We Need Your Help!
Dear Friend,
I hope this email finds you well. I am forwarding a message from a friend/colleague/client who is in need of a kidney transplant. We are reaching out to as many people as possible to increase the chances of finding a suitable donor.
Please take a moment to read the forwarded email below and share it with your network.
Thank you for your support.
In health,
Julie
Hi, all:
You’re receiving this email because, as the subject suggests, I have a major life update. And I would prefer that you hear things directly from me, as opposed to simply seeing my post on social media (that hasn’t yet gone out, but it will in the coming days). I’ve tried to tell many of you personally, but we’re all busy, and I’m fortunately reminded of just how many people I have in my corner.
As most of you know, the last couple of years have been a long, strange journey back to health for me. Beginning in Fall 2022, I had a myriad of seemingly unrelated symptoms, which landed me ass-over-teakettle in the hospital in May 2023, when I was diagnosed as having an abscess that had developed in my abdomen as a result of a bacterial infection that no one knew how or where I got it. That abscess also injured my kidney, resulting in a number of urological procedures trying to improve my kidney function back to where it had been pre-hospitalization.
(I’ve had a lot of scans. Interesting note about me – I was born with one kidney (which I knew) but also, apparently – two uteruses….)
All of this background to say…the damage to my kidney is irreversible, and I have been formally diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease. And the only way to truly treat this is with a kidney transplant. I am officially on the UNOS donor list, currently in “inactive” status – that means that I am medically qualified for a transplant, but I am not yet eligible to accept a donated cadaver kidney because there are more tests/diagnostics that I need.
Some information and answers to big questions: I am physically feeling very well right now. I am not on dialysis, and medically I am stable and holding my own. Anyone who wants to make fun of the giant water bottle I shlep around (even before all of this) – my nephrologist tells me this is the biggest reason I’m doing so well; I’m continuously flushing my system.
The goal is to get my transplant before I start dialysis, which means that my doctors are working to keep me as healthy as possible. The statistics show that a pre-dialysis patient does much better with the transplant and recovery. Statistics also show that a donation from a live donor, as opposed to a cadaver donor, lasts 2-3 times as long and reduces the risk of my needing a second transplant in my lifetime.
What can you do:
· CONSIDER GETTING TESTED TO DONATE A KIDNEY – the initial screening is done online here, and it takes 10-15 minutes. Please know that donation is a fully anonymous process, and you are evaluated entirely separately from the transplant team. Please don’t tell me if you choose to get tested. If you match and choose to donate, I would love to know who you are at that time. If you choose to donate, there are funds available to help with expenses/lost wages. The survey may ask for my full name, email address, cell phone number and my blood type. I am B+. There is also a “swap” program where if you’re not a match for me, but someone else’s donor is, and you’re a match for them, they set up surgeries in parallel, and it guarantees me a kidney while you donate to someone else at the same time,
· PLEASE SHARE THIS MESSAGE – with your friends, your families, community groups, strangers on the internet. I, unfortunately, do not have the option of keeping this quiet and confidential – the more people who get tested, the better chance I have of receiving a donation prior to needing to start dialysis.
Hug your people.
-A