Jason's Kidney Transplant Part 1
Donation protected
I'm Jason Ryan, I'm 35 years old and have been a Type 1 Diabetic since I was 13. Late in 2013 I found out that I had advance stage renal disease, meaning my kidneys were only functioning at about 12% and beyond repair. Eventually I would need dialysis and a transplant. I lived in denial of this until a dramatic event turned my life and my family's life upside down.
On Thursday, January 8th 2015 at about 11:30pm I woke up with a low blood sugar. Ally and I have a routine we go through when this happens since it happens about once a month or so. I wake her up, she gets me a spoonful of peanut butter and in a few minutes all is well again. This was not the case this time. I don't remember much from the night, but this is how it has been told to me:
Ally tried a spoonful of peanut butter as usual. It didn't work. In fact, I got worse. She tried juice. This also did not work. At this point, Ally says I regressed to the actions and communication skills equivalent to those of our 2 year old son. I wasn't making sense and stopped forming words none-the-less complete sentences.
At this point, Ally realized this was not normal and not something she could fix. With both boys home and asleep, she called 911. Right about that time I had a seizure and became unresponsive. The paramedics were to our house in less than 2 minutes. I'm sure the longest 2 minutes of Ally's life. I was unresponsive to the paramedics and came to right about the time the ambulance pulled in to the hospital.
It's never good news when the ER doc walks in after looking at all your tests and x-rays and says "You're a mess." And with that I was admitted to the ICU with complete kidney failure, blood pressure high enough to stroke, dangerously high potassium levels, and a blood glucose level all over the board on Friday morning.
My potassium level was at a 7 which is on the brink of causing major heart problems. I had an amazing nurse that pushed for me to get my dialysis catheter ASAP on Friday. Thanks to her, I had my jugular catheter in and my first dialysis treatment by 1pm on Friday and my potassium level immediately dropped back down to the normal range.
I spent two more days in the ICU and was finally transferred to a regular hospital room Sunday evening. I finally got to take a shower. It felt amazing.
I was finally discharged on Monday and had my first dialysis treatment at the Liberty Dialysis center, where I will continue to go three days per week for 4hrs at a time for dialysis. My team of doctors, nurses, etc. are amazing. With their help I will soon get a new catheter in my abdomen and get training to do PD (peritoneal dialysis) at home. This will allow me more flexibility and control over my daily life and it won't revolve around dialysis and be actually relatively normal.
All that being said, I won't be able to return to work for a while. With Ally and her mom and stepdad having just started a small business, this is obviously not a good time for me to be out of commission. We hope this campaign will help our family pay for our mortgage for the next five months until I can return to work.
We know that we will have several more monstrous expenses before this is all over so that is why we are calling this one "Part 1". We have no idea what kind of bills are headed for our mailbox or how big they will be. However, the future is looking bright with the potential for a two-for-one transplant of a kidney and a pancreas within the next year to year and a half.
We sincerely appreciate any and every bit of help and support. Thank you so much for your thoughts, good vibes, prayers, and everything else you have all directed our way.
On Thursday, January 8th 2015 at about 11:30pm I woke up with a low blood sugar. Ally and I have a routine we go through when this happens since it happens about once a month or so. I wake her up, she gets me a spoonful of peanut butter and in a few minutes all is well again. This was not the case this time. I don't remember much from the night, but this is how it has been told to me:
Ally tried a spoonful of peanut butter as usual. It didn't work. In fact, I got worse. She tried juice. This also did not work. At this point, Ally says I regressed to the actions and communication skills equivalent to those of our 2 year old son. I wasn't making sense and stopped forming words none-the-less complete sentences.
At this point, Ally realized this was not normal and not something she could fix. With both boys home and asleep, she called 911. Right about that time I had a seizure and became unresponsive. The paramedics were to our house in less than 2 minutes. I'm sure the longest 2 minutes of Ally's life. I was unresponsive to the paramedics and came to right about the time the ambulance pulled in to the hospital.
It's never good news when the ER doc walks in after looking at all your tests and x-rays and says "You're a mess." And with that I was admitted to the ICU with complete kidney failure, blood pressure high enough to stroke, dangerously high potassium levels, and a blood glucose level all over the board on Friday morning.
My potassium level was at a 7 which is on the brink of causing major heart problems. I had an amazing nurse that pushed for me to get my dialysis catheter ASAP on Friday. Thanks to her, I had my jugular catheter in and my first dialysis treatment by 1pm on Friday and my potassium level immediately dropped back down to the normal range.
I spent two more days in the ICU and was finally transferred to a regular hospital room Sunday evening. I finally got to take a shower. It felt amazing.
I was finally discharged on Monday and had my first dialysis treatment at the Liberty Dialysis center, where I will continue to go three days per week for 4hrs at a time for dialysis. My team of doctors, nurses, etc. are amazing. With their help I will soon get a new catheter in my abdomen and get training to do PD (peritoneal dialysis) at home. This will allow me more flexibility and control over my daily life and it won't revolve around dialysis and be actually relatively normal.
All that being said, I won't be able to return to work for a while. With Ally and her mom and stepdad having just started a small business, this is obviously not a good time for me to be out of commission. We hope this campaign will help our family pay for our mortgage for the next five months until I can return to work.
We know that we will have several more monstrous expenses before this is all over so that is why we are calling this one "Part 1". We have no idea what kind of bills are headed for our mailbox or how big they will be. However, the future is looking bright with the potential for a two-for-one transplant of a kidney and a pancreas within the next year to year and a half.
We sincerely appreciate any and every bit of help and support. Thank you so much for your thoughts, good vibes, prayers, and everything else you have all directed our way.
Organizer
Jason Ryan
Organizer
Nampa, ID