Sofia’s Transplant And Recovery

In the beginning of June 2019 Sofia began to feel nauseous and was vomiting quite frequently. Sofia had always been considered a pretty healthy child; She has always been a very active, happy, and energetic girl. She participated in Cheer, Cross Country at her middle school, dance, and soccer.  This immediately prompted her Dad to take her to Urgent Care where they said it looked like a possible "stomach flu," and gave her meds to treat her nausea. Her symptoms continued for about 3 weeks. On the weekend of June 21st, 2019 our weekend started out just like any other only this time we were headed to San Diego for the week to enjoy the weather and time together as a family. We went out to the movie theatre.  Right in the middle of the movie theatre Sofia jumped out of her chair and ran to the nearest trash can to throw up. Her Dad and I knew in our gut that there was something wrong and we had to act fast. We immediately took her to a local Kaiser Emergency room where we explained everything that had been happening and thankfully the doctor ordered a full medical workup and about 4 hours later our lives and Sofia's were changed forever. As soon as her doctor came back with the results he told us that she was in Kidney failure and was working on an immediate transfer to a local children's hospital to care for her and left the room without any time for questions. In the very early morning of June 23rd, Sofia was admitted to Rady’s Children Hospital in San Diego for kidney failure.

After a multitude of medical tests and not knowing how our normally healthy girl was now in kidney failure and what the outcome would be, it was discovered that she has an Autoimmune disease called P ANCA Vasculitis which has caused her End Stage Renal Failure at just 11 years old. Sofia was required to undergo Hemodialysis for several months.  We had to drive 50 miles each way, 3 times a week for 6 months, for her treatment sessions that lasted 3 1/2 hours each time.  This was extremely difficult for us to go through physically but it was even more difficult to watch our beautiful girl go through it that really affected her not only physically with each treatment, but mentally and emotionally as well.  Her medical treatments took away her ability to go to school, play sports, and just live life like the rest of her friends and kids her age.  We were finally able to transition her to home dialysis once we had shown to her medical team that we could handle the very sensitive requirements of her medical condition by following her restrictive renal diet and medications for optimal health. This required the both of us to take a week off of work so that we could attend the 10 hour training sessions each day to learn and be approved to treat her at home. 

Sofia’s life has changed so drastically in such a short amount of time since her diagnosis but now, a kidney transplant is required to save her life.  We had been told by her transplant team at UCLA that she would most likely be on the UNOS listing, (the Nation's private non-profit organization that manages all organ transplants) for a kidney for at least 2 years unless we could find a living donor. Immediately her father, Sergio, submitted all the paperwork and went through all the testing to see if he would be a match to donate his kidney to his baby girl.  Sergio had also just graduated from the San Diego Fire-Rescue Departments 87th Fire Academy in June 2019 and would be on probation for a year. This time was supposed to be a celebratory time in our life as he was accomplishing his dream to be a firefighter and instead we found ourselves praying to save our girl. 

Our prayers were answered in April of this year! Not only was Sergio a match, but he was more than the required match percentage, since this will be her first transplant it reduces the possibility of rejection. Sofia will need another kidney transplant in her life since she is so young, but for now we are dedicated and concentrating on this first step to a healthy happy life for our Sofia. Sofia and Sergio are scheduled for surgery on July 28th, 2020 at UCLA and we are counting down the day's. We also just learned that Sergio passed all his testing and his year of probation and is officially a San Diego City Fire-Rescue Department firefighter. 
Sofia will still have to battle for her life following surgery for at least 3 months as they test and retest and test again to ensure everything goes as planned. Sergio will be out for at least 6-8 weeks. Sofia is just like her father, they're both fighters and we know that they will pull through this and be stronger than ever. They have the strength and determination, as well as all the love and support that we have received from all of those around us during this time. As our family embarks on this next major chapter of life for Sofia, we ask as a family that you consider helping us with a donation to help us cover the costs of medical, housing, food, and transportation.



-Love, The Rivera Family