My Name is Portia I'm 30 years old married and a mother of 2 beautiful blessings. I've been on Dialysis for 7 years now and I'm in the process of trying to get a kidney transplant. But with getting a transplant there will be lots of expenses. But before I get into that I will share my story on how I lost my kidneys. Immediately after I was born I was rushed away because doctors noticed something wasn't right with me. After much testing they found that both my kindneys weren't normal I had a triplicate system on my right side and a duplicate system on the left side, and reflux in both kidney's. I had my first surgery at 4 days old to try to repair my right kidney but it was unsuccessful then at 3 months old I had my second surgery to remove my right kidney. They told my mom eventually I would lose function in my left kidney anywhere from the age of 15-25. Growing up I lived a pretty normal life my mom took very good care of me. I knew I had 1 kidney and I knew I always had to be careful and take extra care of myself. So around 15years old I became really sick I was in the ICU for over a week, I got really close to starting dialysis but I luckily made a full recovery. My left and only kidney never fuctioned 100%. Growing up I was always told my body wouldn't be able to handle pregnancy so I couldn't have kids. So getting pregnant and having my son was a big surprise. I had almost every type of specialist you can think of I was closely monitored by so many doctors, because they didn't know how my body could handle it. Fortunately everything went well with my pregnancy and I gave birth to a healthy baby boy. A few years later gave birth to a health baby girl. Both my kids were tested to make sure they had healthy kidneys. Thankfully both my children have healthy kidneys. I always have been more  susceptible to UTI's and kidney infections. So After having my daughter I started getting more UTI's and kidney infection. Then one day the kidney infection wasn't like the rest. April 30, 2013 my life changed forever. I remember the doctor walking in and telling me I had to start Dialysis. My heart sank and I started crying uncontrollably. I always knew this day would come but no matter how much I prepared myself for this day, I was never really prepared to actually hear those words. Since starting dialysis in 2013 I've had so many more health problem, like high blood pressure, high flow congestive heart failure, chronic migraines, chronic low hemoglobin and I've had many surgeries and many more small health problems since then, and 2018 I had my remaining kidney removed due to chronic infections and pain and I had almost no function in my left kidney by this point.. So now by August 2018 I'm completely dependant on dialysis. Being on dialysis is so time consuming so about 6 years ago I learned about Home Hemodialysis. Learning I could do dialysis in the comfort of my home and whenever I wanted so naturally I was like "sign me up".  I've been doing home hemo for 6 years now, and its so much more convenient. I'm my own dialysis nurse, I put in my own needles in my arm prepare the machine for treatment monitor myself and the machine during dialysis. Even though its a lot of work and the supplies take over my house, its so much easier and you physically fell better then you do in center.  Now let me tell you why I'm starting a gofundme page and asking for financial help. Because of my all my health issues and always being in and out of the hospital I cant work so my husband is our only source of income. He makes enough for us to live comfortably but not enough to pay for all the expenses that will come with having a transplant. With starting dialysis in 2013 I qualified for Medicare insurance. In 2019 we decided to move to Hawaii from Georgia for my husband's work because work in Georgia wasn't great and he did not make much money so we took a leap of faith and moved to Hawaii instead of moving back to Southern California where we are originally from. And with my husband job we now have kaiser medical insurance. Here in Hawaii kaiser transplant program isn't done here in Hawaii its done in UCSF (San Francisco) but normally Kaiser would pay the travel expenses and lodging expenses for you to travel to San Francisco to get your transplant. But in my case because I had Medicare before I had kaiser insurance and Medicare is primary and kaiser is secondary and so kaiser will not pay the travel and lodging expenses. So all those expenses will come out of pocket. And after speaking to UCSF about the transplant process I've learned that I will have to be in San Francisco for a month before I'm cleared to return home to Hawaii. So that's a month of lodging for myself and my family, food, and Uber's to get to and from the hospital because once I'm discharged from the hospital I'll still need to be seen a couple times a week. And that's not including round trip flights for myself and my family and my care giver for after surgery. So all those expenses will come out of pocket. UCSF told me to prepare for out of pocket cost to be around $13,000-$15,000, this is not including my regular bills because my husband will be in San Francisco with me and the type of work he does (construction) he doesn't get paid time off or paid sick time so there will be no income coming in while we are in San Francisco like most families I don't have that much money just laying around. Just the medication alone I will be taking after having a kidney transplant are very expensive and my insurance does not cover them 100% and I will be taking them everyday as long as I have the transplanted kidney. Although I will be getting some financial help from both my parents and my grandparents, Im still going to need help to pay for all the expenses. Having a kidney transplant means so much to me I've gone through so much in my 30 years of life I've missed out on so much, on so much of my kids growing up. I've missed holidays and birthdays and special milestones and events in my children's lives due to being sick and in the hospital. I've waited so many years to get a transplant and its finally so close I just need help financially. So anything you can contribute and help me and my family with will honestly be greatly appreciated if I can make my goal that will be amazing and so helpful for me and my family. If I'm fortunate enough to pass my goal it will help to pay for my medications after transplant. Either way I'm truly greatful for any help I can get, And truly blessed. Thank you in advance for any help I receive even if its a $1 thats $1 closer to my goal and a transplant.