Hello everyone. This is Ben. I've decided to finally make a GoFundMe for my wife, Kat. This is not something that we were very keen on trying, but we would like to get her on a transplant list.

Backstory:

Early in 2021, Kat came down with the Delta variant of COVID-19. She got very sick and was bedridden for weeks. She spent most of the next year sleeping a lot and visiting doctors. In March and April of 2022, things came to a head. One day she wasn't feeling well, and her systolic blood pressure was coming in over 200, so we took her to the hospital. Although she was healthy prior to COVID, being diabetic predisposed her to certain problems, and we found out she had acute renal failure and a host of other problems that were all fast-tracked by the COVID. Now her kidneys are completely shot, and she has been on dialysis for about three years now.

In order to get active on a transplant list, Kat has need a very long series of procedures, tests, and examinations to ensure her new kidney has the best chance it can get. We started the process at the U of M and got most of the way through it before our insurance decided we couldn't go through the University of Minnesota. We have since started the whole process over going through the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. They have been amazing. We managed to pay a very big bill for extensive dental work thanks to some money that my late grandfather Raymond Gustafson left to us. But there is so much more.

We've struggled with the financial aspect for years. She qualified for Medicare and between that and insurance, we've been able to stay afloat as they have paid probably hundreds of thousands of dollars. But now, we've exhausted our savings. This isn't an ultimatum. Kat is getting her kidney either way, but right now we are struggling to just pay normal bills, let alone medical ones. Please feel free to ask me any questions or reach out if you want to know more. Your support means the world to us.