I'm posting this fundraising campaign for my son Thomas Durham. Please share it and keep sharing  it even if you can't help. Ask your friends and family to share as well. My son needs help with Living Expenses until he starts receiving his disability payments. He's been approved for his Medicare, Food Stamps, and SSDI Disability Benefits. However, he's in a 5 month waiting period to start receiving his SSDI payouts. That waiting period started September 1st, so his first disability disbursement will be in February. 

Financial Assistance Thomas Needs:

Thomas's needs financial assistance to rent a room here in Colorado Springs. Rooms for rent in Colorado Springs are starting at $500 a month plus deposit. He needs about 4 months of rent, the deposit, and about $500 for non-food items like toilet paper, toiletries, and bed and dresser. So, at the minimum, he needs a total of about $3000.00.  He's currently staying at my apartment but since I myself live in Public Housing in a Senior building they won't allow me to keep him here much longer. I have been covering his car insurance, gas to drive to dialysis, and his cell phone bill. That's all I can manage on my own.

Health Insurance Costs:

Luckily. right now I am able to cover him on my health insurance policy through the end of the year. After January 1, 2024, he will be on just Medicare and Medicaid, which will be sufficient to pay for his transplant.

When Thomas's Medical Nightmare Started:

On January 31, 2023, I took my son Thomas Durham to the ER with severe nausea and vomiting. They were going to give him some anti-nausea medication and send him on his way, but the doctor decided to run some labs. I'm glad he did although the results turned Thomas's world upside down. They were about to release him when the labs came back and revealed that Thomas was in acute kidney failure. They wanted him hospitalized immediately but that particular hospital didn't have a nephrologist on staff. So, they released him in my care to take him to another hospital that had a nephrologist on staff. Over the next week, they ran a multitude of labwork, CT scans, ultrasounds, and a   kidney biopsy. By the end of that week, Thomas had a diagnosis. He was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder called IgA nephropathy, which is an autoimmune disease that attacks the kidneys. At 8% kidney function, Thomas was classified as having ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease). We don't know how long had been suffering from the IgA nephropothy, but it's genetic so had we caught it sooner, he might not have been in this situation. Since, his father passed away from kidney failure 3 years ago, we suspect his father was the carrier. IgA nephropothy happens when a germ-fighting protein called immunoglobulin A (IgA) builds up in the kidneys. This causes a type of swelling called inflammation that, over time, can make it harder for the kidneys to filter waste from the blood, thereby killing his kidneys. 

Since just a couple months before his diagnosis, Thomas has experienced symptoms like nausea and vomiting, a metallic taste in his mouth, exhaustion, and confusion. However, those symptoms mask other ailments too. Less than a month after his initial hospital stay, Thomas was hospitalized again at the end of February when his body began filling up with toxins and he was gaining fluid weight at an alarming rate. The hospital decided to implant a central venous catheter (CVC) in his chest temporarily so that they could get him started on dialysis to flush his body of the built up fluid and toxins. When they started him on dialysis, he weighed over 360 pounds, which was about 45 pounds more than he normally weighed- most of that was fluid and toxins in his system due to the fact his kidneys were no longer functioning properly. The doctors scheduled him to have an arteriovenous fistula (AVF) put in his left wrist in mid-May. An AVF is preferred over a CVC because the risks go up the longer a CVC is used. the risks are- heart arrhythmia, embolisms, infections, and death.

After his AVF was created, he had to wait for the fistula to mature. He's slowly on the road to using the AV Fistula full-time but he's had some setbacks.

Thomas goes to dialysis 3 times a week for 4½ hours at a time. Up until the end of August, Thomas was insisting on trying to work full-time while going to dialysis and doctors appointments. Thomas loves being able to work so he can be independent, live on his own, go camping, fishing, and spend time with his small family (me, his cousin, and two senior Uncles) and friends. However, his body was unable to keep up. He got wrote up at work for complaining that he was exhausted. Thomas found it very difficult to leave dialysis at 9:15pm at night and then be expected to arrive at his shift at 2:30am (on less than 4 hours sleep assuming that he could go straight to bed when he got home from dialysis), and then he would have to wake up at 1:30am to shower and get ready for his 2:30am schedule. He has had many moments of the confusion, painful muscle cramps, and nausea & vomiting while at work, and was reprimanded. Even though he should've been protected by the ADA due to his life-threatening disability, he felt like he wasn't allowed to say that he wasn't feeling well for fear of getting in more trouble. Recently, his doctors advised him to slow down and consider applying for SSDI Disability temporarily just until he could get a kidney transplant. He needs to take care of his already weak body, rest a lot, eating properly, and make sure he's taking all of his medications. So, Thomas reluctantly left his job on August 28th and applied for SSDI on August 30th.

On Tuesday, August 22nd, Thomas and I spent the day getting him evaluated for an innovative Robotic Transplant at UCHealth - Transplant Services - Anschutz Medical Center in Aurora, CO. It was an all-day event from 10am-5:30pm: he had like 20 vials of blood taken for lab work (and I'm not exaggerating), he spoke with the transplant coordinator, the surgeon, the dietician, the social worker, the finance department, and he had to have a CT scan with contrast done. That's not even half of the evaluations he still has to complete either.

The day after the evaluation, it was revealed that Thomas had a Pulmonary Embolism in his left lung.  He was put on a blood thinner called Elliquis.  However, after taking him to the ER on October 25th, which resulted in another hospitalization when they found another Pulmonary Embolism and changed his blood thinner to Coumadin.

Thomas had to see a Hematologist on November 27th to make sure that he would be cleared to be listed for a transplant. As far as the hematologist was concerned,  he had no problem clearing Thomas to be listed. Now, he has a few more steps to do just to get listed for a transplant. He has to do a Heart Cardio Treadmill test, see a psychiatrist, and have his primary care doctor schedule some labs for him. We feel like we're constantly trying to clear hurdles that we don't know are there until they're right in front of us.

In Conclusion: 

•Thomas needs about $3000 to sustain him for 4  Months until his disability kicks in. 

Update: As of today, December 5th, Thomas will need to have a Central Catheter put back in his chest tomorrow because his Fistula (AVF) has gone so deep in his arm that the dialysis center hasn't been able to get him dialysed. They will likely end up doing a surgical revision of his fistula. 

Please contiue to pray for him and PLEASE - Help him if you can. If you can't help, then please share, share, share!!!

Thank You and God Bless

Mel and Thomas

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