Colleen's Kidney Transplant Benefit

Colleen Berry is a wife and mother of an amazing and caring family. Colleen is a hard worker, a neighbor, and a friend who has always put family and others first. Colleen was born and raised in Ogdensburg, NY. She has spent most of her life working as an occupational therapist with the developmentaly disabled. She has volunteered and participated in many community events including being an active member in several organizations. She has raised two kids, both of whom have recently finished college. Colleen is very simple; she never asks anyone for anything and she finds joy out of the smallest of things. She loves spending time with her family outdoors, camping and fishing. She enjoys a nice margarita while watching a movie with her kids.

           
          Colleen at the age of 52 was diagnosed in March 2013 with IgA Nephropathy, a rare genetic kidney disorder that is incurable.  She was told by her doctor that she was stage 4 renal failure and would need to begin dialysis and ultimately need a kidney transplant. Both of her kidneys have begun to shut down and neither would be capable of being saved. After seeing multiple specialists in New York and Vermont and weighing all her options, Colleen began the procedures to do kidney dialysis about a year later in May 2014. Colleen's original plan was to do peritoneal dialysis which is a catheter inserted into the stomach wall and would allow her to do dialysis from home but she would require having it done 4 times a day.  Colleen had several complications with the catheter and ended up in the hospital multiple times.  She had the catheter removed and then put back in two different times. She was rushed by ambulance to the hospital in Vermont due to infection caused from the catheter getting contaminated. This wasn't the end of bad news, the doctors informed her she had a rare birth defect that caused a hole in her sternum and this would prevent her from doing peritoneal dialysis.  The doctors told her she would now have to do hemodialysis and place a fistula in her arm.  But before they could use that they would have to put in an emergency catheter in her chest.  Colleen can no longer work while being on dialysis and has taken medical leave. Finally after a long 6 months Colleen is on dialysis and feeling better. 

            In January 2015 Colleen was put on the kidney transplant list at the Albany Medical Center.  There is a 3-3.5 year wait on the transplant list.  Receiving a kidney transplant will be a complete life style change for her.  She will have a strict diet, have to take rejection medications that will most likely cause her to have curable skin cancer, and will be restricted from certain activities for the first year.  Luckily for Colleen her insurance covers mostof the medical costs for the transplant. When a kidney becomes available for Colleen she will only have 8 hours to get to Albany and will have to stay in Albany for at least 7-10 days.  That means she needs money for food, gas, hotel, medical copays for the procedures, and medications which could cost between [phone redacted] a month.  After that one week she will need to visit Albany once a week for the next 6-8 weeks.  The first 3- 4 months after that she will be required to make additional visits every couple of weeks.  Colleen and her family are overwhelmed with the expenses that all of this has caused. The copays that she has had to pay have been more than anyone expected. The trips in and out of the hospital have caused numerous medical bills. The constant trips to Burlington and Albany are adding up and they won’t be slowing down any time soon. Colleen needs $7500 for transplant copayments and $3000 in copays for previous lab work. Our goal with this fund is to offer her family support through this troubling time and relieve Colleen and her family from some of the financial burden that they are currently going through. Speaking with Colleen, she wants to say “Thank You” for the kind word of support by everyone up to this point.