Hello, my name is Ryan Carson. My brother Jamie is a lifelong diabetic and his kidneys have failed him. His kidneys are down to 15% of capacity. Of course when I heard this it wasn't a question of whether or not I would try to donate. After a very lengthy testing process of CT scans, urine tests, x-rays, a ridiculous amount of blood drawn and a lot of stressful waiting over 2 months of tests it turns out I'm a perfect match for Jamie. The Dr's say he could easily live another 30 years with my kidney. I passed the final test this week and go to the review board on the 24th. With their final stamp of approval (I've been told I'll get it) we can set a date for the transplant. You can't imagine how excited we all were to get this news! During this process I've done tons and tons of research about how this will effect my own health in the short and long term and I don't have any concerns thankfully as I'm pretty healthy. They say my remaining kidney should grow and compensate for my missing one. After the surgery I will need to take 4-5 weeks off from work to recover then once I return I will be restricted to 10lbs to start. My job unfortunately requires lots of heavy lifting so this will be difficult. My employer is being wonderful and allowing me to take this time off and has promised to accommodate my limitations upon return to work. From the beginning I was told by the living donor association that there are various financial assistance programs that can help with the significant lost wages I will endure during this process. I was even encouraged to use my little remaining vacation time on the 3-4 days missed in the testing process to determine eligibility of my kidney. Unfortunately now after going through the application process for financial assistance I did not qualify. Oddly this was not based on my income but the recipients? I then reached out to my insurance company to see about applying for short term disability and was denied that as well. They say they won't cover as this is a volunteered surgery and not a medically necessary(for me). As you can imagine this has been incredibly frustrating and makes us nervous about keeping our bills paid. None of this has deterred me from my mission of saving my brother. Even if I don't get a penny I will still go through with this and deal with it later. But if there's any chance anyone can help this would lift a huge stress off myself and my family. I'm not looking to make any money off this, just pay my bills. If more than my goal is raised I will donate to the living donor association or another kidney disease foundation. Thank you all for reading my crazy run-on sentences and thank you for considering helping me on this journey. ❤️❤️❤️
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