The hardest thing for Juliana to do is ask for help, so here I am asking for her. The hardest part for me is seeing one of my best friends go through so much mental and physical pain everyday for the past few months.

Her story begins on September 26th. She had a very invasive surgery to remove a duplex ureter that was causing her urine to go back into her kidney instead of out. Due to this, she has suffered from many kidney infections that scarred her kidney so severely that she was diagnosed with stage 3 kidney disease at only 20 years old. She had a stent put in place after her surgery to ensure her ureter would not collapse.

On October 24th, she was scheduled to get the stent removed. Upon getting prepared for this procedure and getting premeds to go under anesthesia, she became severely ill and had to be admitted to the emergency room. They then broke the most heartbreaking news that she had developed sepsis and something that is called mast cell degranulation. The mast cell degranulation caused her body to reject the antibiotics that were used to treat the sepsis. This caused her body to go into anaphylactic shocks, requiring her to receive epinephrine.

After spending a week in the hospital, she was finally able to go back home. Although she was able to come back home, she was still on several medications to try to calm the mast cell degranulation that was causing her body to have the severe allergic reactions. After not even 24 hours of being back home, she had to take an ambulance back to the hospital due to another anaphylactic shock. This was one of the most heartbreaking and gut wrenching things I’ve ever had to whiteness, knowing my friend was in so much pain and there was nothing I could do to help her. Since then, she has been back to the emergency room several times. This has caused her to miss work without getting paid and having to struggle financially with medical expenses along with trying to pay her bills. She is struggling physically and emotionally to get back on her feet. Nothing is expected but is much appreciated!