A New Kidney for Tiffini: Help Her Heal

It's GO time! After more than three years since her Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) took a turn for the worse, Tiffini is finally nearing a day when she'll have a life-saving transplant. She is being listed through the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City, where she's received ongoing treatment since 2022, including the removal of her 10-pound left kidney a year later. Now, she needs financial support to ensure fighting through and healing from the operations to remove her remaining kidney, sustain her on dialysis, and give her a new kidney are her only focus through this process.

Tiffini's journey with PKD may be nearing an incredible end, but it's been a long road to get here. She was diagnosed with the genetic, degenerative disease at age 12 when abdominal imaging revealed cysts on her kidneys. Through the following two decades, she endured countless kidney infections (including four system-wide sepsis infections), cyst ruptures, and kidney stones. She has been hospitalized at least annually while her kidneys enlarged and were eventually overtaken by cystic tissue.

Despite those trials, Tiffini conquered so much through adolescence and adulthood. She graduated from Georgetown University with her master's degree and achieved her lifelong goal of becoming a writer. She purchased her first home, married, and became a mother like she had always wanted to. Sadly, an infection in 2022 significantly reduced her kidney function and caused chronic, debilitating pain, which rendered her bedridden for 16 months. In that time, she was forced to give up her career for disability, lost her physical capacity to play with her young son, and her marriage dissolved soon after. Life as she knew it was forever changed.

Tiffini never stopped fighting for a better outcome, despite her condition. Anxious to get off bedrest, she advocated for all available treatments in Billings, Montana, where she lives. She received multiple nerve blocks and ablations, myriad medications, and even underwent weeks of acupuncture. When local physicians ran out of options, she sought care at Mayo Clinic where she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of her disease and introduced to the new and first treatment for PKD. She was then referred to the University of Utah Hospital to explore surgical options. UofU doctors performed cyst reduction therapies before ultimately agreeing to remove her left kidney.

Motherhood, writing, and returning to the active lifestyle she once lived continued to drive Tiffini in the years that followed. When her chronic pain persisted, she began Lidocaine infusions at UofU. She now receives these treatments on a four-week rotation, which affords her about two weeks of adequate relief. The other two weeks, she remains debilitated by pain, requiring the use of a walker and cane for mobility.

Since 2022, Tiffini's kidney function has decreased more than 40%. She was consistently told she had to reach 20% to receive a referral to the UofU transplant program. Although bittersweet, she was thrilled to get that fateful lab result this year and was immediately referred and accepted. Now, she navigates the arduous tasks ahead on the way to a new kidney, which include myriad tests on her and her possible living donors. Moreover, she is required to show financial stability with thousands of dollars to obtain a local residence in Salt Lake City for approximately six weeks following her surgeries. Meanwhile, she must maintain a rental agreement where she and her son live in Billings. It is Tiffini's hope that she can also raise enough money to offset out-of-pocket expenses for her donor if they are to travel to Utah for a direct donation operation.

Should you choose to support Tiffini through the transplant process, your dollars will apply toward:

While she is blessed that several people have come forward to pursue testing to donate, there is always the possibility that an immediate match will not be available or that her body will reject a kidney. If you are interested in being evaluated as a potential donor, her transplant team encourages you to complete an initial questionnaire at uofulivingdonor.org.

We understand that some people prefer to support causes they care about outside of GoFundMe. If you wish to give to Tiffini elsewhere, she also has Venmo (@Tiffini-Gallant) and CashApp ($TiffiniGallant). Thank you for following along on her journey toward kidney failure and transplantation and supporting her goal with your gift.