Hi everyone!
If you've made it this far, your presence is more than enough. I want to tell you a story that many do not know outside of our inner circle of family & friends. It is the health story of my wife, Melissa Peters Chatman. For the past several years, she has been fighting against lupus nephritis and kidney disease. Even though she's had health struggles, no one would ever know it, as she always operates with a smile and never let disease define her! She is a great wife, sister, aunt, friend, and an even better mom :-) and most of all, she is full of hope, love, and faith in God. When Melissa was 18 years old she was diagnosed with lupus and it changed her entire life. Over the years she's had countless ER visits, hospital admissions, shingles, losing her hair, anemia, joint problems, chronic pain and more. Eventually, lupus caused a life threatening case of acute kidney failure. For those who are not familiar, Lupus is an autoimmune disease that attacks any organ of the body and affects how it functions. Lupus Nephritis, specifically, caused her antibodies to attack her kidneys and stop them from doing what they're supposed to do.
Melissa sacrificed so much by doing night dialysis 36 hours per week while pregnant with our daughter Cameron, all while still working. We often spent our nights at the dialysis clinic since the staff was kind enough to give me a chair so I could be there with her. Cameron is our miracle baby as over 90% of women on dialysis are unable to get pregnant let alone have a successful pregnancy. A surprise to us Cameron came at 28 weeks of pregnancy and came home after an arduous 4 months in the NICU at Penn. We overcame many negative opinions and beat the odds in being blessed enough to start our family.
Since 2019 Melissa has had to do 12-18 hours of weekly dialysis treatments. She must do this to stay alive. I feel like she hasn't had a break; A moment to catch her breath and enjoy life. Living with chronic illnesses in itself is a full-time job. We even tried to get in-home PD dialysis to make life somewhat normal but unfortunately it caused her multiple complications and 4 hospital stays/surgeries in the midst of COVID. Because of dialysis, she's lost freedoms that most take for granted. Being able to travel easily, taking full showers, swimming, being tied to a schedule at the clinic. It has been a grind of doctors' appointments, dialysis treatments, and hospital stays.
In June of this year I was evaluated to donate my kidney to Melissa, however, I was not a direct match due to antibodies that would cause rejection of my kidney. We decided to enter the paired donation program through the National Kidney Registry, meaning we'd be matched with another donor that is a match for Melissa and their recipient is a match to receive my kidney. Two months later (which was just over a week ago), we finally received a match and a date of October 14th for our surgeries. I'm excited, anxious, nervous and so many more emotions that it's hard to put into words.
We are so thankful to have made it to this point of having a kidney available for Melissa. As a requirement of our insurance plan, we will travel to Mayo Clinic in Arizona for the surgeries and need to live there for 4-6 weeks as Melissa recovers and does follow-up with the team there. We have had so many people ask how they can help at this time and with her soon recovery. This page is set up to help us offset costs with being out of work, cover hospital, dialysis, medicine, and lab bills. Even with very good insurance, the out-of-pocket expenses continue to mount from care over the years and we are bracing for significant medical expenses that come with kidney translplant and after-care. If you're able to donate, we'd appreciate your support but if not, sharing this page would be just as helpful, as I'd love to share Melissa's story to as many people as possible. Saving a life means a multitude of things, so any type of contribution is appreciated. Feel free to follow along here for updates or via social media too.
Thank you,
Melissa and Ryan
We want to personally thank some of the awesome medical professionals who've helped us along:
Dr. Wilson
Dr. Dunn
Siri
Tammy
Jean
Dr. Kaldas
Nancy
Dr. Sareja
Dr. Geara
Dr. Tom
Dr. Oxford-Horrey
and a big thanks to the countless other doctors, nurses, physicians assistants, and staff who helped guide us through a not so easy journey.
For more information on Organ Donation, please visit https://www.kidneyregistry.org/
Organizer and beneficiary
Melissa Chatman
Beneficiary