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Seth's Kidney Transplant

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Seth was diagnosed on 5/16/2017 with end stage renal disease, which means he will need a kidney transplant.

Seth is 18 and a Senior @ Jenks High School.

He has been a seemingly normal healthy teen, taking AP classes, studying BioMed and sitting for the ACT to prep for college in the Fall of 2018. He was looking forward to his summer with his sibling, Jade, and a trip to Nebraska for Thespian Festival.

When learning about Seth's condition, a lot of other things made sense that didn't make sense at the time. He had been throwing up randomly and we went to see the doctor about it after the holidays because it had started to get worse. We had what seemed like a logical explanation for those episodes. Now we know this was because his body could not process food normally and was rejecting it when it got to the part for the kidneys to do their job. A month later we were back at the doc because his grades were slipping. Now we know this was because it was so hard to concentrate with the toxins building up in his body, since his kidney's could not flush them out.

After a few more weeks of a bit of calm, the episodes were back again and he was unexplainably tired. He started taking the elevator at school, laying in bed on the weekends and not really wanting to do much of anything. His legs were a bit jumpy and he was itchy. Again, the lack of clean blood in his system made sitting still a challenge, much less extra energy for engaging in his life.

Mother's day weekend, Seth had the most serious vomiting episode to date. We took him back to the doc on Monday, May 15 and after some blood work, he was promptly checked into the hospital.

We can not tell you how tough this kid is. We are just stunned. The doctor, at 2 in the morning after he got additional bloodwork back, said "if I saw these numbers on someone's lab, I would expect to meet a confused and disoriented person, unable to really carry on a conversation, much less make jokes."

Seth kept going in his life, he fought through each day and his vomiting episodes like it was normal, all the while his kidney's failing. Pow just like that ... Seth's life was changed. Forever.

The doc continued "The good news is you got him here and we know what is happening." You can imagine the parental guilt, I'm sure. Logically, We know we were trying to help and protect him. But our heart keeps asking, "could this have been stopped? what if we'd done something different?" But this post isn't about us, its about Seth. What we've learned since, is that with the numbers in Seth's labs, he has been struggling with this likely for more than 5 years. He's adapted and adjusted incrementally. What a tough cookie!

Seth is now in dialysis for 10 hours at home every night. His labs are better but still not like they need to be.

We want you to know that we appreciate the thoughts, prayers and am already grateful for the support and positive energy we can feel from you. We are so grateful Seth is ALIVE and we have a plan.

The best option for his young life is to receive a living donor's kidney. We have found that donor! We may be able to do the Transplant as early as December 1, 2017 :) 

The medical expenses have been unreal.Seth’s Mom and Dad are divorced and committed to co-parenting through this crisis. Thank God for Seth’s Mom’s health insurance! Seth's Dad, Craig, has been selected as a Donor, however, Travel Expenses and Unpaid Leave from work are not covered by health insurance and create a large financial burden. Seth will need to stay at the Mayo Clinic for 30 days with a Caregiver.  Craig will have to stay for at least a week with a Caregiver and miss up to 6 weeks of work;  Hence the reason for this account.  Any help is forever appreciated.

Did you know that you can live with only 1 kidney? Did you know that some people have 3 kidneys? https://giveandlive.us/

Let's all be Seth's blood type... Be Positive. :)

Blogging creds to Seth's mom, Amy.
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Donations 

  • Tracy Wanless
    • $25 
    • 6 yrs
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Organizer

Sherri Mangrum
Organizer
Tulsa, OK

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