Michael kidney transplant

Summer of 2007 going into my Senior year of high school I became very ill and was hospitalized. After spending a couple of weeks in the hospital and many test later, the doctors diagnosed me with Lupus. At the age of 17 as anyone could imagine the news was confusing and once I understood it, it was hard to accept. After being diagnosed I managed to over come my fears and come to terms with my diagnoses and a year later I graduated high school.

       Since then I've had a few Lupus flare ups with hospitalizations and in 2010 I was told my Lupus was attacking my kidneys. I was ordered to go through chemotherapy for six months as this would help fight the Lupus from attacking my kidneys. The chemotherapy worked at that time but the doctors informed me that if my Lupus continued to be this aggressive I would need a kidney transplant later in life.

       That reality came sooner rather than later. Beginning this new year 2014 I once again became hospitalized. I went to the ER just thinking another one of these Lupus flares but no, I was hit with some bad news. The results of my blood work determined I was in the late stages of renal failure. I was then admitted, and the doctors bombarded me with a high dosage of Chemotherapy hoping that it would calm my Lupus and my kidneys would wake up. After a few days in the hospital we kept our fingers crossed hoping for some good news. The doctor informed me that he had exhausted all options and nothing had changed. I was still in the late stages of renal failure. The only thing was to be placed dialysis if I wanted to continue to live. Being 23 still that news was not easy to accept and I had to make a choice of which type of dialysis I wanted since there are two. I chose to go ahead with peritoneal dialysis. This type of dialysis can be done at home at night rather than going to a clinic three days a week for five hours. But with choosing peritoneal dialysis I had to go to a special type of training so that I could do this treatment on my own.

       With the support of my wife we both completed this training about a month after being released from the hospital. Since February I've been doing my treatments at the comfort of my house for 9 hours at night. Although I kinda have a somewhat closer to normal life since choosing peritoneal dialysis, it is still difficult at times because there is only so much I can do since I am confined to a machine in my bedroom. It was really difficult to come to terms that this is the way I had to live until I could receive a kidney transplant.

       Since then I've have a positive outlook at life and am thankful that at least there is a treatment for my diagnoses as some are not as lucky, and I can continue to see my children grow up. The next step was to start the process of a kidney transplant. Many of my family members offered to be a donor but in the end it was the best decision to go with my mom since there is a greater outcome from it coming from a immediate family member. Since March 2014 we been going through many test at the transplant center located in Fort Worth, Texas. I will be staying there for about two months after my surgery. My mother is still needing a couple of more test to be given the green light and schedule a surgery date. We are hoping sometime in November/October.

        All/any contributions will be used toward traveling expenses, hospital bills, food, my medication that i will need after surgery since this a treatment not a cure. I will continue to need medication for the rest of my life and they are quite costly even with insurance. These are anti rejection medicines. Thank you for taking the time to hear about my journey and know that I'm great full for any contributions. God bless.