Dontate: to Cierra URGENT KIDNEY FAILURE, and LUPUS SLE

I don’t even know where to start. Hey guys, my name is Cierra Redman and I am currently 22 years old. I know I’ve been MIA for a while, but it’s just because I’ve honestly been going through it for the last two years. I initially got diagnosed with lupus in 2019 when I was 17, (if you’re unsure about what lupus is it is OK I’m here to educate. You, lupus is an if you’re unsure about, what lupus is it is OK I’m here to educate. You, lupus is an autoimmune disease that attacks all organs that means the heart, the liver, the spine the bladder, the brain kidneys, and heart anything inside your body you name it and it has been affected . it also severely attacks your joints and your bones making you weak. There’s some days where I can’t even pick up my iPhone because it’s so heavy my joints sometimes I’m bed-bound for a week because I cannot move and I need assistance to just turn me and help me and your joints in your hands and your  fingers can swell up so bad that you can’t even bend them. It almost feels like as if a car ran over your fingers twice and then you still had to go pick up a pencil and go right at school and with a smile on your face and act like everything‘s OK. and some days I wake up in my body just feels like I’ve been in a severe accident like thrown off  a 14 story building and now I still have to walk and get up go to work go to school and have a normal day and it really hurts like I can’t even describe the pain how bad I am in every single day. Medication doesn’t really help take it away the only like I’m taking pain medication but they’re not strong enough I still feel the pain so many nights I go to sleep, crying in an agony.

it also can affect your brain and cause CNS I’m one of the more rare cases of lupus that you’ve seen. I’m always the girl that they wanted to do a case study on so the severity of my auto immune disease is a 10 I’ve had psychosis multiple times and it’s very hard to pull myself out of a psychosis. I have lupus cerebritis which is basically lupus of the skin And if causes rashes, so I always get rashes everywhere. i have lupus SLE, which is just standardize  lupus (this is the one that attacks all the organs and joints inside your body.) and lupus nephritis which specifically attacks my kidneys. I have CHF chronic heart failure, and my kidneys are just failing. i’m severely anemic. I have bad anemia which causes organ failure as well. My hemoglobin is constantly dropping, and I’m constantly having to have bloodtransfusions.

It’s been manageable, but I’ve been having more flares lately, and the flares have been worse. As of recently, in September 2023, I had to withdraw from my program. I had to go to the hospital because at the time my kidneys were failing, my heart was failing, and my lupus was acting up.

So I took some time off, and I took some months to recover. I returned back to school in November 2024. So I took a year off, so be it,  As of last month 1/25/25 I had to re-drop and leave for a temporary leave because another flare, a bad one, is happening right now, and it’s acting up my body. It’s OK because one day I will return again.

as soon as I left school, the first time I immediately had to be on hemodialysis and had to have a catheter put in my neck and I have that catheter for a year and I was going to a dialysis clinic for a whole year every Monday, Wednesday, Friday 8 AM to 1 PM every day, I could not miss any treatments and that that just became my reality. Because I thought I was getting a little better I decided I wanted to go back to my program and start in November 2024 so we were having gone to switch catheters to put in my stomach so now I have two catheters in my body at this point I had to get surgery to get the second catheter put in it’s called a peritoneal catheter and I have a machine where I was gonna be able to do dialysis at home and so I would do it when I got home from school. This one required you to just be sitting at home connected and it lasted for nine hours so I would do it during the time I sleep and I would still get up every morning and make it to school by 6 AM but it got to a point where my body just started breaking down too much and I just couldn’t do it anymore. I completed about four months and I it was one week before the finals I was studying. I was ready and my second big flare hit me so I had to make the decision by January 25, 2025 to leave because they had a strict attendance policy and it was unacceptable to miss more than three days of school. This one broke me. I have never felt so broken in my life. My program was my everything school is my everything but I will return again one day. I’m hopeful as soon as I get this kidney transplant.

I just wanna say I appreciate you guys all for the love and support you give me. Even though we may not speak, it wasn’t a personal thing as to why I stopped talking to you. It was more so that I need to get my body right, and I can’t be in this environment right now.

Many individuals did not understand, and they took it to heart, and I apologize, but I have to do what’s best for me and right for my health at the moment. I have my good days and bad days, but I try to cherish my good days the most because life isn’t promised. Whenever I am home, I try to spend as much time as I can with family and friends.

I hope you guys can understand, and this is me being raw and authentic, coming from a transparent perspective.

I’ve developed severe anxiety, depression, and bad thoughts about my body.

I want to give a special appreciation to my mom and my sisters. They go above and beyond for me every time, and I could not have made it through any of this without them. This journey has been hard on me and my family. I know that God has blessed us, and it’s just a blessing to still be here today. My mom, she’s amazing. She’s my number one rider on my team, and I know it’s hard and emotional on her too, but I’m just so lucky to have a mom as amazing as her. I wouldn’t trade her for anything in this world. My sisters, I love you to my core.

I really need and truly need support right now, guys. I’m always a go-getter, do-it-on-my-own type of person. I have a strong drive and determination, but I’m at a low low right now. I just wanna be able to pay my medical bills. I have to get a kidney transplant, and my insurance does not cover it, so it’s kind of like I have to come out of pocket for everything: gas, transportation to get back to the hospital, food. My bills alone are already over $2000, and I don’t work right now. I’m struggling to get SSI. I just need a break, guys, and if you’re able to help me, I greatly appreciate it.

if everybody can do anything even donating a dollar to just support me right now I greatly appreciate you all for just even considering me. This is a battle that I’m gonna have to constantly live with. I have lupus SLE, but that is not curable as of 2025 today, but my kidney failure is curable. I am able to have a donor and a kidney transplant. I need you guys help to help me get that and be able to afford it. I think I’m way too young to in this life and I have so much drive goals and ambition that I don’t believe it’s my time to go yet and I know that God has a plan for me and that he’s he’s always been by my side protecting me holding my hand, but I am getting worse day by day, losing more function and soon I will you know yeah.