Support Pawoua's Journey to Heal

My story, my journey….

I’m Pawoua Vang, a wife to Kham La Thao, and a mother to our five wonderful children, Gloria, Kasandra, Chassidy, Keon, and Quintin. I was a healthy and independent woman who achieved my Bachelor of Science in Biology in 2017 from Missouri Southern State University. I became a certified Medical Laboratory Scientist (MLS) in 2019 from Mercy Hospital.

Shortly after my graduation trip from Laos and Thailand, I got extremely sick. I went to the ER at Cox Hospital. There, the labs returned with high creatinine levels, elevated BUN, and low eGFR. These labs diagnosed me with kidney failure. We were devastated by this horrific news, and our hearts were shattered. I had a kidney biopsy procedure done, and the results of the kidney disease were due to IgA nephropathy.

In June 2019, I was hired at William S. Middleton Memorial Veteran Hospital in Madison, WI, as an MLS. Less than a year as an employee, I became more and more ill as I needed dialysis. I became anemic, more fatigued, and had severe headaches, edema in my extremities, and extremely high blood pressure. When I reached my one-year mark, I decided to quit my job and focus more on my health.

In July 2020, my family doctor finally diagnosed me with End Stage Renal Disease and required chronic dialysis to be done. I then got approved and became active on the kidney transplant list. I started with peritoneal dialysis (PD). After a year of treatment with PD, I experienced many complications along the way. I’ve faced many episodes of shortness of breath caused by fluid overload in my lungs, elevated phosphate and calcium leading to calciphylaxis, and ascites. To resolve calciphylaxis in my fingers, I had to switch over to hemodialysis (HD). I also underwent paracentesis to treat my ascites.

With my parathyroid hormone continuing to be elevated, I went through surgery to get three of my parathyroid glands removed. After that procedure, a hematoma formed in my neck, and I was rushed to get an emergency operation done. This procedure was considered an invasive surgery, which caused me to be inactive on the transplant list. I also came across a few incidents with elevated potassium, which caused my body to go into distress.

With hemodialysis as my treatment, I encountered many other difficult issues. I went through many HD catheter exchanges and replacements because of malfunctioning catheters, bleeding non-stop from the site, and infections. I had multiple hospitalizations with reoccurrence of sepsis caused by Staphylococcus aureus. While being admitted as an inpatient, the doctors thought I had chronic heart failure, liver cirrhosis, and carcinoid tumors.

My journey was a challenging path, but I managed to hold on and pull through with all the support and love from my family and friends. I had seen different specialists and had many blood draws, surgeries, ultrasounds, x-rays, CT scans, and MRIs. I was able to receive a kidney on April 26, 2025, but now my husband Khamla will be on leave without pay to take care of me for a few months until I fully recover. We will be short on funds to pay any medical and miscellaneous expenses. Please share and donate to help my family and I go through this recovery process.

Thank You!

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