TeamTara!

When I was 9 years old I found out that I had diabetes, then three years later I had a lot of swelling and after a kidney biopsy my family and I were told that I had severe kidney disease. The doctor told my parents that in 35 years of her practice, she’d never seen someone so young with such advanced kidney disease. They couldn’t explain if my kidney disease was caused or not by my diabetes. Having diabetes and kidney disease was hard at first because I had to go to a lot of doctor’s appointments and take lots of medication. I also had a lot of restrictions about what I could and couldn’t eat. A lot of foods have salt in it and I liked those kinds of foods. It was a struggle for a couple of years because one of my medicines gave me really bad leg cramps and there is a lot of regimen dealing with being young, going to school, and staying positive in my life. Things did get better for a while after I knew how to treat myself.
Recently I had an infection and my kidney function has declined.  I've had to start the route of finding a kidney donor, and my family and I are preparing for probable dialysis soon. That will mean more changes; needing alot of supplies and changes I'll need for my bedroom. I lost my job following the infection episode (it was my first official job!), so that is a bummer. I'm asking for donations to help my family with medicines and supplies that I'll need when my dialysis begins. We have alot of co-pays for constant visits to my general physician, my endocrinologist, my nephrologists and my transplant team. I finished my first year of college and I plan to continue in classes online, but when I registered I was told I had to take one class on campus. It means alot to me to be able to still go to school, so I plan on facing all of these challenges in my life.
It will mean so much to me to be able to use the funds from this campaign to be able to help my family's financial needs and to try living as normal a life as I can.