Help Kristine find a kidney donor

08/24/2023

Friendly reminder to share this page as often and as widely as possible.

Dialysis hasn't been working well for me. This means I've had three emergency catheter placements this year (this isn't normal), the therapy I do receive isn't cleaning my blood as well as it should, and I am left feeling sick all the time. Most recently, I've started getting insane migraines every time I dialyze. It's like torture to sit there for four hours, three times a week, while my head slowly explodes. The medical team doesn't know why this is happening but there's very little they can do for me aside from decrease the amount of therapy I get, which leaves me feeling sick because of toxins left in my system.

The few people who were tested were turned down but I have to remain vigilant. PLEASE share this page! My best shot at a new lease on life is to find a donor, so please help me by sharing this page. Who knows? Maybe someone you know can help save my life!

05/18/2023

I haven't posted in a while so here's a kidney-related update. I went to dialysis on Monday to discover that my lines weren't working at all 😱 My poor nurse tried for hours before calling it and sending me home without my regular therapy. Coming off of a weekend, I was already feeling the extra fluid and by Tuesday morning, I was starting to look like a totally different Kristine. Puffy face to the max. I was able to get in Tuesday afternoon for an emergency catheter placement, an unpleasant procedure I was hoping not to experience more than once because you're awake for it *cringe* They give you freezing needles first, thankfully, but those aren't exactly a treat either. Imagine the freezing at the dentist but in your chest. Anyway, we got the new line in and I head straight to dialysis afterwards and again the next day to play catch up. I'm feeling better today and am grateful to have the day off of therapy. Something I learned from this was our bodies will form fibrin, a sort of scar tissue, in defense against the foreign object in our body. So fibrin had formed around my lines and blocked them from working. It would be fantastic if we could communicate with our bodies, like hey, can we not attack the thing keeping us alive? Thanks. 😅 Ah well, all is back on track and for now the new line is working well with minimal soreness. That's the update! Love to all ❤️🌞

02/23/2023

To whomever messages me: If your account is set to private, I won't be able to reply to you. I'm not ignoring you! So if you've tried to PM me with no response, that is likely the cause ❤️☺️✌️

02/20/2023

I was recently joking with a friend about getting more activity and interest on this page. We thought maybe cats with lasers may help...so I found one better: here is cats with lasers AND pizza! But really, share my page so I can find a living kidney donor, okay? I want to live a long life and enjoy more epic pictures like this one. Thanks, all! ✌️❤️

02/02/2023

02/02/2023

Hello, world! I created this page in order to share some basic information about kidney donation, what that process looks like, and hopefully it will lead to me finding a living donor. :) This is my first attempt at reaching out online for help so please be kind.

A little about me (Kristine Benham) :

I am 33 years-old and have been on hemodialysis for two years. My kidney disease is due to Type 1 diabetes which I was diagnosed with at age 11. I do dialysis treatments at a local hospital three times per week for four hours each visit. I have discovered that dialysis, although it's keeping me alive, is not a good permanent solution. The longer I am on dialysis, the harder it is on my body and organs. To be completely honest, I feel sick most days and don't remember the last time I felt "normal". It has been difficult watching people my age grow their careers and families while I'm sort of trapped in medical limbo. I was a reporter before I started to feel sick and I worked with animals on the side. I was living a very active life before my kidneys failed and tried to decrease my workload by taking at-home positions, but eventually I was too sick to keep up with part-time work and applied for disability. In the past year, several friends have been tested as donors and were denied for various reasons. I have run out of people I know personally, so I am hoping to share my information on social media in order to find someone who could donate a kidney and save my life. The wait for a cadaver organ is approximately 5 years and those organs don't last as long as living donors, unfortunately, so the ideal outcome would be to find a living donor.

If you aren't in good health and don't think you'd be a good candidate, please share my page so as many people as possible can see this and that would be a great help.

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ABOUT DONATING: I am blood type O + but the transplant team can work with you even if you don't have the same blood group. Ideally, they are looking for someone who is physically fit, doesn't smoke, do drugs or drink heavily, and doesn't have any serious health issues.

If you're interested in getting tested, this is what the first few steps look like:

1) Call the London Health Science Center transplant team at 519.685.8500 ext. 33552 or email them at livingkidneydonation@lhsc.on.ca. Tell them you're interested in being tested as a kidney donor for Kristine Benham.

2) The team will send you an initial survey to see if you're a good candidate by assessing general health and lifestyle basics.

3) If everything looks good, you will continue on to basic medical testing (bloodwork and urine sample) at a lab local to you to check blood type and get a better idea of your overall health.

4) The next step is meeting the team in London and doing more in-depth tests like x-ray, CT scan, ultrasound, etc. This is to ensure your major organs all function well and won't be at risk in the future if you donate *Please note: None of these tests hurt, they just take a few hours out of your day to complete. I joke with friends and say this is basically the most thorough physical one can get in Canada.

5) If all tests come back with a "go ahead", you'll meet with the team again to set a date for surgery!

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There is financial compensation for donors and it covers most things from travel costs, food, hotels, parking, and so on. There is a lot of good information on https://www.lhsc.on.ca/multi-organ-transplant-program/living-kidney-donation .

Donors deal with their own separate team to avoid any conflict of interests so you will be supported by a network which includes a kidney specialist (nephrologist), surgeon, anesthesiologist, social worker, transplant coordinator and more.

Please don't be shy! If you have concerns, questions, curiosities, feel free to reach out to me personally or to the London team at any time. My information is listed on the page or you can fb message me if you'd prefer.

Thank you all!