Help Gabe through kidney disease and transplant recovery

Hi folks,

As many in my community no doubt already know, I have been dealing with quickly progressing kidney disease which has been making me become sicker and sicker over the past year. This is due to a horseshoe kidney and absent left kidney, diagnosed about two years ago after my doctor noticed some strange results in a blood test. Because of the deformity of my kidney, I have developed Glomerulosclerosis (basically the scarring of the blood vessels in the kidney that filter the blood.) My kidney function has been rapidly declining over the past year and my incredible team of doctors that has been seeing me through this told me that I need a transplant this year. Fortunately, the process towards getting the transplant has been going extremely smoothly and I have had a wonderfully generous individual in the music community donate one of their kidneys on my behalf so that I can get a live donor kidney this year instead of waiting several years, likely on dialysis. Words cannot describe how it feels to have someone do this for me. Likely my transplant will happen at some point in the next few months and this brings us to why I’m starting this GoFundMe.

Over the past year, I have been getting sicker and sicker and this has led to financial strain for the following reasons that I could use some help with.

1. Being worked up for an organ transplant requires many appointments, scans, and tests, and, even with health insurance, the costs have added up into the thousands.

2. As I get sicker, working full-time has been impossible so I am working greatly reduced hours and am making significantly less income than I would be making if I were well and able to work as much as I would like. Unfortunately, a year of this reduced schedule has made it impossible to even “break even in life.” Even working these reduced hours is becoming difficult; however, I am hoping to be able to until my transplant, though the possibility of starting dialysis soon may make this harder.

3. After my transplant, I will be unable to work for three months as I recover, attend multiple appointments a week, and balance the medications that I will need to be on for the rest of my life. While I will be on medical leave and will be able to keep my health insurance, I will be making basically no income for those three months.

I really hate to reach out for help financially like this, but I need to swallow my pride and remember that this illness is not my fault and that there is no shame in needing help in times of struggle. The support of my community in lifting my spirits during this difficult time has already been overwhelming, and I hate to ask for more than just emotional support, but sadly, in today’s crazy world, one defective kidney = one GoFundMe campaign.

To all who took the time to read this, thank you, even if you don’t donate, the fact that you took the time to hear my story (well, read my story technically) means a lot.