On February 5, 2009 I went to Florida Hospital Kissimmee and was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia and End Stage Renal Disease. I was hospitalized the entire month of February.
I was told at this time that I would have to start Hemo Dialysis. I was mad at the world. I had fought going on Hemo dialysis for over a year and certainly did not want to start Hemo dialysis again. I had been trying to work with my doctors and go straight to transplant and skip over the entire dialysis portion of kidney failure. However, with my insurance at the time I had to have a medical referral and my kidney doctor never would refer me to transplant so I could never been seen by the transplant team.
In February I applied for short and long term disability through Prudential and Prudential was nice enough to deny both short and long term disability by saying everything was pre-existing.
Even though I have the first transplant more than 3 years (After 3 years you are no long considered disabled post transplant)
Then with Social Security Disability it was suppose to be a 6 month ordeal to get approved and it took them 9 months before I got any income from disability. I went the entire 9 months with no income at all and during this time, I had to wipe out every penny I had ever saved just to live.
Then when I finally started Hemo dialysis, I was able to apply for transplant and soon went to all of my transplant appointments and orientation. During this time, I still had my medical insurance and we were on the right track for me to get another transplant. Then disaster strikes again and I lost my medical insurance. Then my transplant was placed on hold for financial reasons since the only insurance I had was Medicare.
The only suggestion the transplant center had for me to proceed with a transplant was to host fund raisers and raise the money I needed for my transplant.
So with that, I started Help Save My Life.
Help Save my life was started as a personal site to help Blake Walkup get enough help to get a transplant, but we have had such a positive response to our efforts, we wanted to start the:
Help Save My Life Foundation
A Volunteer Organization working with Fund Raisers
to assist Transplant Patients with the financialneeds they have to get a Transplant.
P.O. Box 420248
Kissimmee, FL. 34742
407-591-6959
Help Save My Life Foundation
Email Help Save My Life Foundation
We have plans of making the Help Save My Life Foundation into a non profit organization.
Blake WalkupKidney Failure Patient
7100 South Orange Blossom Trail #603
Orlando, FL 32809
In Town Suites
Paracop131@yahoo.com
http://www.blakeneedshelp.com/
“Where” to have my kidney transplant
After serious consideration of all the factors of where to have my kidney transplant done, I have decided to stay in Florida to have this done.
It was a very tough call since all my family is still in the Virginia area, but once you map the Virginia hospitals that could do the transplant, the drive time will not be that much different to come to Florida.
Granted some family and friends may decide not to come to Florida for the transplant and I will miss anyone that decided not to make the trip, but I have to consider all the factors and I think with the average transplant time here in Florida I will have a transplant sooner than anywhere else.
The hospital is Florida Hospital in Orlando
The web site is located here
601 East Rollins Street
Orlando, FL 32803
(407) 303-5600Florida Hospital Transplant Center
The Transplant Team web site is here
2501 N. Orange Ave
South Tower, Ste. 514
Orlando, FL 32804
(407) 303-2474 | Toll Free (866) 913-7851
Interested in being a living donor???
Please contact
Florida Hospital Transplant Center
Christina Fuentes, RN
407-303-3626
Or email Christina.fuentes@flhosp.org
Kidney Disease…. IGA Nephropathy
The Kidney Disease that I have
IGA Nephropathy
In many parts of the world, IgA nephropathy is the most common form of glomerulonephritis--a disease that damages the tiny filtering units of the kidney, called glomeruli. The damage caused by IgA nephropathy results from abnormal deposits of a protein called "IgA" in the glomeruli.
One of the kidney's most important jobs is to filter toxic waste products from the blood, and the glomeruli play a key role in this process. As more glomeruli are damaged by the IgA protein, the kidney progressively loses its ability to clear wastes from the body. In some patients with IgA nephropathy, this loss of kidney function progresses to chronic kidney failure, which requires dialysis treatment or a kidney transplant.
IgA Nephropathy is sometimes called "Berger's Disease," because a French physician named Berger was one of the first to describe the disease.
What are the signs and symptoms of IgA nephropathy?
The most common sign is blood in the urine. The amount of blood may be so small that it is only visible with the aid of a microscope. Another common sign is swelling of the feet.
As loss of kidney function progresses, symptoms may include pain in the back below the ribs, increased need to urinate (especially at night), fatigue, nausea, swelling of hands and feet and high blood pressure.
What causes IgA nephropathy?
The causes of IgA nephropathy are not well understood. The disease seems to cluster in certain families and in certain areas of the world. It rarely occurs in people of African heritage. These facts suggest that genetic influences may play a role in the development of the disease.
How is IgA nephropathy diagnosed?
The presence of blood or protein in the urine are a possible sign of IgA nephropathy. To confirm this diagnosis, it is necessary to do a biopsy. The doctor removes a small piece of tissue from the kidney and examines it under a microscope to look for the characteristic IgA deposits in the glomeruli.
How is IgA nephropathy treated?
Efforts to slow the progression of kidney damage may include limiting the amount of protein in the diet and careful control of high blood pressure, if present. In addition, a recent study suggested that taking fish oil supplements may help to slow the loss of kidney function. For patients who develop progressive kidney failure, treatment may consist of dialysis or a kidney transplant.
The success rate of transplants is good in these patients. Even though the IgA deposits reappear in the transplanted kidney in about half the patients within one year after the operation, the signs and symptoms of the disease remain mild. Loss of a transplanted kidney to recurrent IgA nephropathy is uncommon. The milder form of the disease seen after transplantation may be due to the use of anti-rejection drugs such as cyclosporine.
What is the outlook for patients with IgA nephropathy?
Twenty to forty percent of the patients develop end stage kidney failure about 20 years after the disease becomes apparent. Patients who have an increased level of creatinine in their blood at the time of their diagnosis are more likely to develop chronic kidney failure. It is harder to predict which of the patients who have normal levels of creatinine at the time of diagnosis will develop kidney failure. In general, a poor prognosis is expected for those patients who have high blood pressure, a loss of more than two grams of protein a day in their urine and a significant amount of damage present in their biopsy specimen.
What research is being done?
Several centers in the United States and other countries are studying IgA nephropathy. Researchers are investigating the chemical composition of the IgA protein, the rate of production of this protein, possible genetic influences and analysis of the long-term clinical outcome. Cooperative treatment trials on the effectiveness of the drug prednisone are continuing in the United States . Researchers recently completed a study of the effectiveness of fish oil supplements in slowing of the disease. They reported that fish oil supplements significantly slowed loss of kidney function in patients with IgA nephropathy.
