Moving forward into new chapters.

Listed as active for transplant... these are the words that we have been working toward for the past 8 months. They finally happened October 22 2019.

John is now on the active list meaning that he is being actively matched in the UNOS ( United Network for Organ Sharing) system for any kidney that becomes available thru a donor. We are also looking for someone who is altruistic and willing to donate one of their kidneys. If you are interested in becoming a living donor, call Temple University Hospital [phone redacted]. They can answer questions (confidentially) and coordinate donor activity. Please feel free to pass this information along to your family members and/or friends. Telling them about his situation will raise awareness and the increase the potential of finding a compatible donor.   Did you know that you do not have to have a matching blood type to John’s B+ to still be considered for a possible donor?  It is called Paired donation or chain donation. The National Kidney Foundation is a great resource for  information. Here 

You may ask what happened to me being a donor? Well, it is still very much in my plan but in learning more about John’s after care, he will be out of work for 12-15 weeks during which time we will receive approx. 50% of his weekly income once he qualifies for short term disability. He will have to use any saved up vacation time and be off of work 4-6 weeks before this can happen.  All of this meaning that we will have to tap into the already very depleted savings. He will need to return to Temple three times a week for up to a month, then more locally tapering off as his anti rejection medication levels are checked and adjusted. I have to be the driver, I have to be the one who can provide this care and caretaking that will be needed, this again is an added expense of driving to all of the appointments and his medications are expensive.


John’s Dr wants him to have his peritoneal catheter put in place as a safe guard in case it is needed, This will happen sometime next month and he should only need 2 weeks to be back at work. She is hopeful that he can transplant before he needs to start dialysis. The current wait here is 4-6 years. It has been a year since his Bloodwork started us down this road that year counts so that brings it down to 3-5... however another patient in the same dr office just transplanted in 3.5 months. So when UNOS finds you a match it’s a go. More ideally we would love to find a living donor.

This is and has been all very draining on our finances and our spirits. This will not chance in the coming days, week or months, potentially even years. We are thankful for the group of friends who gathered around us and make it possible to get things accomplished. While asking for donations of this type make John and I both feel uncomfortable we also recognize that you all want to support us and this is one of the new ways that kindness happens, this is also why we have set the “Goal” at $1000 we do not feel comfortable asking for a certain amount of money, as we all have a budget that we live with and can donates as you are able. All money raised will go directly to paying of what current medical debt we have as well as being set aside to put toward future bills that are associated with John’s medical care. 

To those who have text and called to check on us thank you.. some days are great... others down right suck.. most days John feels great... others he does not. But in the end of each day we are thankful for the path this has brought us on, we have learned so much, so much we didn’t want to learn but thankful that while a huge deal this can be worked thru and we will get on the other side of this medical issue. There will be a new normal but we will figure that out then. I will offer updates as needed here, thank you to everyone who has supported us along this far.

Again, if you or anyone you know would like to be a donor please reach out to me, or call Temple phone number listed above. The rest is out of our hands for very good reasons.

The photos I have shared here are of our summer vacation trip to OSH.. John has always wanted to fly the kids out to that air show and make sure that they had the memories and experience of flying into the world largest air show. So we made it happen. So much of life needs to be more about this and less about stress and worry over how to pay bills.