Lifting up with hands of help. Please take a moment to read.

MY LIFE IN DIALYSIS

Dear Friends,

Some of you may know that I have kidney disease. Over time, my kidney disease has gotten worse causing my kidneys not to work well enough to keep me alive. This is what I am facing now, and my treatment options are limited to dialysis treatments or a kidney transplant.

Getting regular dialysis treatments, usually three times a week for four hours at a time, will help my kidneys do their job and keep me alive, but a transplant would offer me more freedom and the ability to live a longer, healthier, more normal life. A transplant would also give me more time to do the fun things I enjoy most, like spending time with my family and friends.

However, finding a kidney for a transplant is not easy. Just ask the 100,000+ people on the waiting list for a deceased donor kidney like me. Time is not on our side. Some wait for years; many die while waiting. The average wait time is five years or more for a kidney from a deceased donor. However, there is another option: receiving a kidney from a living donor, my sister Bang.

Asking a family member or a friend to consider donating a kidney to me is difficult, but it greatly improves my chances of getting a transplant. A living kidney donation typically lasts longer and has better function.

You might not know a lot about living donation - I know I didn’t before kidney disease affected my life. Understandably, some people are afraid about the surgery and what living with one kidney will mean for them. Here’s some basic information about kidney donation:

• You only need one kidney to live a healthy, long life.
• Most donor surgery is done laparoscopically, meaning through tiny incisions.
• The recuperation period is usually fairly quick, generally two weeks.
• The cost of your evaluation and surgery will be covered by my insurance. The hospital can give you extensive information on this.
• You will have a separate team of healthcare professionals to evaluate you as a living donor. Their job is to help you understand the risks and benefits and look out for YOUR best interests.

You can also learn more about living donation on the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) or The National Kidney and Transplant Institute.

We have managed to seek help from NKTI's medical social service at least to lessen the transplantation cost and we did well. My sister has to go back to Manila for a regular check up and laboratory test which I also will be doing.

We are a small family and only just the 2 of us working. Now our funds are getting low and the social service wanted us to prepare more than 400,000.00 pesos in bank deposit to sustain medication before and after the transplant. Although I have save some for the medication, We still do not have enough as I need to sustain dialysis thrice weekly and its never cheap.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. If donating your extra cash is something you would like to consider, I would be happy to tell you more about my story . You can also contact me directly at 09199922346 [email protected].

Our bank account details are as follows

BPI 0489631172

EASTWEST BANK 200015151551

BDO 001390189919

However, I know that there are circumstances that sending donations might not be available for everyone — but you can still help! Consider being an organ donor after death and also, help me by sharing my story with everyone you know. At the very least I want to bring awareness to kidney disease and living donation. I am hopeful my efforts will help me undergo the surgery sooner and encourage others to consider helping the many people on dialysis and on the transplant the wait list.

Thank you!