When you first meet Gabrielle, you have no other choice but to be astounded by her intelligence, grace and physical athletic ability. She is an all Honors and AP student that carries a 4.0 GPA. What her body is able to do on the soccer field and in the training room is beyond extraordinary. What is not seen is what her body has been fighting for many years: renal disease, and now renal failure.
Over the last 10 years Gabrielle has not allowed her kidney disease to slow her down in the slightest. She passionately trains 6 days a week with her team, and cross trains in the weightroom on her own time. However, most people are unaware that Gabrielle continues to endure medications, countless doctor visits, blood draws, ultrasounds, hospital stays and physically exhausting surgical procedures. Over the years she has learned to tolerate the loss of appetite, fatigue, nausea, and headaches and bear through the unrelenting symptoms of kidney disease.
Our “normal” was brought to an abrupt halt on December 19th, 2022. It was a Monday afternoon in New Orleans. Gabrielle and I were getting ready to see to see her favorite band in concert when the phone rang. It was her doctor from Childrens Health Care of Atlanta asking if we could return home and head to the hospital. To say it shook me to the core would be an understatement. We headed out the next morning and drove straight to the hospital. They admitted her and performed a kidney biopsy. It was at that point they told us she had rapidly declined and was in kidney failure and had End Stage Renal Disease. We were prepared to hear this news at some point in her life, but were shocked to be here so soon.
The next few months were a blur from hospital stays and surgeries. Gabrielle was in the hospital every month. Sometimes a few days’ stay and sometimes it was weeks. She is currently receiving regular dialysis treatments, 7 days a week 8 hours a night. This helps her kidneys do their job and keep her alive, but she is now in need of a kidney transplant which will offer her more freedom and the ability to live a longer, healthier, more normal life.
It is our hope that a kidney transplant will improve Gabrielle’s health and provide her with many more wondrous years of life. We also know, though, that a transplant is not a cure for kidney disease but is a treatment. Once Gabrielle receives her transplant, she will start on a new journey; she will be on immunosuppressant medication for the rest of her life so that her body does not reject the kidney. She will continue to endure doctor visits, blood work, scans and other tests to make sure her kidney continues to function properly.
Our family has partnered with COTA to raise money in honor of Gabrielle to assist with a lifetime of transplant related expenses.
The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) helps children and young adults who need a life-saving transplant by providing fundraising assistance and family support. COTA is the nation’s only fundraising organization solely dedicated to raising life-saving dollars in honor of transplant-needy children and young adults. 100% of each contribution made to COTA in honor of our patients helps meet transplant-related expenses. COTA’s services are free to our families, and gifts to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.