Aedan's journey to a new Kidney and a new Life

Let me start by saying this story is not mine alone. It is the story of my nephew and our collective family. To say that we have had a rough decade is an understatement. Shortly after my sister had her fourth child, my parents’ only granddaughter, my mother became unexpectedly ill in 2011 and was on full life support for a month. After so many doctors told us that she was gone, she came back, fighting. She finally came home, wheelchair-bound and weak, but she was alive and determined. She had several other battles over the last decade, and each one made her more tired and weaker, although her determination to keep going never wavered. I got married and started my family, having four children by 2020. My sister and her family moved to Northern New Hampshire in 2014 to make a better life for themselves. Mom, Dad and my family moved to NH in the fall of 2015. It had always been something that my parents wanted to do. 2020 and COVID hit; the distancing thing was hard on all of us. We came down with COVID right before Thanksgiving in 2021, hitting all of us in varying degrees. Unfortunately, we were unable to keep Mom from getting it. She struggled and ended up in the hospital. We lost her five days before Christmas. She had fought for so long and was in constant pain, both physical and emotional. She was tired and couldn’t fight anymore. Christmas of 2021 was hard on us all.

After the New Year, we thought that we could begin the process of healing and growing together as a family again, but sometimes life is cruel. On January 7th, I received a text message from my sister Sabrina. She was in the ER with her third-born son, Aedan. Initially, they thought that he might have appendicitis. That was not the case. His blood pressure was off the charts, and after bloodwork came back, they realized that the toxin level in his bloodstream was beyond dangerous. The nurses did not leave the room for fear of him crashing in the ER. He was transferred to the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital in Portland, Maine, where it was found that he was in acute kidney failure. The doctors kept running tests to find out why. They scheduled him for emergency surgery to place ports so that he could be started on dialysis immediately. So immediate, in fact, that they wheeled him out of recovery after surgery and directly into dialysis. The cause - his kidneys are too small. His kidneys could handle him as a child, but now that he was growing into adulthood, his kidneys can no longer do their job. This means that he is in need of a transplant and is on dialysis three days a week, 4 hours per day, until he is able to get a new kidney. He has been added to the national registry for transplants and has been making progress towards being able to accept a transplant. He has had several setbacks along the way, but nothing that his strong and persevering spirit can’t overcome. He is so like his grandmother, and we are thankful he is such a fighter.

They are finding that the trips to-and-from Portland, Maine, will be increasing in the months and weeks leading up to the transplant. Sabrina and her husband, Jamie, will have countless days that they will need to take off from work, along with many other expenses that are not accounted for through insurance. Hotel stays as the time gets closer and food. Their employers are pretty good considering the situation; however, the medical bills are piling up. So far, they have tallied over half a million dollars in bills, most of which are covered by the insurance company, but many thousands will not be covered. Several of which include the cost of some of the medications that they want him taking leading up to and after the transplant. One that he is taking currently is $800 per month that must be paid. We will do what we can and get Aedan the care he needs. We are asking for your help making sure that my sister and her family can get what they need when they need it. Their life has been turned on its head these last few months, and there is no end in sight. It will be a long road, and they will need our help getting through it.

Several family members and friends have stepped up to try and see if they can be a living donor for him, but the restrictions have narrowed many out due to precise guidelines. We want the best for him, and we will continue to fight for him. Please consider helping him, and us fight for his future. Even just sharing the campaign would be appreciated. We will be launching a merchandise store to help in other ways in the coming days. Aedan has taken to ventriloquism and making others laugh as a way to cope with his troubles. We will be putting out some graphic tees, mugs, masks and more with his puppets’ wit and humor that will make you laugh.

So, if you don’t donate here, please consider purchasing some of the stuff we have coming out in the next few days. All of the profits we gather will be given directly to Aedan and his family to help them with whatever expenses they may have and help them gain some sort of normalcy through this long process.