Kidney Love for Glori Alexander
Hello Everyone!
Around 4 years ago, my dear friend, Glori Alexander, was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. This led doctors to find that she also has advanced kidney disease. Fortunately her heart is staying healthy. And while she has kept the kidney disease from progressing rapidly (through a strict low salt diet and exercise) it is the nature of kidney disease to progress whether she wants it to or not. This year her kidney disease has progressed to the point that she now requires a transplant.
Glori's sister is a current viable donor and will be finishing the assessment in Oklahoma City in mid-April. If she is able to be Glori's donor, the kidney transplant surgery will be scheduled soon after. If she isn't, dialysis is the next step.
Glori is only 37 years old, is married and has 3 beautiful children. This is what should be the prime of her life. Instead, she is overly fatigued while juggling this disease, her family and a full time job.
Glori loves her job as a graphic designer at an Oklahoma furniture company. Her employer provides her with excellent health insurance, but she was denied short term and long term disability. This means that while she is gone from work for either transplant surgery or dialysis surgery, she will not get paid. Her husband, John, works full time as a special education teacher, but his salary will not fully cover her lost wages or the increasing deductible costs for medical care. Without her wages, she will be unable to help John pay their monthly bills, which include rent, food, utilities, insurance rates for John and the children, and student loans. This is where the funds generated from your gifts will be spent. Please know that, based on hard work and strong family values, neither she nor her husband have exceptional debt such as credit cards or vehicle loans. They don't even take vacations!
All of Glori's sick time and vacation time is spent either on caring for her kids (illnesses, school, church, etc.), attending her doctor appointments or saving days for her upcoming surgery. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) does protect her job for 12 weeks, and she will need all 12 weeks for surgery and recovery for her transplant. She fully intends to return to work after the 12 week recovery period.
So, I’ll end this message by telling you that my friend, Glori, is struggling with this devastating disease every day. Yet she maintains her ability to be a loving, generous, and exceptional young woman, wife and mother. She is a highly skilled and creative graphic designer who maintains a low sodium food blog to help other kidney patients on the side. Will you please support her through this difficult time to not only get her on her feet but to keep her family from drowning in debt?
