My Parents Deserve Something Nice
Donation protected
For the past 13 years, my 50 year old dad has been incredibly sick. His kidneys failed in 2000- both of them. (he was only 37 years old!)
I can still remember my mom repeating what the doctor said; "one of his kidneys is completely gone, and the other one is shriveled up like an old prune."the months prior to my dad being diagnosed with kidney disease, we thought he was just getting sick with a bad strain of flu. he wasn't able to keep any food down,and wasn't able to go to the bathroom very often. no matter how much water he drank. sometimes he would even throw up the water he had just drank. to this day i will never be able to eat corn pop's cereal again. one morning i was up eating my breakfast, sitting next to my dad on the couch; when suddenly- he got up urgently covering his mouth with his hand. it must have became too much for his hand to hold back, because thats when the puke or bile got all over me and my breakfast.
that second, my mom said "that's it mark! we are going to the doctor!" (he was fairly stubborn, and said he didnt need to go to the doctor several times, but that time my mom was not giving him the chance to even mutter a no)
later that day, my parents got the call that an ambulance was on its way to pick my dad up to take him to the mayo clinic, and that his test results came back incredibly bad. he was in the mayo clinic for months after that.
he was put on the donor recipiant list, and got a kidney in the latter part of 3 years later. he had gone through day after day, month after month of 5 hour days of getting dialyzed. we thought everything would get better after he got his kidney. a little silver lining- if you will. turns out, his body had weakened severely from all the dialysis. he actually died on the table during the transplant. he was legally dead for 3 minutes. thankfully they revived him! and he had a long jaunt of a stay in the mayo once again, becoming accustomed to his new kidney.
months after his transplant, he got sick again. his new kidney wasn't working. it also had failed. another long stay at the mayo.
que to just this year.
my mom has been working a full time, mostly an over time job in a factory, to pay on the hundreds of thousands of medical bills that have piled up. they have had to get several different insurance companies to sign with them. (which i guess is really hard to do, when you have an existing condition as bad as my dads.) and doting on my dad, basically hand and foot. she got trained on how to dialyze, so my dad could dialyze at home. she cooks, and keeps the house clean and sterile. as my dad now does not have an immune system and can get a serious infection from the smallest of viruses. my dad, who was a welder- can no longer work, for obvious reasons.
my mom fell on christmas. broke her hip, (at only 47 years old) and tibia bone in 2 places. it completely laid her out for months. they had to hire a home health aide to come take care of my dad, while my mom relied on my little sister to help her with other tasks. (i live far away from home)
my dad did what he could to help my mom, and went out to start the vehicle to warm it up (minnesota winters are frigid!) he then fell on the ice and tore both his knee caps. he then required surgery to replace his knees. so both of my parents were bed ridden for quite some time and my mom was out of work.
its not over yet.....
right after my dads knees healed, he went in to see his doctor for chest pain and a cough that just would not go away.
he had a staph infection of the heart. (i know...you would think something would give)
which required him to get open heart surgery! he had to replace a valve, with a bovine valve. one of his was completely gone. his heart was also leaking.
my mom at the time was not healing properly, and still needed crutches during all of this. incredibly stressful.
my dad actually recovered from his open heart surgery pretty fast. and was back on the road to being "normal"
until this week.
he now has gang green in his foot.
which is needing to be amputated. the doctors don't know if its a blood clot from the heart surgery or if he isn't getting enough blood flow to his foot.
we will find out this week.
he ALSO might need another open heart surgery, of which he is scared to go through again. the doctors said he may not make it to 60 years of age at this rate. which is heartbreaking for us.
SO!! what i am asking to be funded for, is to do something really nice for my parents. to make them forget all the crap that has gone on for years.
maybe buy them a nice outfit and take them to a nice dinner and buy them something to play on, after spending all those hours in the hospital. maybe an iPad? as you can tell (if you have read my whole long story) they could REALLY use a nice outing. paid for by me. (or by you, the lender!)
they are grandparents, as well. and nothing gives them more joy than spending some quality time with their grand babies. so i will definitely include time with the kids. i don't know EXACTLY what i will do for them yet. but it will be something great, i assure you. because I'm pretty good at planning outings.
i plan on matching every dollar i have raised, from my own account. =]
thank you for taking the time to read my parents story.
xo
I can still remember my mom repeating what the doctor said; "one of his kidneys is completely gone, and the other one is shriveled up like an old prune."the months prior to my dad being diagnosed with kidney disease, we thought he was just getting sick with a bad strain of flu. he wasn't able to keep any food down,and wasn't able to go to the bathroom very often. no matter how much water he drank. sometimes he would even throw up the water he had just drank. to this day i will never be able to eat corn pop's cereal again. one morning i was up eating my breakfast, sitting next to my dad on the couch; when suddenly- he got up urgently covering his mouth with his hand. it must have became too much for his hand to hold back, because thats when the puke or bile got all over me and my breakfast.
that second, my mom said "that's it mark! we are going to the doctor!" (he was fairly stubborn, and said he didnt need to go to the doctor several times, but that time my mom was not giving him the chance to even mutter a no)
later that day, my parents got the call that an ambulance was on its way to pick my dad up to take him to the mayo clinic, and that his test results came back incredibly bad. he was in the mayo clinic for months after that.
he was put on the donor recipiant list, and got a kidney in the latter part of 3 years later. he had gone through day after day, month after month of 5 hour days of getting dialyzed. we thought everything would get better after he got his kidney. a little silver lining- if you will. turns out, his body had weakened severely from all the dialysis. he actually died on the table during the transplant. he was legally dead for 3 minutes. thankfully they revived him! and he had a long jaunt of a stay in the mayo once again, becoming accustomed to his new kidney.
months after his transplant, he got sick again. his new kidney wasn't working. it also had failed. another long stay at the mayo.
que to just this year.
my mom has been working a full time, mostly an over time job in a factory, to pay on the hundreds of thousands of medical bills that have piled up. they have had to get several different insurance companies to sign with them. (which i guess is really hard to do, when you have an existing condition as bad as my dads.) and doting on my dad, basically hand and foot. she got trained on how to dialyze, so my dad could dialyze at home. she cooks, and keeps the house clean and sterile. as my dad now does not have an immune system and can get a serious infection from the smallest of viruses. my dad, who was a welder- can no longer work, for obvious reasons.
my mom fell on christmas. broke her hip, (at only 47 years old) and tibia bone in 2 places. it completely laid her out for months. they had to hire a home health aide to come take care of my dad, while my mom relied on my little sister to help her with other tasks. (i live far away from home)
my dad did what he could to help my mom, and went out to start the vehicle to warm it up (minnesota winters are frigid!) he then fell on the ice and tore both his knee caps. he then required surgery to replace his knees. so both of my parents were bed ridden for quite some time and my mom was out of work.
its not over yet.....
right after my dads knees healed, he went in to see his doctor for chest pain and a cough that just would not go away.
he had a staph infection of the heart. (i know...you would think something would give)
which required him to get open heart surgery! he had to replace a valve, with a bovine valve. one of his was completely gone. his heart was also leaking.
my mom at the time was not healing properly, and still needed crutches during all of this. incredibly stressful.
my dad actually recovered from his open heart surgery pretty fast. and was back on the road to being "normal"
until this week.
he now has gang green in his foot.
which is needing to be amputated. the doctors don't know if its a blood clot from the heart surgery or if he isn't getting enough blood flow to his foot.
we will find out this week.
he ALSO might need another open heart surgery, of which he is scared to go through again. the doctors said he may not make it to 60 years of age at this rate. which is heartbreaking for us.
SO!! what i am asking to be funded for, is to do something really nice for my parents. to make them forget all the crap that has gone on for years.
maybe buy them a nice outfit and take them to a nice dinner and buy them something to play on, after spending all those hours in the hospital. maybe an iPad? as you can tell (if you have read my whole long story) they could REALLY use a nice outing. paid for by me. (or by you, the lender!)
they are grandparents, as well. and nothing gives them more joy than spending some quality time with their grand babies. so i will definitely include time with the kids. i don't know EXACTLY what i will do for them yet. but it will be something great, i assure you. because I'm pretty good at planning outings.
i plan on matching every dollar i have raised, from my own account. =]
thank you for taking the time to read my parents story.
xo
Organizer
Jen Dickerson
Organizer
Denver, CO
