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Hi everyone, I kept thinking about how does someone ask
something like this. I NEED a kidney transplant. (haha) I
can’t imagine what you might be thinking but please bare with me as I try my
best to explain. My name is Charles Mason III and I have a kidney disease. Yeah I know that for some this is your first time hearing this and for others we’ve talked but I know this part isn’t easy.
I’ve been battling this disease since I was 10 years old. I was diagnosed September 11th 2001. Since then I’ve experienced a gambit of emotions (all of them) since first being diagnosed. I think a few months after I was diagnosed and placed on a few different meds to help with my disease I had a seizure and was in a comma. I fell asleep on a Sunday in my parents bed with a headache. I then woke up a few days later and first thing I said (I got homework to do) come to find out I had an allergic reaction to my meds at the time and they put me in a comma and found ways to regulate what was happening to me. Prior to this I had gained so much weight from a steroid they had me on (they is the doctors). So I woke up smaller with all sorts of things being used to monitor me. Since middle school when all this occurred I haven’t had any experiences as bad or in the hospital as much. I’ve had a few minor procedures over the years but nothing this extreme. For as long as I can remember I’ve been in a doctors offices every so many months for one thing or another dealing with my disease.
For the last few years though the decline of my kidneys has been somewhat steady (which for me was good) yeah I’ve always been aware of my diet and for the most part don’t drink or eat highly salted things. But nonetheless I’ve known for some time that I’d eventually need a kidney. As the years went by it wasn’t like I forgot about my disease but it kind of just never felt real or that somehow maybe there would be some sort of cure maybe or change. But it wasn’t, for the last 5 years or so I’ve gone to the doctors every so often just expecting bad news which was never really bad but I had/ have so much anxiety around being there. Idk I guess I wanted comfort, some love or affection. Or maybe it was the reality that once again I was different or wasn’t normal (same meaning I guess) I would feel sad, leave sad cause for me it was an isolated experience. Though family knew, it really just felt like something I was going through. Like I would hear “God got me and you’re so blessed” but I wanted actual comfort, from those in my life. I did (I’m just realizing this) but hey I speak in tangents anyways.
So in February, I go to the doctors and essentially it’s THE appointment the one where the doctor says it’s time to make that appointment with the transplant place to go through everything. It’s time to figure out how it’ll be paid for, it’s time to figure out dialysis (if need be), its time to figure out if I have a living donor. It’s time.
To be honest even though I knew it was coming I was crushed instantly. Like fuck, 33 (I thought I’d only get to 30) before I needed a transplant but to be honest I never saw my life in my 30s. Not to say something would happen, but to say I thought something would. So now it feels like I’m unprepared. But I do what I need to. Or what I feel I need to, I talk with family and friends, loved ones and all who I know I’ll need or would want to know (this includes y’all). I let them know essentially what’s been going on. To be honest this is no different, this is me being vulnerable with as many people as I can, because I want to live, I want help and I need a transplant. Even though you may not be able to donate. I am asking that if any and everyone could just spread the word. I can send links and have conversations with whoever would like to know more. But in all this, this might be one of the biggest asks I’ve ever had to do and that is to ask you and anyone you may know that might be interested if they’d be willing to donate a kidney for me. Spread the word cause if it’s one thing for sure I can’t do this alone and I know we’re not meant to do any of this life alone.
Thank you always,
Trae/Charles Mason III
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