Support for Elizabeth Hoffman

Please let me introduce myself and provide some background...my name is Elizabeth Hoffman. I was born in Portland, OR, on June 25 1989, and I was a typical kid, the youngest of 4. At age 21, I decided to get into the medical field and become a medical assistant. My dream was to work for Kaiser Permanente, specifically in the new hospital they were building.  While I was in class, we started learning about diabetes and testing blood sugars. When they ran mine the results were very high and it turns out I was type two diabetic, which was surprising to me because I've been thin my entire life. 

After finishing school, I ended up getting the dream job at Kaiser. Everything seemed to be going great until I had my annual physical and tests showed that I had problems with my kidneys. I was referred to a nephrologist and told to get a kidney ultrasound and then a kidney biopsy. All of this felt as though it was happening so fast since I was only 22. The biopsy showed I have an autoimmune disease called IgA nephropathy, or Berger's disease, but the good news was that I just needed to take some blood pressure medicine to slow down the disease.  


Fast forward to 2017, something was off with my kidney function and my nephrologist told me I needed another kidney biopsy to see what is going on. The results came back that my disease had become aggressive and I was down to 39% kidney function. They told me if I wanted a family I should try now but there were risks involved I needed to watch out for. All I had ever wanted was a family with my husband, so we started our journey to try to conceive a baby, only for me to just continue getting sicker. 


In the beginning of January 2018, I ended up with a 4-5 cm ovarian cyst on my right ovary and needed urgent surgery. Over a year went by and no luck with a baby. I went to fertility doctor but there were treatments I couldn’t do because of my chronic conditions. I suffered from anxiety and depression, which significantly reduced my ability and desire to work. My blood pressure started rising to dangerous levels and no one was able give me an answer why. I went to the doctor countless times, urgent care, and the ER.  I was finally put on a 24 hr blood pressure monitor test to see what was going on. On September 17, 2019, I had a follow up appointment with my nephrologist and was told that both of my kidneys were shutting down; I was now functioning at 21% and would need a kidney transplant. 


I have decided to take a leave of absence from work because of all of this. Unfortunately, that leaves my husband's job as our sole income and his company is going on strike in October so we will be losing a week's worth of his salary.  We are asking for help for these next few months because this disease is having such a devastating effect on our financial situation. I will be on a transplant list and I'm uncertain of how long I will be on medical leave and in this position of limited income. Below is a picture of my family, my wonderful husband, and my stepson Conner, from when we got married. We would all be truly grateful for any support you are willing and able to give us!