Medical bills

Hello! My name is Delayne Ivanowski. My father is John Ivanowski. John has been battling kidney issues for a few years now. One lab draw revealed he was in kidney failure but him, being the stubborn man he is, said there was no way those labs were correct! A redraw confirmed that, indeed, my stubborn father was in fact, in kidney failure. At some point he was most definitely going to need a kidney transplant.

Months went by. His labs slowly dropping, dropping, dropping. He became super lethargic and sick. My mom, Paula, and I told him he needed to go get another lab draw ASAP to check his levels. What do ya know, his labs were TERRIBLE, to the point his nephrologist called my dad and had him come to his office that day. In his office, the doctor informed my dad that he was not sure if he had 2 days, 2 weeks, or 2 months to live. The doctor ordered an emergency catheter placement into my dads chest so he could start emergent dialysis. Dialysis made my dad feel much better. Dialysis consisted of my dad going to a dialysis center and sitting hooked up to a machine for 3-4 hours a day 3 days a week. If you know my dad, you know this is not the lifestyle he lives with having to sit around.

As time went on, he eventually got a fistula placed into his left wrist. This was much more ideal as my dad was able to be trained to do dialysis treatments at home instead of going to a center.

Meanwhile all this is happening, in the background I am calling and emailing whoever I can go get on the train to start testing to be his kidney donor. John had no idea I was going through the testing. After numerous blood draws, EKG, chest x-ray, CT scan, I got the call. I was a match!

Surgery was scheduled for November. October 30th, my active father fell out of a tree hanging a deer stand. This postponed surgery as he broke both of his heel bones and his L2 vertebrae. Again, being the stubborn man he is, DROVE himself to the nearest hospital in Fenton which was 45 minutes away.

My dad landed himself a 3 night stay in the step down unit at Mercy South where he was transferred from the hospital in fenton. He was non-weight bearing to both of his feet for 6 weeks and wheelchair bound.

Fast forward a couple weeks. I was able to set another surgery date for the kidney transplant! February 16th was the day!

Since surgery, my family and I have received the best support from some family and friends, even strangers!

As their daughter, I know how much they have sacrificed for me in my 25 years of living and it is in my heart to want to do everything in my power to help them through this stressful time.

I want to thank my mom for being the strongest woman in the world and helping everyone though this hard time, when she is also hurting.

I also want to thank everyone who has donate so far to help aid my parents with the medical bills from both of our procedures that insurance doesn’t cover and out of pocket costs.