Help Heather Donate One of Her Kidneys to Kattina

Abstract:

I am raising money for travel, lodging, and dog boarding expenses while I go with my mom (caregiver) and two boys (the driving forces behind everything I do) to Arizona to donate one of my kidneys to my friend Kattina as a living donor. She’s 40, just married, and has her whole life yet ahead of her; she is also in end stage kidney failure. Please consider donating $10 to help ME help HER to live.

My nightmare is asking for money - it makes me feel awkward and weird - but Kattina is facing a nightmare far worse. We need your donations for this momentous event to occur! If you can’t donate monetarily, good vibes and prayers are cherished! And if you could please share this campaign? That would be AWESOME! Thank you in advance! ~Heather <3

Full text:

Here’s the Facebook message I sent to Kattina back on September 27th, 2023, which sums it up better than I ever could. Although the very full (very long!) story is underneath :)

9/27/23 [FB DM to Kattina]

“This is going to sound really weird, but every time I see you post something, this little voice says to check it out. I've gone to your site several times, but when the travel part came in, I couldn't figure out how I'd do it. But you just posted again, and that voice came back, and I don't know how (for so many reasons), but I feel I need to explore further. I'll let you know how it goes when I start filling it out. I'll do it when I get the boys settled this evening. Is there any information I might need from you in filling it out that you know of? Something will come of this, I feel it. I don't know what - of course you know the what I'm hopeful for! - but something will. I can't explain it, but I think you get it. I can't explain the feeling, the voice, every time you post. Today, when I saw it, something said, ‘Now.’ So I did”

And here’s our full story:

Kattina and I met in Puntacana International School in the Dominican Republic during the 2014-2015 school year. She was teaching middle school science, and I was teaching 8th/9th grade English. We hit it off right away! Although we’d only spent several months teaching together (I left that following school year), we kept in touch. She moved from Puntacana Village to Pueblo Bávaro where I was living, and we visited. I moved to the US, she moved to Jarabacoa, and we visited when traveling back to the DR. Through it all, we kept in touch via FB wherever we happened to be at any given time geographically. This is my beautiful friend in the picture above, taken this past December when I was in Arizona for preliminary testing. Don’t let her appearance fool you - she has 4% kidney function and is on dialysis. She just had several painful surgeries last week as the fistulas in her arm are no longer functioning; she had to have a catheter put into her neck. She is 40 years old, just got married, and deserves all the life ahead of her that I know she has been promised!

I saw Kattina’s FB posts when she first found out - Polycystic Kidney Disease, “an inherited disorder in which clusters of cysts develop primarily within your kidneys, causing your kidneys to enlarge and lose function over time” (Mayo Clinic). Kattina’s PKD, however, has progressed rapidly, and she is in end stage kidney failure. Each time I saw her post her living donor request, something would nag at me, like I knew. But I ignored it. “Not me,” I thought. “I’m imagining it,” I rationalized. In the beginning of 2023 or thereabouts, I saw another post. And this time, I actually looked into it. “Arizona!?” I thought. “Travel? Time? How would that even work?!” And I put it out of my mind. This past fall, I saw another post and - I swear on my life - I heard a voice say, “Now!” So I did. I went to the link she provided and completed the form. And I knew. I knew we’d be a match. I spoke with Nurse Cassie at Mayo Clinic for the first time and told her my story. I was so sure; I think I freaked her out with my surety. I spoke with my living donor mentor Kelly. I asked her to tell me her story and it paralleled mine. Another sign. I spoke with my living donor advocate David at Mayo and told him my story. Same with my clinic social workers Pam and Jeff. And I told them of the voice. And I told them that I knew. How? I don’t know. But I just knew this was (is) meant to be.

After numerous telephone and Zoom calls, emails and coordination, I flew to Arizona and Mayo for the in-person testing last December. Wherever they will do the surgery, they want to complete the testing (I totally get it! And thank God for their protocols - makes it safest for everyone!). The clinic did beast scheduling and got everything completed in two days(!). And it all checked out with flying colors! (Like I knew it would.) The donor committee just wanted two more contingency appointments, which were completed remotely in January. No worries, as I knew they’d work out, as well! And they did. I received word on February 1st that I was a fully approved living donor, and Kattina found out on February 9th that she was listed in the registry. We were a go! Like I knew from the beginning we would be.

Telling my boys became a lesson in stewardship of one’s resources. I told them that if Mommy has two good kidneys and two amazing boys, and Ms. Kattina has two bad kidneys and no amazing boys, wouldn’t it be selfish for Mommy to keep both - with all that she has - while Ms. Kattina goes without? Being perfectly and compatibly matched (the odds!!), wouldn’t it be better for Mommy to share one of her good kidneys with Ms. Kattina so that Ms. Kattina might have the opportunity to have two amazing boys AND a good kidney, as well? Although they may really not fully understand it now, they will in the future. And they’ll see it firsthand when they travel with me next month to see life - like, real life, real and new beginnings, second chances - in action. Fortuitously, our travel dates fall predominantly during their Spring Break week, so they will only be missing 3, maybe 4 days of school. Yet another sign this is meant to be!

So here I am, poised on the precipice of life with one kidney while the other gives Kattina life. And now comes that part that I am dreading: asking for money. Not to be blunt, but that’s what it is. The two biggest takeaways from all of my living donor education are 1) I can stop the donation process AT ANY TIME, lest I change my mind and 2) I IN. NO. WAY. can monetarily benefit from my organ donation. Yet there ARE expenses and life circumstances right now are rather interesting (to say the least). Not that there is ever an opportune time for a life-changing event such as this, but this would definitely qualify as NOT IT! Thus, I have meticulously calculated the expenses I am looking for help with. Our expenses are for our round trip flights, a hotel for the time that we are there, a rental car to get to and from Mayo Clinic while in Arizona, and boarding for our family dog while we are away. My mother will be traveling with me as my caregiver, and my boys will be coming as I need them with me and for them to be a part of this. It is their Spring Break and we will be in Arizona over Easter weekend; however, this is far from a vacation, despite the dates. March 27th was the earliest surgery date that was mutually possible for both Kattina and me (we go into surgery simultaneously). This just so happened to fall at this time. As for the amount of time we’ll be in Arizona, we are getting there just ahead of the surgery with one day to get situated and will be heading home (God willing!) the evening of my last mandatory follow-up appointment one week post-surgery. If I can have your help ($5, $10, $15, $20 - any amount you are able!) in getting these expenses covered, I can get these basic logistics taken care of so I can focus on getting all of the other plans for this life-changing event underway. THANK YOU!