Hi, I’m Liz. You may know me from my Facebook or Instagram page @bizneedsabean. I am 32 years old, I’ve spent all of my 30’s on dialysis. When I was 16 I was diagnosed with lupus. Lupus is an autoimmune immune disease that can cause my immune system overreact and attack my healthy cells. Unfortunately in 2012 my immune system attacked my kidneys causing significant damage. I spent 8 years living with kidney disease managing many of the symptoms. Until the summer of 2019 when I was working at a summer camp leading multi day canoe trips in Algonquin park. When I suddenly started to feel very unwell. On my next day off I contacted my Dr and got blood work done that showed my kidney function had significantly deteriorated. I was forced to quit my job and spent the rest of the summer quite unwell while trying to slow the deterioration of my kidney function. Fortunately I was able to return to fall and winter positions working at blue mountain until Covid hit in March of 2024. While in lockdown I built a camper bed platform into my Jeep with the intention of road trips and camping once the world started to open up again. Unfortunately this only saw one short trip. After some routine blood work I received a call from my Dr. telling me I needed to go to ER immediately, my kidneys were failing. I’ve now spent the last 3 years on life support. August 14th 2024, I was in kidney failure and crash started on hemodialysis. As you may or may not know, dialysis itself is a struggle. But it was a particularly tough start when my dialysis port caused a septic blood infection. I was bedridden and on IV antibiotics for over a month. Finally, after recovering from the life threatening infection, I was able to switch to peritoneal dialysis which is a gentler form of dialysis. From November 2024 to March 2024 I spent 8-10 hours every single night hooked up to a dialysis machine. While still on life support, I struggled to lead a somewhat “normal” life. I managed to work full time when I could, and participate in some of the activities that bring me joy in life. However, I was still unable to do many of the things I once lived for. Unfortunately, this past winter my condition worsened and on March 3rd 2024 I was forced back on hemodialysis dialysis. Hemodialysis is a lot harsher of a treatment it involves being hooked up to a machine in hospital 3 times a week for 3.5 hours each treatment. Along with many side effects, being on dialysis requires dietary and fluid restrictions. I have to carefully limit my sodium, potassium and phosphate intake, but the worst part is I can only consume 1 litre of fluids per day otherwise my body retains the fluid and the toxins build up in my blood causing my body to swell. Considering healthy kidneys work 24/7 to filter blood along with the many other functions healthy kidneys carry out, with hemodialysis being a total of 10.5 hours a week it is just enough to keep the toxins from building up to dangerous levels. Unfortunately, since being back on hemodialysis I’ve been unable to work and have used up all of my savings and then some in order to continue paying my bills. The survival rate on dialysis is only 50% past the first 3 years. My only hope to ever not require dialysis to live is a kidney transplant. The deceased donor kidney transplant waitlist is estimated to be 5-12 years. So my best chance at survival is finding a living kidney donor. Last summer, while working at Blue Mountain, I met George. During our first conversation I mentioned that I was on dialysis in need a kidney transplant and that finding a living kidney donor was my chance at survival. Without even knowing me he offered to donate one of his kidney’s to save my life. While it’s been a long process that has involved several trips to Toronto General Hospital (TGH) for his living kidney donor assessment, he’s been approved to donate one of his kidneys to me. We’ve finally been scheduled for surgery on August 16th 2024. While this is thrilling news and I’m dreaming of all the things I will be able to do again like drink water, shower, swim, camp, and go back to work among many other things. This is still a major surgery for both of us and will involve a challenging recovery. We will be required to self isolate the best we can 2 weeks prior to surgery. One week prior to surgery we will have our pre operative exams at Toronto General Hospital. On August 14th I will complete my very last dialysis Treatment in Collingwood then George and I will head to Toronto, I will be admitted to TGH on Aug 15th for some final testing and possibly one last dialysis treatment to ensure I am healthy enough for surgery and that our antibodies are still a good match. George will be admitted to the hospital the morning of surgery, bright and early on August 16th at 6am, where he will have a few last minute tests to ensure he is fit for the operation. As long as all looks good surgery will be a go. George will go into surgery first, once the kidney he is donating to me is removed I will be brought into the operating room next door for the 3-4 hour transplant surgery. I will have a 4-7 day hospital stay to start my recovery and then be required to attend appointments at TGH twice weekly for the for the first 4-6 weeks after transplant. This is to ensure my new kidney is healthy and the anti-rejection medications I’ll be taking for the rest of my life are at a balanced level. Eventually these appointment will turn into once a week, bi weekly, monthly, every 3 months, then every 6 months for the rest of my life. While healing from surgery and several years of built up toxins, it’s recommended that I stay close to the hospital for the first few weeks after transplant, to avoid having several hours of riding in the car back and forth to Toronto while still healing. It’s also recommended to be close to Toronto General Hospital in case of any complications. George will be in hospital for 3-5 days following surgery and will be required to take 4-6 weeks off work to recover from donating his kidney to me. Fortunately, there is a program that helps to cover some of the costs associated with being a living kidney donor. However, with me being off work since March and George needing to be off work to recover from donating kidney to me we are going to need your help with this next chapter of life. While I have pursued organizations that offer subsidized lodging rates for hospital patients, this is going to be a rather costly stay while I begin to recover. Every little bit helps and is greatly appreciated. If you feel more comfortable helping us in person, gift cards would be a wonderful idea to help with gas and food costs. Thank you for taking the time to read a bit about our living kidney transplant journey. We sincerely appreciate all of your support. If you would like to learn more about my journey on dialysis check out my Facebook and Instagram @BizNeedsaBean Please take 2 minutes to register to be an organ donor after death. There are still thousands of people in Ontario waiting for a life saving transplant. https://www.giftoflife.on.ca/en/
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