Katie Yates Medical Fund
On February 8th 2017 I took Katie to the ER for shortness of breath and swelling in her legs and abdomen. After the ER ran a series of blood tests, ultra sounds and chest/abdomen scans, they diagosed her with kidney failure and Katie was admitted to Thedacare Regional Medical Center in Neenah WI. Katie's kidneys were only functioning at 3% and over 25 pounds of fluid that her kidneys should have been flushing out had built up in her body. Katie spent the next week in the hospital where additional procedures were performed including a kidney biopsy, heart and lung scans, and a scope to check for internal bleeding since Katie was vomiting blood the first few days in the hospital. It was determined that Katie's kidneys had taken extensive damage from high blood pressure and the diabetes she's been managing over the last 7 years. The damage is irreversible and Katie will need dialysis until if/when she can undergo a kidney transplant. A dialysis machine access port and tube were implanted into her chest and she started receiving daily dialysis in the hospital. Katie was able to be discharged after a week of treatment and is now resting at home and will not be able to return to work for some time. Katie will need on-going dialysis 3 days per week. She will have this done at the local out-patient dailysis center every Tue/Thu/Sat and each session is 5 1/2 hours long. In the upcoming weeks Katie will receive a surgery to implant a dialysis fistula into her forearm to replace the temporary chest access port. After about 8 weeks post surgery, her skin will graf fully to the new dialysis fistula and the doctors can remove her chest port which will be a relief to Katie. Since being discharged from the hospital, Katie takes pills and injections several times a day from 13 prescriptions to manage her condition. She has her up and down moments as she copes with the road to recovery and is looking forward to finding out more information down the road on the kidney transplant process. Right now, she is taking things one day at a time and trying to heal up and stay positive. Anyone who knows Katie knows how warm, funny, caring, and wonderful she is. Family is everything to Katie and she is looking forward to being able to play with her neices & nephews, and hold her newborn nephew once she is strong enough. I've had so many wonderful people who know Katie, and know what she is going through, ask how they can donate or help with her situation since Katie will not be able to return work for some time. I thought this funding site would be a way to do that and would go towards Katie's ever growing bills from the ER, hospital, prescriptions, indefinite out-patient dialysis, and her upcoming surgerys. Thank you everyone for all of your support and kind things you have done for Katie.