Donate to David Ryan's Kidney Transplant Recovery

Hi I am David Ryan, I am 60 years old and this is my story.I am establishing this Go Fund me page to help me get a kidney transplant.I have been on dialysis for 10 years. THe doctors say that I need a transplant in order to have a longer life.The cost of the transplant is covered by the VA. I have to stay within an hour of the hospital, the doctor said that it may be up to 4 to 6 weeks after surgery. I live an hour and thirty min from the hospital. I will need someone to be with me during this time. My wife Susie will have to take off from her job as a CNA. Which is how we put food on our table. She is the one who will be my caregiver, as she knows me best. The basic cost for the room and and cost for the food, and for the cost of gas back and forth to the hospital as it is needed.

When I turned 17 I enlisted in the Marines. I entered boot Camp in December of 81. I was sent to Camp Le Jeune in July of 82 . I left December of 84. I was sent to different areas of the globe. Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand I served 4 years on active duty, and 2 years inactive. I was diagnosed with IGA Naturopathy in the spring of 1991. I was later put on Blood pressure medication because my kidneys were causing high blood pressure which was killing my kidneys. Life went on as usual for some time. My mother in law Joanne introduced us to a little Lady named Katie. Katie had Downs and we fell in love with her. Joanne was given custody and we became a bigger family. We decided to expand our family . We knew that we wanted to help children . We asked our older kids if they thought they would be ok with helping foster kids who need a home. The older kids said yes. We started the process of becoming a foster and adoptive family.We finished our home study on October 25,2002. We started the process to find the children who we could adopt. WE found a site that helped children that needed placement out of the state of California. We sent our home study and were asked to consider a set of twins , one twin had Downs . My Wife was asked if that would be a problem? My wife said no, because she has a sister with downs. We became foster parents because this was one of the stipulations for us to be able to bring our twins home.Once we brought our twins home. We learned to be a home with five children. Our daughter had to have physical therapy. We also had other appointments with the school as our daughter would need to be in special ED.Our son also has delays and also needed help in school. There were IEP meetings for both and dr’s appointments. There was adjustment but we learned early that we had to work together or things fell through the cracks. Our son and daughter were 4 when they came to live with us,in December of 2004. We kept our commitment to our county as foster parents and were asked to take a 1 year old little girl. She only stayed 48 hours. We then were asked to help a newborn baby boy. He stayed about a week. We then were asked to do respite care for a teen mother. She stayed not even 24 hours before having her baby. In June of 2005 , We then were asked to take a group of 3 boys. Ages 3 years, 19 months, and 5 months. We were told that no one wanted to take them together. My wife said just bring them here.There have been many ups and downs . Many doctors visits, years of counseling and adjusting to our new normal. We have not had an easy time, but to keep siblings together and help them learn how to be in a loving family who tries to do the best they can, is well worth it. We wanted to keep siblings together and grow up together. In 2009 we moved back to Oklahoma to raise our children. I have worked as a Mechanic,for many years. I also had my own Lawn Care company.

My family and I have a small hobby farm . We have been blessed with 6 grandchildren and two sons in laws. At the end of 2013 I started to have trouble. I had to stop working full time. I tried to start my lawn care business again . I was not able to do this as my health was not good. I did go to the dr’s at the end of 2014. It was decided that I needed to start dialysis . I started in February of 2015. I have been on the list for a transplant for a long time. I have other procedures . In the beginning I had a port but it caused me problems. I now have a fistula in my left arm. I have Dialysis three times a week, for 3 1/2 hours at a time. The effects of doing dialysis are hard on your body . I feel very tired and run down most of the time. When I try to do some work around our farm I become very tired and have to stop and rest. I try to go back to work again for a little bit, then I have to stop again . It does get frustrating. My time is affected by dialysis, as I can not work a full time job . My wife works as a C.N.A. in an IID facility . She works with people with Intellectual disabilities . She has worked at East Ok Cottages for almost 4 years. As a CNA she helps the evening shift with cooking , doing laundry , and cooking classes for Cottage two . Cottage two is a step closer to help the individuals learn to live on their own. These special people need to be able to function in a home and take care of themselves. My wife's family have been caregivers for at least 4 generations. I have now become a part of this way of life. It is who we are. It is my hope that you will understand that this is hard, to ask for help. We have tried to take care of ourselves and our different family members. This is a BIG taking and we need help. Susie and I will appreciate any and all help.

Thank you David Ryan