Bre's Transplant
Bre's story begins on August 21, 2019 which was a day that could have gone terribly different. She had not been feeling well for many weeks and kept brushing it off as one thing or another. She had missed days of work on and off because she wasn't feeling well and we were all getting a little frustrated that she just wasn't getting better. Finally the early evening on August 21 I texted her to find out how she was doing and she still was feeling sick so I asked to come over to their house to visit with Bre and Mason (her husband) to find out what our next steps would be. Bre didn't want to go to Acute Care but both Mason and I pushed for it and a little later on Bre and I were on our way there. Once there they took a few blood tests and urine tests to see what her levels were at and after a bit the Dr. came back into the room with a look on his face and he said "I never thought I was going to come into this room to tell you this, you are in renal failure". Bre and I were in shock and then tears and lots of questions, "What were our next steps". The Dr. said we needed to go directly to the ER where they would be waiting for us. I was so impressed with the ER staff and Doctor's as there were so many people in her room working on different things and I thought "Wow, this is incredible how quickly they are getting us in and a work up done". As I look back at it now she was extremely sick and time was of the essence for that ER Team to get her levels back into a normal range or it could be fatal. Her creatine level was at 36, which is a lethal level and a normal person's should be around 1. Her potassium level was at an 8 which is life threatening and it should normally be around 3.6 - 5.2.
Early the next morning she was moved up to ICU where she was monitored very closely and and eventually had a catheter placed in her chest to begin dialysis for her kidneys. They had also ordered a lung and kidney biopsy to begin to try and figure out what all of this was caused from. On August 23 Dr. Qamar, her nephrologist came into the room and sat down next to Bre's bed and began trying to explain that Bre had been diagnosed with Anti GBM or Good Pasture's Syndrome which is a rare autoimmune disease where the antibodies attack the lungs and kidneys, leading to bleeding from the lungs and kidney failure. It was as if time stopped for a minute as we were all in shock. Dr. Qamar was very helpful answering all of our questions and kept telling us that Bre was so young and would bounce back quickly. She began plasmapherisis as well as diaylsis and had taken a chemo drug as well and finally was able to go home after about 2 weeks and continued doing hemodialysis at home.
While she was in the hospital her and Mason, her husband celebrated their one year wedding anniversary and we were all looking back at how their lives have changed in a matter of a few months. They would now be putting having children on the back burner until they could work through this disease and beat it.
Over this past 10 months Bre has had many hospital stays and ER visits due to blood infections of her catheter, high sodium levels and low sodium levels and excruciating migraines. Learning what she could and couldn't eat and learning how much potassium, phosphorus and sodium are in foods was quite an undertaking. People take those things for granted until they have to alter their diet.
Fast forward to March, 2020 and Bre was finally cleared and Dr. Qamar was ready to have the transplant process move forward for a kidney transplant. They flipped the switch and Bre was on the National Donor registry but we knew we wanted to find a living donor for Bre as they usually last longer. We got started with social media requests asking for anyone that wanted to sign up to see if they would be a match for Bre. There were many responses and they began working up a few people (myself and Mason). Then Covid happened and a hold was placed on all testing for a few months. The process just started back up again in June and Mason continued with some additional testing and we were notified that he is a match!!! A match made in heaven!! Bre's husband was going to save her life.
Now we are 21 days from Transplant Day, July 27, 2020. As all things continue to fall into place we desperately are trying to keep both Bre and Mason healthy so the transplant can happen. Today I am asking for some monetary help as you can imagine neither have vacation balances as they have been exhausted throughout this past year. Also the enormous expense that they will have with the transplant for such items that are not covered by insurance. I know most of you have followed their story this past year and have also been a huge part of their lives in one way or another through this process and they are so appreciative.
God bless and take care,
Pam
