Porterfield Love Offering

 Jay Porterfield  was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2001.  Doctors told him if he would loose some of the weight his diabetes would more than likely heal itself.  After loosing almost 220 pounds Jay’s diabetes did not improve. In fact, it became worse and transitioned to type 1. His pancreas completely quit and no longer made any insulin. We have been managing and watching kidney functions since then.  

On December 23,2017 Jay suffered a stroke. To this day no one can tell us why he had one just that he did. The stroke caused other issues to arise but the biggest one was how much it effected his kidneys.  Kaci’s father, Eddie Jeffcoat, had recently had a transplant at Methodist Dallas Medical center and started to speak with his nephrology team regarding Jay. They told him that they would love to see Jay.  Jay immediately went just to keep his kidneys functioning as much as he could for as long as he could. It was a blessing that they had no issues scheduling, getting referred to this team or anything. The only reason this Doctor, Dr. Fa should of seen Jay was post transplant. She is only a transplant nephrologist however she agreed to see Jay simply because of Kaci’s father.  He began seeing her in July of 2019 and his kidneys were functioning at 50%.  They decided that they would be able to maintain that level through medication and visits with her and refrain from any drastic medical procedures for a minimum of 8-10 years.  She agreed that the stroke had a large effect on the kidneys.

In October 2019, they returned for a follow up and Jay’s kidney function fell from 50% to 13%.  Dr. Fa was not able to explain why and was baffled her self. Together, they were forced to make the decision to apply for transplant.  She called her transplant surgeon, Dr. Dickerman and he came and spoke with them immediately.  He was concerned with Jay’s overall health and determined that his best chance for survival & being present for their 3 young children was a Living Donor Transplant.  Jay simply would not survive waiting for any other donor transplant.  They commenced dialysis October 14,2019 and by the end of December Jay was approved by the transplant committee to be placed on the transplant list. The living donor transplant program was forced to be canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions placed on surgeries as well as hospitals. That was their first delay.  Since then they have been able to schedule the transplant twice and both times, 2-3 days before, they were forced to cancel it due to things that were completely out of their control.  Jay & Kaci  just keep telling themselves that God is simply protecting them from something.

The whole delay process has forced Jay to be off of work for over a year.  His medical team will not allow him to return to work with the dialysis port on his chest.  They placed this type of access due to them hoping it would be a short time on dialysis due to Living donor option.  As you can imagine, with Jay not being able to work, traveling back and forth to Dallas for appointments and 3 kids that finances can be tough.  I’ve personally seen Kaci get news that the transplant would be postponed and she handles it with such grace.  Jay & Kaci know that God is good even when we don’t understand.