- V
I'd like to start by admitting that I was hesitant to create this fund. Not sure if it was a matter pride or if I was afraid about what people would think and say about it, but after speaking to a few friends I have come to realize that friends can be more loyal and better than family. You'd be surprised who are the people that come through in times of need and those that don't. I do have faith that everyone is doing the best that the can with what they have and where they are. For example, I have two friends from high school that no matter how far apart we may be, will always make time for each other. Heather, who lives in Seattle, flew into the city for my sisters funeral and stayed the week with me. That meant so much to me. Meredith, from Philly also came to support me during this difficult time.
My Kidney story:
When I was 18 all I could think about was my future and all of the good things that were to come. I was attending Columbia University in the best city in the world. I daydreamed of meeting the man of my dreams while in college, getting married while in graduate school and having many babies. I wanted happily ever after and felt entitled to it. It's funny how life doesn't always turnout how you imagined. Never met the man of my dreams and finishing my degree was tough. I took a year off my senior year for medical reason (this is when I got Onyx the pug; more on him later) but eventually went back and graduated in 2007.
After graduation, I went to work at a boutique law firm in midtown as an adminstrative assistant. I figured I would work there for two years to gain some experience in the field of law. Two years later, I took the LSATS and felt that I was finally back on track. That is when the world threw a wrench into my plans.
I was diagnosed with Kidney disease in 2010. My family and I were in shock. Kidney disease didn’t run in the family. I was told that my disease was due to high levels of protein in my urine and excessive weight. I struggled with the diagnosis. I knew I was chubby but I wasn't obese. The protein loss was not a surprise. It had been with me since before high school. The doctors just assumed that it would go away as I grew older. I was never told it could lead to kidney failure. Now I was being told that in less than 5 years my kidneys would fail and I would need to be transplanted. It seemed my future as slipping through my fingers. I wasn’t ready to die. There was so much more I wanted to do.
Feeling that you have loss control of your life is humbling and very scary. My plans would have to be put on hold because I didn’t know when the disease would take hold. Now all of sudden my life was dependent on someone else. Nothing I did, like eating correctly, taking my meds and working out, would change the fact that I could not save myself. I realized for the first time that I can not do this on my own.
After the diagnosis, I kept working at the law office and in February 2014, my kidneys finally gave up. I was at 3% kidney function and had to be placed on dialysis. Thankfully, my employers were very understanding and let me continue to work from home.
I started PD dialysis in March of that year.[i] By April, I had been hospitalzed for two weeks for an unknown fever. Its like everything that could wrong, did go wrong. My face and body swelled to gigantic proportions. It was hard to recognize myself in the mirror. I developed unexpected rashes breaking out all over my body that were extremely itchy.My hemoglobin dropped extremely low and the doctors didn't know why. It was doubly terrifying to see the look of confusion on the doctors faces and for them not to be able to tell me what was wrong. Fevers came and went. Insomnia took over my life and my GI system was messed up. I hated throwing up every morning. I couldn't believe what was happening to my body. We needed to find a kidney stat. Unfortunately, finding a kidney donor proved a lot harder than expected.
I first looked to my family for potential donors. I was confident that at least one of them would volunteer to be tested. My cousin intially gave me hope. She underwent the donor process and was approved to be my donor. Unfortunately the kidney transplant team did not think I was stable enough to undergo surgery. All we could do was sit and wait until my labs got better.
By December of 2014, I had received over 30 blood transfusions. We spent Christmas with the family and hoped that 2015 would be better. Reisa gave me a wonderful Christmas present. She was going to get tested as a donor. I was grateful that my cousin had volunteered but my sister was a perfect match. It seemed that in 2015 everything was going to get better and easier. We were wrong, so wrong.
On January 17, 2015 we found Reisa dead in her apartment. She had been murdered.[1] We didn’t know that exact date but the police believe that she had been dead for at least 5 days. My world fell apart that day. Not only had I lost sister, but I loss a donor. My mom and I were in shambles. Neither of us ate or slept very well. The months following her death went by in a daze. We eventually found out from the police that a male cousin, who had a history of mental illness, had murdered Reisa. His sister(the cousin I mentioned before) pulled her support.
It was now just my mom and I against the world. It felt like we were alone on an island.
The months to follow proved difficult. It took my mom and I several months to really accept what had happened. Even now if I see something cool, I will think of calling Reisa to show her. I think of her at least twice a day. It’s the little things that remind us of her. I occasionally catch my mom crying by herself. She tries to be strong for me, but I know she is hurting.
This year my mom didn’t feel like celebrating Christmas at home. She felt it would remind her too much of Reisa. I found a good deal on groupon for tickets the Christmas show at radio city hall. We went to the show and then ate dinner at her favorite restaurant, Tad Steaks. (Classy I know. l) 2016 couldn’t come any faster. 2016 was the year everything was going to be different; it was going to be better.
Unfortunately, 2016 is off to a bad start. I spent New Years Eve and the ball drop in the Emergency Room. About half an hour from the ball drop, I started coughing up blood and my mom rushed me to the ER. Not a good start to year. A few weeks later we learn that Onyx, my 11-year-old pug, has both renal and liver disease.
This is where your donations come into play. Although I have been working and receiving my salary, money is still tight. Thankfully my insurance covers a lot but there are still certain things that are out of pocket. Now that Onyx is sick and we do not have pet insurance, money is going to get really tight. I do not want to put onyx to sleep. I don’t think my mom and I can go through another loss. He is like family to us. The moment we see that he is in a lot of pain we will reconsider that but he is doing fine now.
Please donate to our fund or consider being a donor. You would be helping to cover both of our medical costs.
I thank you so much for taking the time to read this. It means the world to me that although we may have not spoken in years, you are willing to help me not only financially but in showing me that it wasn't foolish to hope.
And lastly and most importanly, if you are so inclined to donate a kidney or know someone who wants to donate a kidney and become my angel, please go to the Columbia Transplant website (http://columbiasurgery.org/kidney-transplant/becoming-kidney-donor) and scroll down to Medical Questionnaire for Kidney Donation and download the questionnaire.
With your help we could make 2016 a great year.
[1] http://nydn.us/1agHbl0
[i] In PD, a soft tube called a catheter is used to fill your abdomen with a cleansing liquid called dialysis solution. The walls of your abdominal cavity are lined with a membrane called the peritoneum, which allows waste products and extra fluid to pass from your blood into the dialysis solution. The solution contains a sugar called dextrose that will pull wastes and extra fluid into the abdominal cavity. These wastes and fluid then leave your body when the dialysis solution is drained. The used solution, containing wastes and extra fluid, is then thrown away. The process of draining and filling is called an exchange and takes about 30 to 40 minutes. The period the dialysis solution is in your abdomen is called the dwell time. A typical schedule calls for four exchanges a day, each with a dwell time of 4 to 6 hours.
My Kidney story:
When I was 18 all I could think about was my future and all of the good things that were to come. I was attending Columbia University in the best city in the world. I daydreamed of meeting the man of my dreams while in college, getting married while in graduate school and having many babies. I wanted happily ever after and felt entitled to it. It's funny how life doesn't always turnout how you imagined. Never met the man of my dreams and finishing my degree was tough. I took a year off my senior year for medical reason (this is when I got Onyx the pug; more on him later) but eventually went back and graduated in 2007.
After graduation, I went to work at a boutique law firm in midtown as an adminstrative assistant. I figured I would work there for two years to gain some experience in the field of law. Two years later, I took the LSATS and felt that I was finally back on track. That is when the world threw a wrench into my plans.
I was diagnosed with Kidney disease in 2010. My family and I were in shock. Kidney disease didn’t run in the family. I was told that my disease was due to high levels of protein in my urine and excessive weight. I struggled with the diagnosis. I knew I was chubby but I wasn't obese. The protein loss was not a surprise. It had been with me since before high school. The doctors just assumed that it would go away as I grew older. I was never told it could lead to kidney failure. Now I was being told that in less than 5 years my kidneys would fail and I would need to be transplanted. It seemed my future as slipping through my fingers. I wasn’t ready to die. There was so much more I wanted to do.
Feeling that you have loss control of your life is humbling and very scary. My plans would have to be put on hold because I didn’t know when the disease would take hold. Now all of sudden my life was dependent on someone else. Nothing I did, like eating correctly, taking my meds and working out, would change the fact that I could not save myself. I realized for the first time that I can not do this on my own.
After the diagnosis, I kept working at the law office and in February 2014, my kidneys finally gave up. I was at 3% kidney function and had to be placed on dialysis. Thankfully, my employers were very understanding and let me continue to work from home.
I started PD dialysis in March of that year.[i] By April, I had been hospitalzed for two weeks for an unknown fever. Its like everything that could wrong, did go wrong. My face and body swelled to gigantic proportions. It was hard to recognize myself in the mirror. I developed unexpected rashes breaking out all over my body that were extremely itchy.My hemoglobin dropped extremely low and the doctors didn't know why. It was doubly terrifying to see the look of confusion on the doctors faces and for them not to be able to tell me what was wrong. Fevers came and went. Insomnia took over my life and my GI system was messed up. I hated throwing up every morning. I couldn't believe what was happening to my body. We needed to find a kidney stat. Unfortunately, finding a kidney donor proved a lot harder than expected.
I first looked to my family for potential donors. I was confident that at least one of them would volunteer to be tested. My cousin intially gave me hope. She underwent the donor process and was approved to be my donor. Unfortunately the kidney transplant team did not think I was stable enough to undergo surgery. All we could do was sit and wait until my labs got better.
By December of 2014, I had received over 30 blood transfusions. We spent Christmas with the family and hoped that 2015 would be better. Reisa gave me a wonderful Christmas present. She was going to get tested as a donor. I was grateful that my cousin had volunteered but my sister was a perfect match. It seemed that in 2015 everything was going to get better and easier. We were wrong, so wrong.
On January 17, 2015 we found Reisa dead in her apartment. She had been murdered.[1] We didn’t know that exact date but the police believe that she had been dead for at least 5 days. My world fell apart that day. Not only had I lost sister, but I loss a donor. My mom and I were in shambles. Neither of us ate or slept very well. The months following her death went by in a daze. We eventually found out from the police that a male cousin, who had a history of mental illness, had murdered Reisa. His sister(the cousin I mentioned before) pulled her support.
It was now just my mom and I against the world. It felt like we were alone on an island.
The months to follow proved difficult. It took my mom and I several months to really accept what had happened. Even now if I see something cool, I will think of calling Reisa to show her. I think of her at least twice a day. It’s the little things that remind us of her. I occasionally catch my mom crying by herself. She tries to be strong for me, but I know she is hurting.
This year my mom didn’t feel like celebrating Christmas at home. She felt it would remind her too much of Reisa. I found a good deal on groupon for tickets the Christmas show at radio city hall. We went to the show and then ate dinner at her favorite restaurant, Tad Steaks. (Classy I know. l) 2016 couldn’t come any faster. 2016 was the year everything was going to be different; it was going to be better.
Unfortunately, 2016 is off to a bad start. I spent New Years Eve and the ball drop in the Emergency Room. About half an hour from the ball drop, I started coughing up blood and my mom rushed me to the ER. Not a good start to year. A few weeks later we learn that Onyx, my 11-year-old pug, has both renal and liver disease.
This is where your donations come into play. Although I have been working and receiving my salary, money is still tight. Thankfully my insurance covers a lot but there are still certain things that are out of pocket. Now that Onyx is sick and we do not have pet insurance, money is going to get really tight. I do not want to put onyx to sleep. I don’t think my mom and I can go through another loss. He is like family to us. The moment we see that he is in a lot of pain we will reconsider that but he is doing fine now.
Please donate to our fund or consider being a donor. You would be helping to cover both of our medical costs.
I thank you so much for taking the time to read this. It means the world to me that although we may have not spoken in years, you are willing to help me not only financially but in showing me that it wasn't foolish to hope.
And lastly and most importanly, if you are so inclined to donate a kidney or know someone who wants to donate a kidney and become my angel, please go to the Columbia Transplant website (http://columbiasurgery.org/kidney-transplant/becoming-kidney-donor) and scroll down to Medical Questionnaire for Kidney Donation and download the questionnaire.
With your help we could make 2016 a great year.
[1] http://nydn.us/1agHbl0
[i] In PD, a soft tube called a catheter is used to fill your abdomen with a cleansing liquid called dialysis solution. The walls of your abdominal cavity are lined with a membrane called the peritoneum, which allows waste products and extra fluid to pass from your blood into the dialysis solution. The solution contains a sugar called dextrose that will pull wastes and extra fluid into the abdominal cavity. These wastes and fluid then leave your body when the dialysis solution is drained. The used solution, containing wastes and extra fluid, is then thrown away. The process of draining and filling is called an exchange and takes about 30 to 40 minutes. The period the dialysis solution is in your abdomen is called the dwell time. A typical schedule calls for four exchanges a day, each with a dwell time of 4 to 6 hours.