Tracy's medical expenses

I've been a type 1 diabetic since I was 9. I'm nothing, if not a fighter, but diabetes is extremely hard on the kidneys. I had a previous transplant in 2002, but they just don't last much more than a decade. In 2011, my transplanted kidney began to fail & I went on dialysis shortly thereafter. Diabetics don't generally do well on dialysis treatment, so in order to get better results than going to a depressing clinic 3 days a week, my husband & I underwent training to do treatments at home 5 days a week.  The care of that machine sucks a minimum of 35 hours a week from us BOTH. My husband does most of the set up and maintenance even though he has a full time job. This time of year, he usually brings in a lot of overtime pay, but just now (Dec 13th at 2:00AM) Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville has called to tell me they have a kidney for me. A GOOD one; it's called a "zero mismatch" in transplant jargon. The down side, of course, is the reason for the GoFundMe campaign. John is going to be missing work, missing out on the OT that we count on this time of year, being with me at the hospital & driving back & forth to check on our 4 pets. The kicker is that in about 19 more days, I would have an insurance plan to cover most of what we need. 

Transplant immunosuppressive medications are extremely expensive. We will have the cost of gas from Palm Coast to Jacksonville (??) who knows how many times. We also have to stay in a hotel near the hospital for a week or 2 after I leave the hospital, so we will then have expenses for food. I was initially led to believe that it would be at least a year or 2 before they could get a match for me, so we thought we had time to fundraise, save, and to have that insurance policy. After a long battle & even some open heart surgery, I was finally put on the list in April, so we were really surprised when a Mayo rep called us this morning with the news. It's definitely a an unexpected boon, but it has put us in a really tight spot financially. Especially right here at Christmas, John's birthday, & my sweet parents' anniversarry all in the next few weeks. 

If you cannot donate, please don't feel badly. We've all been there. What you CAN do is 1) share this page & 2)talk to your family about organ donation, living or after you die. Hundreds of thousands of people just like me, like YOU die every year waiting on an organ transplant & it doesn't have to be that way. 

Thank you for reading, for sharing, and for any donation amount at all.