Hi there! My name is Luis “Val” Salas, and I’m dating a wonderful gal named Reba (Rebekah) Nomeland.

Reba is a lot of things to a lot of people: Giving, hard-working, an amazing server, kind, funny, a loving cat mom, a wonderful daughter, an incredible partner, and a perfect auntie to loads of nieces and nephews. She is also, as of about 11pm on Tuesday, May 2nd, the lucky recipient of a brand-new kidney!

Before the transplant Reba had been on dialysis for over five years because of chronic kidney failure from polycystic kidney disease, probably as a result a genetic predisposition. Before I knew of any of this, we met at The Pickwick, a restaurant in Duluth, MN, and were work friends for a couple years. I had a lot of respect for her as a diligently hard worker. She was a total pro, and quickly became one of the best servers in the building. It wasn’t easy to impress a grumpy old bartender like me, but she managed to impress her way into my heart. Our friendship began.

As we became closer friends, eventually easing our way into dating, I started to find out about her health struggles. She never would have told anyone, preferring to suffer in silence I suppose. She has never wanted to burden anyone with her problems. We grew closer still as she started her journey through treatment, having an emergency AV catheter implanted to begin dialysis, and surgery to get an AV fistula placed to begin hemodialysis.

There were lots of challenges for her over the next 5 years as she adjusted to treatment, began using her AV fistula, settled into her new 3 times weekly dialysis regimen, and changed her lifestyle to accommodate the fatigue and dietary needs that comes with dialysis. During this process she continued to work, usually 5-6 days a week, probably in an effort to keep busy and positive, or maybe because she refused to relent and give in to her illness. Turns out she is incredibly tough too! Too tough for her own good, really. Eventually Reba knew that a transplant was the only real option, and she couldn’t work her way out of this one, despite all her (our) efforts.

So here we are. Surgery went well and her recovery has been going even better. The surgeons and doctors said it was about as ideal match as could be. She has been slowly walking more everyday and adjusting to her new regimen of meds and labs and monitoring. We all are excited and happy and cautiously hopeful that things will continue to go well! That said, there are a host of costs associated with the procedure not directly covered by Medicare or other insurance, such as travel, lodging costs, loss of income, food, and transportation just to name a few. Reba has been out of work for a few weeks and, depending on how recovery goes, could be out of work for several months. So, we are here reaching out to you all, our extended friend community, for help in easing the financial burden that Reba is in from her surgery.

Many of you have helped us already, and I’m sure lots of you have financial burdens of your own. So, if you are unable to help Reba financially, please share this with someone you know. Thank you all so very much!