatment.”

With the help of the staff at the Dialysis Center, Nicholson got on the transplant list at the University of California, Davis.

Although Nicholson had several friends who were willing to give her a kidney, it is very hard to make it through the screening process. But there was one candidate who made it through, her big brother Mark Welch.

“I had surgery on my shoulder the same time she had her first surgery, so I wasn’t able to volunteer right away,” Welch, 63, says. 

After a few friends had failed, Welch was concerned he might not pass all the screenings.

“They told me if there is something wrong with you, we will find it,” he says.

However, he passed with flying colors. After being diagnosed in January 2024, Nicholson had her kidney transplant 10 months later at the end of November 2024.

“It was an easy decision to be her donor,” Welch says. “It just made sense.”

Welch recovered easily from his surgery, but as the recipient it took Nicholson a while longer to get back on her feet. She suffered a few complications and ended up staying at the UC Davis hospital for 30 days. However, since the surgery she has had no signs of rejection or infection.

 “I was jealous when he got released from the hospital and I was still there,” Nicholson says.

Welch may have rubbed it in a little bit.

“I would go by her room and say: ‘hey sis I’m dancing,’” he says. “But now she is back to normal, annoyingly normal.”

After the transplant, Nicholson says she feels so much better it makes her realize how bad she really felt, for probably a long time, before she acted.

“Everyone asks ‘didn’t you not feel well?’” Nicholson says. “I just powered through. I had the attitude just give me a pill and I will be fine.”

Her perspective has changed. Now anytime she feels something, she goes right to her doctor.

“I don’t ever want to go through this again,” she says.

But more than that, she also appreciates so much more the things she can do. During that year of having to watch things happening on her ranch while she was bound to her bed or her couch, there were times when she would just be angry that her body wouldn’t let her participate.

“You earn your reputation in the arena, but you earn your respect in the barn,” she says. “That’s my motto. And I couldn’t do anything.”

Nicholson is back in the saddle again, doing a few lasso tricks and training students. She is grateful for her friends, her medical team at both Kaweah Health and UC Davis, and her brother.

“I’m so lucky to have him. He did not hesitate,” she says.