Support Riata's Journey to Kidney Health

Hello! My name is Riata. I am a 26-year-old mother of 2 amazing girls and my wonderful fiancé ❤️ I live in Wyoming and have 2 sweet dogs! I love the outdoors and being with people I love. I am an avid rock hunter and have a green thumb! To know more about me visit my Facebook page Riata's kidney updates

In March of 2019, at 20 years old, I ended up very sick with the flu that everyone in the house got. Only instead of being sick for a few days like my girls and fiancé were, I was sick for almost a full month. I went to the hospital, and in a flurry of tests, blood draws, and ultrasounds, we discovered an 8lb mass in my abdomen. From there, I was life-flighted to Denver, Colorado for emergency surgery. They needed it removed because they assumed that it was pressing on my kidneys, causing a low GFR - Glomerular Filtration Rate (kidney function percentage). They completed the laparoscopic surgery; the mass was just a cystic mass. It was benign. After the removal, my GFR did not improve as expected, meaning that the mass was not the cause of the low GFR. They held me for a week, and my GFR never recovered. From then, I was officially diagnosed with kidney failure.

After getting referred to the University of Utah and getting a new nephrologist in 2019, I did testing for anything that could be a cause for the kidney failure. Nothing was found—no cause, no reason. A mystery. Once my GFR hit around 19%, we shifted focus from finding the cause to working towards the cure, a transplant.

That brings us to now, May 2025. My GFR is at 11%. I am working full-time, and my kids are in after-school activities, and I find it harder to go day to day without being exhausted. So my medical team has talked, and we recently did labs. It is time for dialysis. I am in an area of Wyoming that does not have its own dialysis clinic; the closest is 30-45 minutes away, and during winter (9 months out of the year), it can be virtually unreachable. My best option for dialysis is Home Hemodialysis, where I don't have to travel and can be home for dialysis. For me to be able to do this, I have to attend a 3-week training in Salt Lake City, Utah. The amount is what I've totaled for lodging, gas/food, and what I'll miss making at work for my regular bills.

If you can donate THANK YOU if you cannot THANK YOU for reading!

I will ask either way please please please share my story with my link for the living donor program. This will help me and possibly others get a transplant faster!

Uofulivingdonor.org is the link to apply to be a donor! If you would like to follow along with my updates and story you can join my Facebook page.

Riata's kidney updates