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My name is Nydia Flores and I am married to Mark Anthony (aka Tony) Flores. We have been married for fifteen years and we have a lovely six year old daughter, Nina Raquel. When I married Tony, we had definitive plans to travel, have a family, and live a long life – long enough to have picnics at the park with our grandchildren. Nowadays it is an emotional struggle to wrap my mind around the idea that Tony may not be around to meet his grandchildren or even long enough to watch Nina Raquel reach significant milestones in her life.
It saddens me to share this with all of you but Tony is not well. Tony’s health issues started in the summer of 2011. He was having issues with his left eye due to his uncontrollable diabetes. He had a couple of surgeries to try to save his vision but to no avail; he has been permanently blind in the left eye since December 2011. As you can imagine, I was sick with worry, fear, and devastation that my Tony Baloney was going blind. I felt like my whole world was falling apart – and still the worse was yet to come.
In August 2012, as we were dealing with the aftermath of Tony’s blindness and the possibility that he was going blind in the right eye, he was diagnosed with kidney failure. We were devastated. We both felt like he had been given a death sentence. Since October 2012, he has been on peritoneal dialysis and it has been a long struggle dealing with his health issues. The hardest part for Tony has been to modify his diet. It is a given that he should not eat sweets because he is diabetic. On the other hand, he is not able to eat a great deal of nutritious foods because his kidneys cannot break it down and therefore his overall system is not being ‘cleansed’ properly – in essence, he is building up toxins, which is why he needs to be on dialysis.
On a nightly basis, he prepares a ritual of sanitization and organization of dialysis materials so that he can attach his catheter to the dialysis machine. Tony’s catheter is attached to his stomach lining and via the catheter the dialysis machine cleanses his system for the next six to eight hours. Tony chose this route of dialysis so that he could continue working on a full time basis and still be a significant part of our family life.
Overall, he is doing well. Other than our family, no one has any idea what he has been through during the last three years –mostly because he does not want to burden anyone with his health problems. Ironically, if one were to look at him, no one would even venture to guess that he is blind in the left eye and has kidney failure. Tony still stands tall, looks you in the eyes when he shakes your hand or gives you a warm hug – his laughter is still infectious after his silly jokes. After all that he has been through, I am grateful that a semblance of Tony remains.
So why write this letter and share our troubles with you? Because he has been waiting for a kidney donation and we need financial assistance to make this kidney donation a possibility. Currently, Tony is on the list for a cadaveric kidney donation which has a wait time of 3 years. On the other hand, an anonymous live donor is currently being screened. Having a kidney donation in of itself will prolong Tony’s life and the quality of life will be significantly better. Further, having a kidney donation from a living donor has a higher “graft” survival than from a cadaver donor. It is attributed to the fact that a living donor is extremely healthy while a cadaveric kidney may have experienced injury as a result of inflammation at the time of death.
We are extremely excited that Tony has the opportunity to receive a kidney from a live donor. The whole process is expensive. Overall, as I stated previously, we need financial assistance to make this kidney donation a possibility. Tony will be out of work for at least three months during his recovery period and costs of medicines, medical bills, doctor’s visits, and other miscellaneous costs will be astronomical.
If you choose to help, please log onto the following website to make a donation. We would appreciate it if you would pass along this letter and website information to your family and friends; we hope they can provide a donation as well. I understand that times are tough – any amount is greatly appreciated. I thank you with all my heart.
Kind regards, Nydia Flores (aka Nyni S. Sanchez)
Personal note from Tony
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Before I was diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease, I did not really know much about it. I have a cousin who has suffered from kidney disease since birth, and even then I was not as well informed as I am today. In very simple terms, what I learned was very alarming, but very hopeful. A “live donor” can donate his/her kidney and continue to live a very healthy and productive life with one kidney functioning at only 60%.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/kidney-donor-mortality/
I mention this for one simple reasons:
My cousin, Michael, is in need of a kidney. He needs the elusive Type O kidney. Should you be Type O, please, please, please consider donating. It first starts by getting tested. Plus, the whole procedure will never cost you a penny. The recipients insurance will pay for ALL tests and surgeries. If interested, you can respond here and I will forward your response.
It saddens me to share this with all of you but Tony is not well. Tony’s health issues started in the summer of 2011. He was having issues with his left eye due to his uncontrollable diabetes. He had a couple of surgeries to try to save his vision but to no avail; he has been permanently blind in the left eye since December 2011. As you can imagine, I was sick with worry, fear, and devastation that my Tony Baloney was going blind. I felt like my whole world was falling apart – and still the worse was yet to come.
In August 2012, as we were dealing with the aftermath of Tony’s blindness and the possibility that he was going blind in the right eye, he was diagnosed with kidney failure. We were devastated. We both felt like he had been given a death sentence. Since October 2012, he has been on peritoneal dialysis and it has been a long struggle dealing with his health issues. The hardest part for Tony has been to modify his diet. It is a given that he should not eat sweets because he is diabetic. On the other hand, he is not able to eat a great deal of nutritious foods because his kidneys cannot break it down and therefore his overall system is not being ‘cleansed’ properly – in essence, he is building up toxins, which is why he needs to be on dialysis.
On a nightly basis, he prepares a ritual of sanitization and organization of dialysis materials so that he can attach his catheter to the dialysis machine. Tony’s catheter is attached to his stomach lining and via the catheter the dialysis machine cleanses his system for the next six to eight hours. Tony chose this route of dialysis so that he could continue working on a full time basis and still be a significant part of our family life.
Overall, he is doing well. Other than our family, no one has any idea what he has been through during the last three years –mostly because he does not want to burden anyone with his health problems. Ironically, if one were to look at him, no one would even venture to guess that he is blind in the left eye and has kidney failure. Tony still stands tall, looks you in the eyes when he shakes your hand or gives you a warm hug – his laughter is still infectious after his silly jokes. After all that he has been through, I am grateful that a semblance of Tony remains.
So why write this letter and share our troubles with you? Because he has been waiting for a kidney donation and we need financial assistance to make this kidney donation a possibility. Currently, Tony is on the list for a cadaveric kidney donation which has a wait time of 3 years. On the other hand, an anonymous live donor is currently being screened. Having a kidney donation in of itself will prolong Tony’s life and the quality of life will be significantly better. Further, having a kidney donation from a living donor has a higher “graft” survival than from a cadaver donor. It is attributed to the fact that a living donor is extremely healthy while a cadaveric kidney may have experienced injury as a result of inflammation at the time of death.
We are extremely excited that Tony has the opportunity to receive a kidney from a live donor. The whole process is expensive. Overall, as I stated previously, we need financial assistance to make this kidney donation a possibility. Tony will be out of work for at least three months during his recovery period and costs of medicines, medical bills, doctor’s visits, and other miscellaneous costs will be astronomical.
If you choose to help, please log onto the following website to make a donation. We would appreciate it if you would pass along this letter and website information to your family and friends; we hope they can provide a donation as well. I understand that times are tough – any amount is greatly appreciated. I thank you with all my heart.
Kind regards, Nydia Flores (aka Nyni S. Sanchez)
Personal note from Tony
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Before I was diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease, I did not really know much about it. I have a cousin who has suffered from kidney disease since birth, and even then I was not as well informed as I am today. In very simple terms, what I learned was very alarming, but very hopeful. A “live donor” can donate his/her kidney and continue to live a very healthy and productive life with one kidney functioning at only 60%.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/kidney-donor-mortality/
I mention this for one simple reasons:
My cousin, Michael, is in need of a kidney. He needs the elusive Type O kidney. Should you be Type O, please, please, please consider donating. It first starts by getting tested. Plus, the whole procedure will never cost you a penny. The recipients insurance will pay for ALL tests and surgeries. If interested, you can respond here and I will forward your response.