Jaret's Journey with IgA Nephropathy

11/16/2023

3 month update! Hopefully the last update in a long while. 🤞🏼

In this world, no news is good news. Jaret is doing well. His medication dosage, follow up appointments, and blood work frequencies have all decreased substantially. He is back to full duty at work, has no activity restrictions, and been working on the farm and renovating his house. Life is back to normal! 🤩

We are so grateful to everyone for the support we have received over the past several months! We will never be able to express how grateful - but we would love to start paying it forward now that life is normal again! What are your favorite charities or non-profits? List below for us to choose an organization to benefit for Giving Tuesday (Nov 28). 🗓️

This year, we are extra thankful for family, friends, health and happiness. 💕

Pictured below: Charlie, Jaret, Kylee and Adam at Charlie’s birthday dinner

09/14/2023

Today makes ONE MONTH since transplant! What a month it has been. Jaret’s had several appointments, but he has not had to have dialysis since the day before transplant! He had the dialysis port removed from his chest earlier this month (originally scheduled for later this month). He was beyond excited to get rid of the chest port catheter and all of his dialysis materials 👋🏼

He had a follow up at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. They did more blood work to see where he stands on the “weak” rejection he has been in. This blood work came back this morning and…..JARET IS NOT IN REJECTION ANY LONGER! To say we are relieved is an understatement! We are so blessed that he has not developed antibodies to the transplanted kidney. The medical team has decreased medications, reduced his blood work, and reduced his follow up appointment frequencies. 🗓️

Overall, Jaret feels great! He feels like himself for the first time in 6+ months. His energy has mostly returned, however his endurance is still building back up. Recently, he described himself as “no longer a walking corpse” 🧟‍♂️

As always, we remain thankful to everyone who has supported us on this journey! Your support has been our lifeline during this nightmare. We are cautiously entering life now as “normal” - with some modifications due to Jaret’s immunocompromised status. 😉

Pictured below: Jaret, Mike Hicks (Lexus’ grandfather) and Lexus on the family farm after a day of hay making 🤠🌾🚜

https://gofund.me/559ab3b2

09/06/2023

Update: we have good news and bad news.

Bad news: Jaret has entered an acute weak rejection of the transplanted kidney. We are awaiting further test results to determine a plan of action. Rejection isn’t uncommon after transplant, but is less common with a direct match from a living donor. This is why it is so important to have lab work done 1-2 times per week. He does not have any symptoms of rejection, and wouldn’t know he was in rejection without the abnormal blood values. We are bummed that this happened at all, but hopeful that it can be corrected soon without too much damage to the transplanted kidney.

Good news: Jaret’s port catheter removal surgery has been expedited and is now happening tomorrow! He is quite excited to have this removed. This will drastically reduce his chances of major infections as the catheter goes into his jugular vein and into the right atrium of his heart. Unfortunately, this will be an additional medical bill on top of the bills accrued from transplant.

Please continue to share the GoFundMe page. It seems we are not out of the woods yet. https://gofund.me/559ab3b2

We are so very thankful to everyone. We truly will not be able to express the depths of our gratitude for the support, both past and present!

On Sunday March 5, Jaret went to the walk in clinic for stomach pain and na… Kylee Gear needs your support for Jaret’s Medical Expenses for IgA Nephropathy

08/28/2023

Two weeks post-op update! Post op follow up appointments were today.

Jaret is doing very well!
- He has a follow up appointment every two weeks. This is MUCH less than usual - initially they told us to expect two appointments a week for a month, then one a week for a month. However, Jaret’s body has accepted the transplanted kidney so well that his follow ups have been significantly reduced!
- They have also started reducing his anti-rejection medications and plan to wean him from some others soon. He is currently taking medicine multiple times a day, and at least 30 pills a day.
- He will continue to be on leave from work until cleared by the medical team to return, but he will be off for at least 8 weeks total. He has activity restrictions for 3 months.
- His pain is minimal. His biggest complaint is his lack of endurance. If any of you know Jaret, you know he enjoys working out and lifting at the gym. He has not been able to do much of that since this process started due to fatigue since his kidneys weren’t working. He is looking forward to returning to the gym and building up muscle mass when medically cleared.

Kylee is also doing well! Her pain is minimal and she also complains of fatigue/lack of endurance. The medical team is very pleased with her progress. She has similar activity restrictions to Jaret in place for 2 months and will also be off work for 8 weeks total. The medical team told her she would be back to normal in 6 months in terms of kidney function.

At this time we ask for your continued prayers for healing and patience with the recovery process. Neither Jaret or Kylee do well staying still, so Lexus and Adam have their work cut out to try to keep them down! Thank you all for everything! We are so lucky to have you all rooting for us!

https://gofund.me/559ab3b2

Pictured: Jaret and Kylee hanging out at his house after the follow up appointments today.

08/18/2023

Transplant was a success!

Sorry for the delay on updates. We’ve been a little busy!

Jaret and Kylee are headed home today. The transplanted kidney has taken off and is doing amazing in Jaret. His numbers are all now in normal range. He said he feels better than he has in a long time. The surgical team is very happy. Now his goals are pain management, rest, and meeting the numerous follow up appointments.

Kylee had a few minor but not uncommon complications after surgery. Some medication additions and she should be back on track!

The Gear family would like to thank Dr. Uemera (Jaret’s surgeon), Dr. Carpenter (Kylee’s surgeon), both transplant teams, and the staff at Allegehany General Hospital in Pittsburgh for taking such great care of both of us!

And a big thank you to everyone for the thoughts, prayers, donations, and love! We would not have gotten to this point without each and every one of you.

Pictured below: Jaret and Kylee with their souvenir abdominal brace/kidney pillows. Kylee likes to joke she is back up to two kidneys.

https://gofund.me/559ab3b2

08/14/2023

TODAY’S THE DAY!

Kylee donates her kidney to Jaret. Quite literally, this is a life changing day. Jaret gets his life back. A life fitting for a 25 year old; free from dialysis, free from feeling sick, free to have the energy to achieve all his goals.

Keep everyone in your thoughts and prayers. We have a great team of people behind us and we wouldn’t have made it this far without you!

So much love,
Jaret and Kylee, Lexus and Adam, and the Gear family

08/02/2023

On Monday (7/31) Jaret and Kylee had their pre-operative appointments. We found out that Jaret will be in the hospital about 4-5 days and Kylee will be in for about 2-3 days. Jaret’s surgery will last 5 hours and Kylee’s will last 4 hours. Following discharge, Jaret’s schedule will be very busy. He will have numerous follow up appointments to make sure the transplanted kidney is not being rejected, make sure it is doing its job, etc. He will have appointments 4 days a week for 1-2 months. He will be on numerous medications, multiple times per day. In 4-6 weeks, he will have another surgery to remove his port catheter (which is his access point for dialysis). This gives the medical team time to monitor his levels to make sure the transplanted kidney is working sufficiently.

We are so ready to be done with this nightmare, get Jaret off of dialysis, and him back to a relatively normal life!

Thanks again to everyone who has been there for us during this journey. We couldn’t do this without the army of people behind us! Please keep sharing the GoFundMe. Kylee and Jaret will be off of work for 8 weeks, and anything helps!

Much love,
Jaret, Lexus, and the Gear family

Pictured below: Jaret and Charlie at OBX this summer as a pre-transplant last hoorah

https://gofund.me/4da6099d

07/21/2023

Want to show your support? ‼️👚👕T-SHIRTS, STICKERS, MUGS , ETC NOW AVAILABLE! 👕👚‼️

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https://www.teepublic.com/user/wild-ts

Business owned by Adam Burky! 🧔🏻‍♂️ Proceeds benefit the Gear family

Choose one of 5 available designs and upload a pic using the hashtag 😎🆒

Looking forward to seeing everyone in their support gear on August 14th! 💚🎗️

Shop t-shirts, phone cases, hoodies, art prints, notebooks and mugs created by independent artists from around the globe.

07/14/2023

TRANSPLANT: ONE MONTH AWAY

In March our lives changed. In August they will change again.

On Sunday (7/9/23) Jaret received a call from Allegheny General Hospital. They had a deceased donor kidney that matched with him. He was faced with the choice of receiving the deceased donor kidney now or waiting for the planned living donor transplant in August. It was an impossible decision, one that only he could make for himself. He decided to pass on the kidney: helping save someone else’s life who may have been waiting longer and didn’t have the option of a living donor. We are so lucky that Jaret has only been on dialysis for 5 short months. Some people are on dialysis for 5 years before they receive a kidney transplant. It is so typical of Jaret to be looking out for others, even with everything going on in his life.

There is no possible way to truly express how grateful we are to each and every one of you. We wish to thank everyone who has helped us along this journey in some way! We continue to be blown away by the love and support we have received. We are almost to the finish line!

Pictured: Jaret on a last-hurrah/pre-transplant vacation. (Home dialysis machine in tow)

https://gofund.me/559ab3b2

06/20/2023

This weekend we had a successful fundraiser for Jaret! Lots of lasagna made. We had several people stop by and share their stories. Thank you to everyone who came out and made it such a good day!

But perhaps more importantly:
WE HAVE A TRANSPLANT DATE! We got the official call yesterday. Monday August 14th 2023! We are less than 60 days away!

On Sunday March 5, Jaret went to the walk in clinic for stomach pain and na… Kylee Gear needs your support for Jaret’s Medical Expenses for IgA Nephropathy

06/17/2023

Come see us! Set up at Elkins Fire Department!

06/16/2023

‼️📆 Happening TOMORROW!! 📆‼️

⭐️⭐️ Can’t wait to see you there! ⭐️⭐️

LASAGNA DINNER BENEFIT!

Famous homemade lasagna by Brenda Schmidlen! These mouthwatering lasagnas have been sold locally at the Relay for Life event for the past few years - and they have quite the fanbase!

Get your tickets now!

Any tickets not claimed by 2 PM on the day of the event will be resold.

Thank you all for your support!