36, father diagnosed with total kidney failure

My husband, Jarrod, has been unable to work for the better part of the last year due to vision problems caused by his diabetes. Diabetic Retinopathy is the weakening of capillaries inside the eyes. As such, it doesn’t take much for these capillaries to burst, filling his eyeballs with blood on the inside. This blood blocks light from entering his eyes, rendering him unable to see clearly. He was blessed enough to find an amazing retinal specialist and to be accepted into a manufacturer program that allows him to receive his eye injections at no cost. Unfortunately, while there hasn’t been any new bleeding, these injections haven’t done much to help clear the old fluid. He can’t drive, he can’t get around outside of the house without help, and he can’t see much on a computer screen unless a site/app has the option to switch into night/dark mode, so even working from home is impossible. He really needs surgery to replace the fluid in his eyeballs so that he can see again. We had been trying to figure out how we could pay out of pocket for this $10,000 surgery (since we had no insurance), but that search for ideas went out the window when his body started swelling up.

Jarrod has had previous issues with his kidneys, so we knew to put him on a renal diet to help reduce the amount of excess fluid in his body. It worked for a little while, or seemed to, until it didn’t. I offered to take him to the hospital on several occasions, but he kept saying not yet. Finally, we decided together that it was time to go to the ER, and I’m glad we did. We found out very quickly that his kidneys are functioning below 10% leading to a diagnosis of Acute Kidney Failure. He also has severe hypertension (high blood pressure) which can cause a lot of damage to the kidneys and other organs. We also learned that due to his kidneys not doing their jobs, his body was not getting the signal to make more blood. He had to receive a transfusion that day to bring his blood volume up. Needless to say, he was admitted pretty quickly. They started him on dialysis 2 days later. The silver lining is that his diabetes seems to be very well-controlled! After 11 days, 8 dialysis sessions, 3 blood transfusions, and a lot of blood pressure medication, he is finally home. The hospital case workers got us set up with medicaid, and have started the process of getting him on disability and medicare, which is a huge blessing. He has had two outpatient dialysis treatments since coming home, and those will continue 3 times a week for 4.5 hours each time. He may also need a kidney transplant down the road. He’s only 36. We are praying desperately for a miracle.

We have decided to start this GoFundMe because, while we’ve been blessed to get the help he needs medically, we are and have been struggling for a long time to make ends meet on my income alone. I have been a caregiver for my grandmother for 10.5 years now. I drive 120 miles round trip, Monday through Friday, to be at my parents’ house to take care of Grandma and my mom, who has since become disabled too. I spend a great deal of my time there making sure they are taken care of while my dad works. I even homeschool our 7 year old son on top of everything else. I don’t have much free time for a second job. We are behind on so much from car payments, to insurance, to monthly household bills, to small loans. Even buying groceries is a struggle. My family has been amazing, helping in whatever way they can, but I can’t continue to be a drain on them. In this economy, we can’t seem to get caught up on anything, let alone get ahead, and now rent is about to be due and I don’t know how we’re going to pay it. I am stretched very thin financially, physically, mentally, and emotionally, and I don’t know where to turn anymore. We’ve come to the stark realization that it’s time to swallow our pride and ask for help on a much larger scale, so we are putting this plea out into the world, humbly laying our needs and fears at God’s feet, praying that this finds the right people. If you are unable to donate financially, I deeply understand. We will take all the prayers we can get too!