Ahmed Family Medical Expenses

On November 22nd of 2016 I arrived at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital with my brother Adam and my mother Maggie. It was chilly, and the hospital was just switching over from the night shift. After passing through a series of different rooms and signing innumerable forms, we found ourselves on to hospital beds, side by side. Decked out in thick gowns, with caps over hair.  We posed for a few photos, then I was wheeled into the OR first. Feeling completely healthy, I scooted over onto the operating table. An IV was inserted into my arm and a mask placed over my face.

I woke up what felt like a moment later in a different room and bed, my mind foggy, feeling like a truck had hit me.  By the time I woke up a surgeon and his team had made several incisions into my abdomen, removed my left kidney, carried it to another room, and connected it to my mothers body in the lower right side of her belly. This organ, we hoped, would provide relief from the three years of dialysis Maggie has endured since her own kidneys failed.

Since that time, a number of things have happened.

(Maggie being prepped for surgery)

Thankfully, all kidneys involved have worked almost miraculously well. Mom's new kidney kicked in right away, and there's been no sign of her body rejecting it.

Recovery for me has proceeded pretty much on schedule, and a month from the surgery I am without pain and close to resuming most of my normal activities. I walked out of the hospital under my own power on Thanksgiving Day.

However, my mother's recovery has been plagued by difficulties. Though the kidney has been working great, following the surgery she developed some intestinal complications which kept her in the hospital for a couple weeks. She was finally released only to have another infection develop that sent her back in, where she has remained since.  After that infection was fought off, yet another one developed - this time around a permanent catheter she'd had installed for dialysis.

We find ourselves now facing the holidays with a month more of hospital time than anticipated. While many costs have (blessedly) been covered during the course of all this, many have not. Personally that includes hundreds of dollars in lost wages in several jobs that I have been unable to work for at least part of that time. 

On top of that we have incurred costs in travel costs to and from hospitals, both gas for cars, as well as bridge tolls and public transportation fees.  My brother Adam has also been reserving time off of work to provide rides to and from doctors visits for our mother, and will continue to have to do this into January. 

Finally, with the holidays coming up we as a family find ourselves having difficulty summoning good spirits. The hospital stay Maggie has endured has been three weeks longer and full of much greater discomfort than anticipated. With funds as tight as they are we are struggling to put together a holiday that feels celebratory.  I personally have not had the capacity to spend any money at all on presents, as I am worrying about even making rent at the end of the month.

(Photo: Maggie, Joseph, and Adam pre-surgery)

I know many people out there who have expressed a desire to support or help out in some way.  It has been difficult coming to this point, but providing us with some financial relief is in many ways the most important thing right now. It is also, for me, the hardest to ask for.

We are hoping to bring in some money before the holidays are through to help this season feel as festive as we'd like it to in the wake of the transplant, though any funds we receive after then we will be deeply grateful for and will go towards continuing to offset costs incurred by this life-changing event.