Hi. This is the transition of my personal website from a technology blog to the story of my life journey with kidney disease. This handsome guy to the left is me back in November 2024. By that time I had been on Peritoneal dialysis for about 5 months. I’ll tell my story again here in future posts. But you can read more on the Facebook page I started to spread the word at https://www.facebook.com/KidneyDrive25/
If you’d like to help financially I have a GoFundMe campaign set up at https://gofund.me/7bf58529
I started a GoFundMe because as I was going through the screening to be added to the kidney transplant waiting list I learned about the future financial burdens I will face when I find a donor. The dialysis and doctors visits and co-pays add up right now, but once I have the transplant the costs skyrocket and I’ll be unable to work while recovering. Doctors bills, insurance premiums, anti-rejection meds and living expenses will continue to add up, while disability would only pay 60% of my salary.
If you would like to be a part of me by providing a lifesaving kidney donation I will post more info on the surgery and
recovery process soon. My donor would need to be someone with type O blood. You can get screened to see if you are a viable donor by going to www.vcuhealthlivingdonor.org . You’ll need my birthday which I’ll email you if you reach out to me at htyoung at gmail dot com . This site is a survey that asks you screening questions and helps you get in contact with the transplant center at VCU Hospital if you want to screen further. I’m in the process of joining registries and there is a process where donors are paired such that if you are not a match, they can match me with someone who is a match for me, and you for someone who needs a kidney that matches you. And even with no match or pairing, every donor takes a person off the list and makes my wait shorter. For my blood type the wait for a deceased donor is 5 years or more. At any time there are over 100,000 people waiting for a kidney in America.
Lastly, here’s another picture of me from when I gained weight and was in bad health in January 2025. Dialysis is working well now, and I’m able to work and feel mostly well since the dialysis that I do is a daily thing that goes about 10 hours a day, every day, overnight. In the picture I’m sitting in my home office with stacks and stacks of dialysis supplies behind me, which is a normal part of my life now. God bless and thanks for taking the time to read part of my story.