About five months ago, I began experiencing a strange, persistent pain. I went to the doctor, but I was misdiagnosed with a possible uti and given antibiotics, which seemed to help at first. I thought I was recovering—until Easter. After church that day, I went home feeling off, but the pain quickly became unbearable. I was on the floor, vomiting, and so weak that Franklin rushed me to the urgent care down the street. From there, I declined fast, and an ambulance had to transfer me to the hospital. Once there, the doctors discovered I had a cluster of severe kidney stones blocking my kidneys, along with a raging infection.

My kidneys were so swollen that they wanted to wait to operate in hope that the swelling would go down. After four days in the hospital, I went home with a nephrostomy bag, waiting on a surgery waitlist that stretched nearly three weeks. But by a miracle, I got in sooner—after a week and a half. The surgery went well, and they removed the stones. I thought I was on the mend, but just two days later, I took a terrible turn—high fever, dizziness, vomiting and I became septic. Back to the hospital on strong medication for another week. Slowly, I improved, but now they consider my kidneys—especially my right one—to be extremely damaged. This is actually a recurrence—almost two years ago, I had a similar kidney stone surgery, just not as severe. That’s why it’s so crucial now for me to follow up with specialists and figure out why this is happening so young. Each specialist visit costs nearly $200 out of pocket, and there are so many tests I’ll need—each one adding up quickly ( on top of all the bills from this journey rolling in and much much higher than we expected)

This has been a long, hard journey, and I’m sharing this because we now are sitting on a hill of medical bills.By helping with these current medical bills, it gives us the freedom to focus fully on the care I need next, without the weight of overwhelming debt we would just feel like we are adding too.

When chatting with my friend, I was sharing the heaviness of it and told her "I know the Lord will provide" and she said " But what if you allowing others in IS how He wants to help you!" ...SO there it is. Burden shared :)

Thank you so much for taking the time to listen. We also are so thankful for your prayers for my health as we navigate all this moving forward. I will use this space to give more details and updates too.

We love and appreciate you all!

-Kristen