Help Jon Cover a Month of FMLA to Overcome Kidney Failure

My name is Jonathan Waltrip. I was diagnosed with Alport syndrome, a genetic disorder that damages the kidneys and causes hearing loss (and sometimes vision loss), at the age of 4 in 1995, and in the process of unsuccessfully seeking enrollment in a clinical trial in 2018 had Alport syndrome diagnosed by genetic testing. I have suffered from chronic kidney failure since 2021, and started treating it with a peritoneal dialysis cycler at home in September of the same year. The cover picture of this fundraiser is of me at approximately 12 PM on June 16th. I am now writing to ask for your help.

Over the last several months, as the peritoneal dialysis treatments have stopped having any effect on removing toxins from my blood, certain parts of my body have started to become poisoned by the sheer amount of toxins. As I write this, I am one day removed from a week-long hospital stay caused by my residual renal function falling to 2% of normal; when I entered the hospital my heart was covered in inflammation from pericarditis, I could no longer urinate (and had a blood creatinine level 25 times the upper limit of the normal range), and I could neither breathe without a great deal of effort nor lie down at any angle less than 45 degrees without a great deal of pain. During this stay, I was implanted with a temporary central venous catheter (or CVC) access for hemodialysis in my neck, and was only discharged after this access was replaced with one in my chest very near my collar bone. My dialysis treatment team has found a way to get me feeling better, pending a kidney transplant - by switching to hemodialysis, and training me to do my treatments for that at home, likely until I receive a transplant.

But in order to complete that training, I will need to take approximately six weeks (or three pay periods worth) of unpaid FMLA leave, and I will still need to pay bills and buy groceries during this time. I am making this GoFundMe to ask for any aid you are able to provide at this time to alleviate some of the financial burden I will be facing over the next six weeks (June 17 to July 26).

The initial goal would cover two out of the three paychecks that will be unpaid because of the FMLA leave. All donated money will go directly to payment of rent and utility bills, groceries, and any travel expenses I might incur over the next month going to and from the dialysis clinic at which I will be trained. (Regarding travel expenses, the clinic in question is on the other side of Columbus, I do not own a car, and I am primarily relying on Medicaid medical transportation and secondarily on Uber, the latter of which costs $25 plus tip each way at the times my treatments would begin and end.)

I am extremely grateful for any and all support, even if all you are able to do is share this fundraiser on social media to your own family & friends. Every little bit will help, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping me return to being the Jonathan Waltrip I want to be again.

Gratefully & Sincerely,

Jonathan Waltrip