Kidney4Angela
Donation protected
My name is Angela and I need a KIDNEY TRANSPLANT. I am a 34 year old Mom of two beautiful daughters. I am married to my high school sweetheart. I met Allen on the school bus in Ohio. We moved to Florida in 2000 and got married in 2004. I love spending time with my family going to the beach and the zoo. Watching the cardinals at my birdfeeder brings me joy. I love to snorkel and visit the Florida Keys.
Dialysis life is hard. I don’t have the energy that I used to have. I miss being able to take my daughters to Sea World and not having the energy to walk around. This summer will be the hardest as it is the first summer to be on dialysis. Trying to juggle time with my daughters while they are on summer vacation is very hard for me. I have to have a sitter 3 days a week so that I can go to dialysis. I have to sleep 2 of the other 4 days of the week to catch up from the effects of the dialysis. I am exhausted. I am restricted with any trips and tied down by where dialysis centers are. It would be nice to go to Ohio for a visit and rest, but I am very apprehensive of doing that now even if I could afford it. I went to a center in Ohio and got very sick. It is scary having your life on the line and knowing that machine and the nurses are your lifeline. The nurses become your second family.
This transplant is just a treatment. It will not cure me. But it will give me my life back. I will be active again and get to see my girl’s graduate high school, get married and have grandchildren. Get to become a grandmother. I want my girls to know Mom loves them with her whole heart and that is why I push my self every day. They give me life.
Here is my journey with CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease).
I was excited about my life. I finished school to become a Dental Assistant and graduated with honors. I haven’t worked since 2008. There was a lay off where I was working and that is also when I began having frequent kidney infections.
In February 2013 I went to the doctor for a kidney infection and to be tested for Anemia. The doctor called me and said I wasn't Anemic. I was terrified when he told me to get to the hospital ASAP because my kidneys were failing. I was admitted to the hospital for 3 days. I was then referred to the Mayo Clinic for further testing. They diagnosed me with Kidney Reflux, and determined I've had it since I was a child. While pregnant with my first child I developed Preeclampsia. My kidneys started to fail after giving birth. I also had cysts on my right kidney and my left kidney is smaller than my right. They performed a surgery called DE flux. It stabilized my kidneys for a while.
In January 2016 my kidneys were giving up. I was in ESRD. (End Stage Renal Disease) It was time to start dialysis. Dialysis is a life support treatment that uses a special machine to clean and filter the toxins out of my blood. I have dialysis 3 times a week for 3 hours at a time. It is exhausting and I am drained most of the following day. There are other issues that I face daily because of the dialysis and ESRD.
Now I NEED A KIDNEY so that I can survive a full life with my daughters and husband. Thankfully I was prepared and had gotten on the transplant list at Shands Hospital. Many people tested to be a donor. No such luck. Until....My husband got tested. HE IS A MATCH!!!! How amazing is that ? My husband will be able to share one of his kidneys with me. We never expected that. So he has been going through testing and prepration to become my doner. He will be out of work for 2 months providing there are no complications. We will have no income while we both are going though these surgeries and recovering.
Everything was looking real positive for him to donate a kidney to me and for me to receive it. Since finding out that my husband can be donor we have been dropped from the special insurance program we were on. My husband was unemployed for a while and had since found work. This caused us to be ineligible for the insurance plan as of June 1st. We did not recieve any notice of this except for him to show up to an appointment and find he had no insurance coverage. I am now trying to find insurance that will cover these surgeries that we won’t be able to afford the premiums on while my husband is out of work. It seems like we are now being punished for him finding work.
Donations will go for medical expenses not covered by insurance, food, household bills, gas to the doctors and now insurance if I can find it. Anything can help. No donation is too small. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for any help that comes our way.
Dialysis life is hard. I don’t have the energy that I used to have. I miss being able to take my daughters to Sea World and not having the energy to walk around. This summer will be the hardest as it is the first summer to be on dialysis. Trying to juggle time with my daughters while they are on summer vacation is very hard for me. I have to have a sitter 3 days a week so that I can go to dialysis. I have to sleep 2 of the other 4 days of the week to catch up from the effects of the dialysis. I am exhausted. I am restricted with any trips and tied down by where dialysis centers are. It would be nice to go to Ohio for a visit and rest, but I am very apprehensive of doing that now even if I could afford it. I went to a center in Ohio and got very sick. It is scary having your life on the line and knowing that machine and the nurses are your lifeline. The nurses become your second family.
This transplant is just a treatment. It will not cure me. But it will give me my life back. I will be active again and get to see my girl’s graduate high school, get married and have grandchildren. Get to become a grandmother. I want my girls to know Mom loves them with her whole heart and that is why I push my self every day. They give me life.
Here is my journey with CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease).
I was excited about my life. I finished school to become a Dental Assistant and graduated with honors. I haven’t worked since 2008. There was a lay off where I was working and that is also when I began having frequent kidney infections.
In February 2013 I went to the doctor for a kidney infection and to be tested for Anemia. The doctor called me and said I wasn't Anemic. I was terrified when he told me to get to the hospital ASAP because my kidneys were failing. I was admitted to the hospital for 3 days. I was then referred to the Mayo Clinic for further testing. They diagnosed me with Kidney Reflux, and determined I've had it since I was a child. While pregnant with my first child I developed Preeclampsia. My kidneys started to fail after giving birth. I also had cysts on my right kidney and my left kidney is smaller than my right. They performed a surgery called DE flux. It stabilized my kidneys for a while.
In January 2016 my kidneys were giving up. I was in ESRD. (End Stage Renal Disease) It was time to start dialysis. Dialysis is a life support treatment that uses a special machine to clean and filter the toxins out of my blood. I have dialysis 3 times a week for 3 hours at a time. It is exhausting and I am drained most of the following day. There are other issues that I face daily because of the dialysis and ESRD.
Now I NEED A KIDNEY so that I can survive a full life with my daughters and husband. Thankfully I was prepared and had gotten on the transplant list at Shands Hospital. Many people tested to be a donor. No such luck. Until....My husband got tested. HE IS A MATCH!!!! How amazing is that ? My husband will be able to share one of his kidneys with me. We never expected that. So he has been going through testing and prepration to become my doner. He will be out of work for 2 months providing there are no complications. We will have no income while we both are going though these surgeries and recovering.
Everything was looking real positive for him to donate a kidney to me and for me to receive it. Since finding out that my husband can be donor we have been dropped from the special insurance program we were on. My husband was unemployed for a while and had since found work. This caused us to be ineligible for the insurance plan as of June 1st. We did not recieve any notice of this except for him to show up to an appointment and find he had no insurance coverage. I am now trying to find insurance that will cover these surgeries that we won’t be able to afford the premiums on while my husband is out of work. It seems like we are now being punished for him finding work.
Donations will go for medical expenses not covered by insurance, food, household bills, gas to the doctors and now insurance if I can find it. Anything can help. No donation is too small. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for any help that comes our way.
Organizer and beneficiary
Joyce A. Erb
Organizer
Orlando, FL
Angela McClelland
Beneficiary