Help Tamara Get a Life-Saving Kidney

Help Tamara get a kidney! Tamara is a loving wife, mother and grandmother to three children. She is still so young, just 50 years old and has so much life left to live.

As some of you may or may not know, Tamara was diagnosed with complete renal failure last year in 2023. She was perfectly healthy and happy just a year before that, with no prior health issues or problems.

All things changed in 2023. Her kidneys shut down, she was admitted into the hosptial and it was literally hour by hour, we had no idea what was going to happen, because it had gotten so bad, so fast. After rounds of testing, scans and lab work, it was confirmed, she was in complete renal failure and needed dialysis immediately. Unfortunately, she first had to have surgery on her arm, for a vein to be accessible for dialysis. The surgery itself would not take long, it was the recovery afterwards. Surgery was scheduled, completed with no issues and she was sent home to start her recovery. During that time is when things started to decline fast. She was so swollen from so much fluid, she could not walk, she struggled to breathe. We had to have someone by her side every second, of every day, to make sure she was breathing and able to get up, she was just so weak and fragile. We eventually had to push her around the house and from one appointment to another, in a chair, because she was to swollen and out of breath, there was no walking. To say scary was an understatement.

Finally, after seeing her renal Dr just two weeks later, we were told she could no longer wait for dialysis, she needed it now.

Her team of Drs rushed to get things going, to get clearance from the surgeon and finally the dialysis center called with her schedule, to start right away. I was so thrilled when that call finally came and I was able to drive her to her first dialysis appointment. Little did I know, dialysis would be hard. Hard on her small, fragile body, hard on her physically, mentally and emotionally. Watching her come out so sick, breathless and faint, it was bittersweet. It was like, finally we have dialysis but dialysis is making her so sick. Sicker than what she already was.

After a while, going 3 days a week for roughly 5 hours each day, she has adjusted some. She still gets very sleepy, dizzy, faint and tired, because dialysis isn’t easy. But it’s keeping her alive.

In the summer of 2024 she was FINALLY sent to New Orleans where she underwent many tests and tons of lab work to see if she was capable of getting placed on the transplant list for a kidney. After what felt like waiting forever, we received a call that everything was good to go and she was placed on the transplant list!

That all sounds so exciting and nerve wrecking at the same time, but ultimately at the age of just 50 years old, it’s what she needs to get off of dialysis and eventually live a close to normal life again, to live. With dialysis comes many expenses but with the transplant, comes even more expenses.

Even with insurance, she has a very high deductible, extremely high. And that’s just the kidney alone. That’s not the hospital stay, medications, she will also have to stay roughly two weeks following her transplant, which is all out of pocket expenses. These are just a FEW of the major expenses that come with this. And unfortunately there’s no “get it now and pay later” option. She has to have everything all up front, at once. The call for that kidney can come at any given point, on a Sunday at 2pm or on a Tuesday at 3am and she has only 4 hours to get there, with payment in hand, ready to go.

She recently shared her story in hopes to help others who may be going through something similar or a health issue in general. She wants them to know, stay positive, take it day by day and know there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It may not always be easy but if you’re willing to fight, it will be worth it. She has a husband, daughter, grandchildren and family to live for. She wants to fight and to eventually come out with a kidney, to regain life and make memories. Because there is no rescheduling or canceling dialysis, it’s keeping her alive and her body needs it. It’s hard to make memories or really do much right now.

So we are currently trying to raise money in hopes to have the money for a kidney and all of the expenses that come with getting one.

We are asking if you have it in you to donate, no amount is too small and if you can’t, maybe say a prayer that she will receive one and get back to being an active, thriving woman again.

As her family, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts, helping her would mean the world to us.