Let's get Shelby a kidney!

January 2024 Update:

As you may have heard, Shelby is getting a kidney! And even better, our best friend Jenna was a perfect match and will be donating her kidney.

Over the last few months Shelby has been doing peritoneal dialysis every night from home, been taking a plethora of medications and having her kidney levels monitored diligently. In the next few weeks, Shelby and Jenna will be completing all of their pre-surgical testing, preparing for surgery and a long road to recovery. Jenna’s expected recovery time is 6 weeks while Shelby’s is estimated to be 12 weeks.

Shelby found out in September that due to a now pre-existing condition (kidney failure), she does not qualify for short-term disability. Due to her multiple hospitalizations over the last year, she is also very limited on her pto and sick time. Once she exhausts her pto and sick time, Shelby is expecting to be on unpaid medical leave for a total of about 8 weeks. During this time, she will have her basic living expenses as well as her insurance premiums and her new transplant medications.

Unfortunately, medications, dialysis, insurance premiums, transplants and basic living are incredibly expensive. If you have any money to spare and would like to donate to Shelby to help her with medical bills and living expenses during this time, it would be greatly appreciated. If you cannot donate during this time, prayers, good thoughts and well wishes are most definitely appreciated too!!

Thank you to everyone who has already donated; we appreciate every little bit and all of the support and well wishes! Please keep Jenna and Shelby in your prayers and send them all of the good vibes towards the end of the month! We will continue to keep everyone updated on their journey!

Spring 2023:

At the end of February, our amazing Shelby had her life turned upside down. She was hospitalized and diagnosed with Crescentic IgA Nephropathy.

If caught in the early stages, most people go their whole lives without needing any sort of medical intervention other than blood pressure control and diet modification. Unfortunately, Shelby wasn't so lucky.

The form of IgA Nephropathy that she was diagnosed with is very rare and extremely aggressive. And at this point, she has been diagnosed with stage 5 kidney disease and only has 11% kidney function. She will begin dialysis soon and will need a transplant in order to survive.

She was recently listed on the transplant list, but there are over 92,000 people in the US waiting for a kidney transplant, and the average wait time for a deceased donor is 5 years. She doesn't have 5 years.

Her only hope is a live donor. This means that she could be matched with someone who volunteers to donate. This could be a family member, a friend or even a stranger.

While she awaits a possible match and transplant, her life has changed drastically. She is no longer rock climbing, traveling, scuba diving and constantly on the go. Her time is now filled with doctors' appointments, procedures, lab work and soon, dialysis.

As you all can imagine this was a shocking diagnosis and has rocked her world. She can use all the help that she can get. While she is still working full-time as an ICU nurse, she is not sure how much longer can keep up this strenuous work. We have created this GoFundMe to help with medical bills, but there are other ways to support her as well. We have included the UTSW link to register as a possible kidney donor below if you feel so called to be tested. She also appreciates prayers, good vibes and well wishes.

We will keep everyone updated on here, as well as on a blog that should be posted soon.

If anyone is interested in getting tested for a kidney donation, click the link below:

https://www.utswlivingdonor.org/

The link will ask for her name and birthday:

Shelby Weldon

6/19/1993