Main fundraiser photo

Help Morgan with renal autotransplant and medical

Donation protected
As many know, Morgan has been through the ringer over the last few years with her health. From having multiple surgeries and a botched kidney stone surgery that finacially crippled her 2022. She lost everything she worked so hard for in her life. Once she felt okay enough, she continued to move forward in life and found a job working from home 4 out of 5 days a week once she had her nephrostomy tube removed. She continued to work as best as she could, all while passing very large stones daily. Since the surgery in 2022, her symptoms have only worsened, and the stones continued to grow larger and larger. Morgan under went surgery number 47 and 48 on November 2cd and December 7th of 2023 to clean out both kidneys that were full of large stones that were not passing from her debilitating kidney disease she was born with called medullary sponge kidney disease. Within a week of the first clean out, she started passing 20 plus stones. The doctors were shocked at how fast they grew and sent them for testing. While awaiting the second clean out, she began passing stones from the other kidney that are half of an inch long! The urologist cleaned out the left kidney and found many that were over over 5 cm ( yes, cm not mm) long. Once cleaned out, the doctors set her up for a kidney biopsy to see if there was anything they were missing, considering all the testing and specialist she had seen. Morgan is no stranger to stones and has passed thousands over the years. But this was different. They were able to determine that one kidney is making one type of stone, and the other is making a totally different kind of stones. Morgan has been on short-term disability via her work for the scheduled surgeries, and tried to return to work for 2 weeks while awaiting the kidney biopsy. Morgan went in on January 26th for the kidney biopsy which was surgery number 49 in thirteen years. It was very scary, and since she doesn't sedate, they had to put her on life support for the procedure. They were able to get 3 punches, and testing is still being done at this time on those samples. About 5 days after the biopsy, Morgan developed severe pain, extremely high blood pressure, and infection. She then again had to undergo MRI, ultrasound, xrays and CT scans. They showed she had hydronephrosis on the right kidney with 9mm and 10mm stone already blocking. It showed she had 17mm stone just 3 weeks after being cleaned out and a few other large stones in the left kidney plus an infection and possible fissure at the biopsy site. Yet again Morgan was unable to work. Her urologist began immediately to get her in line for a renal autotransplant and advised her she would not be returning to work. This was a devastating blow for Morgan. Many who know Morgan know that through all these years of stones and surgeries, Morgan has remained working and pushing through to live a normal life and stay financially afloat to support herself and be completely independent. She has been a hard worker since a very young age. She filed her first taxes at 13! She graduated from high school a year early while working 3 jobs! This has really taken a toll on her mentally, physically and financially. Morgan was lucky enough to have a job that offered short-term and long-term disability insurance. Right now, she has only managed to work 2 weeks total since October 31st, 2023. As you can imagine, 60 percent of your pay only goes so far while dealing with many extra surgical procedures and appointments. The co-pays alone took what she got weekly and she has exhausted all her savings trying to keep up with the bills. At this time she is still awaiting approval for the long-term benefit ( this will last one year if she is approved). If approved, she will thankfully be able to purchase cobra to continue her insurance from work for a year if approved. Morgan is not only facing a very long and difficult surgery and recovery, but she is also facing having to file for SSDI and the fact that she will no longer be able to work. Right now the doctors do not want to continue to do surgery every three weeks because they want her to be able to get through the renal autotransplant process as quickly as possible and any surgeries prior will delay this process. So she is living with hydronephrosis, infection and passing very large stones. Just the other day, she passed the huge stone in her left kidney. It was half of inch long and 5mm wide and was stuck upon departure from her urethra causing a rip. She has been super sick and just trying to keep her head high and remain positive. If you know Morgan you know she is a hard worker, caring and wil help anyone she can. Most know her as the cat ladi because Morgan spent 10 years in her 20s to early 30s helping people with community cats by providing TNVR services to over 1100 cats from Jefferson, Berkeley and surrounding areas with all her own money. Many have asked how they can help. Right now, she has approved the gofundme and any help via PayPal @catbluff for medical bills and daily needs. She also asks for any cat food gifts to be sent to the house since there is still a farm site she maintains ( please reach out directly for the address). Many friends have been helping Morgan with the daily feedings of that site. There is still alot of unknown for the renal autotransplant process. March 7th is the consultation with the first doctor who performs these very rare and complicated surgeries. If this doctor can not help out of Maryland, she will then have to go out west to Utah or Colorado where they have a renal autotransplant program. A quick description of what they will do: They will remove Morgan's left kidney and move it next to her bladder making a short ureter so that the stones can pass a little easier to the bladder and in hopes won't get stuck as often. (There is video online of this procedure at the university of Utah if you would like to see more info) This will be around 12 hours of surgery with a full team of doctors and specialists. The kidney will be placed on bypass while the ureter is reconstructioned. Morgan will also be put on heart diversion support while this is ongoing. once the ureter is made the kidney will then be transplanted back into the body closer to the bladder. She will then stay for an extended hospital stay in ICU. From there we will have to see if her body rejects her own kidney, if any dialysis Is needed and if her heart is strong enough to withstand it all. It is a very risky process but this is the only thing left to do. From there is all goes well and she heals, she will have to have the right side done as well. There is great risk and she is hoping for a successful outcome. As you can tell this is not only finacially draining but mentally as well. Morgan has asked to say thank you to her village who has been here for her so much. From appointments, hospital stays, to keeping her laughing on days she doesnt feel up to it and just keeping her positive as much as possible. And to say thank the company who has employed her and tried to help in any way they can. Right now we have started the gofundme to try and raise 40000 to help her in anyway. There will be many parts of the process that will not be covered under insurance so we know she will have to pay for that on her own. (Balanced billing practices from all the universities) Geb Schramm will be also holding a fundraiser for Morgan in the near future that will be added to Facebook and here once details are worked out. If anyone wants to help in any other ways please reach out to Morgan directly. Also Beau has a list of people to contact if things go south. Any other fundraising should go through Morgan ( we had learned of scammer last time, so please know if it's not from Morgan's Facebook or social media, to always check with her first) Thank you to everyone who has called, messaged, shared and prayed. Morgan can't say thank you enough.

 GoFundMe Giving Guarantee

This fundraiser mentions donating through another platform, but please know that only donations made on GoFundMe are protected by the GoFundMe Giving Guarantee.

Donate

Donations 

  • Sharon Nylec
    • $50
    • 6 d
  • Cynthia Spielman
    • $40
    • 6 d
  • Donald Sutherland
    • $75
    • 30 d
  • Jaime Billmyer
    • $200
    • 30 d
  • Anonymous
    • $500
    • 2 mos
Donate

Fundraising team (2)

Morgan Spielman
Organizer
Browns Corner, WV
Geb Schramm
Team member

Your easy, powerful, and trusted home for help

  • Easy

    Donate quickly and easily

  • Powerful

    Send help right to the people and causes you care about

  • Trusted

    Your donation is protected by the GoFundMe Giving Guarantee