Kidney transplant on Sat July 22, 2023

Hi, my name is Julie Swanson and I'm raising money to help cover expenses and medical bills for my husband's ( Bruno-David Swanson) kidney transplant. April of 2022, Bruno started home dialysis for Stage 4 kidney failure. By March 2023 he had to start hemo dialysis which meant traveling to Detroit Lakes 3 times a week for 4 hour hemo treatments. April 2023 we got the news that he was officially put on the National Registry for a kidney Transplant. They told us it could take up to 5 years. Miraculously, we got a call at 315pm Sat July 22 saying they had a kidney for him and get to Fargo right away. We were blown away!!! We never imagined it would happen so soon for him! We hadn't even started saving up for his lost wages during transplant recovery! We became very overwhelmed but no way could we turn down this opportunity!

The transplant surgery went well and so far he is handling the anti-rejection drugs well. The kidney still has to wake up, (this happens often in kidney transplants) but they assure us it will within the next couple of weeks. He should be released from hospital by Thursday but we both have to stay close to hospital for at least 2-4 weeks while they run constant labs to keep the anti-rejection drugs right along with his other meds. We do have a generous family who is willing to let us stay with them but there are still meal expenses and I will be out of work the whole 4 weeks because he requires a personal care-giver. If all goes well, Bruno will have 2 addional months of recovery and continued trips to Fargo to be poked and prodded, then he may return to work. Thankfully we both work at the same Park Rapids potato factory and they are holding our jobs for us. Please help us to be able to cover expenses and our bills while we are unable to work for awhile. We are so grateful for this transplant and so grateful for the love and support of our family and friends (our friends are family to us)! God Bless!

NEW UPDATE: As many of you know, Dave Bruno Swanson had a kidney transplant on July 22. This has been quite the journey. When he was first put on the National Registry, we signed a waiver that we would accept a low scoring kidney in the hopes that any kidney is better than no kidney. The kidney he received had lost blood flow for more than the recommended time and so they explained to us that it would take some time to "wake up." We waited and waited for signs and many, many test results and even tried daily dialysis for 4 weeks and unfortunately this kidney does not want to function properly. Yesterday, Bruno was put back on the National Registry and they are working on getting him moved back up the list to his original spot. He is going back to his original dialysis plan of 3 days a week but still no plans of him returning to work. Since he still has a foreign kidney in him, he has to remain on anti-rejection meds which make him weak and immunal compromised. They are starting him on a biweekly infusion regimen to eliminate one of the anti-rejection meds but that is a slow process. Should he get picked for another kidney in the future, they will have a different plan from the beginning for him to have a better chance of success. Now, unfortunately, last week I had an emergency arise. I lost all vision out of my right eye and found out I needed emergency eye surgery for a detached retina. This required a trip to the cities and being seen at 3 different specialists. I had a special case with scarring and a cataract in the way. They had two specialists perform the surgery and they were able to leave the cataract in place and reattach the retina. I will be out of work for another week. This has all left us in such a tight spot. We appreciate that so many of you have helped us out thru this journey and it humbles me again to ask for your support. We have maxed out all our credit and don't see any way of paying December bills. We need your prayers and a Christmas miracle to get us thru to next year. Mostly we need prayers! God give us the strength to continue this battle and help us find peace and joy! Thank you all for listening!