Let me get you all caught up, Riddikk and Jen live in Georgia, USA. They have been married 17 years and have 1 daughter. They travel extensively to and from treatments and doctor's appointments, all of these are at least 1-2.5 hours away from their home. Jen was diagnosed with End-stage kidney failure 2 years ago and is currently on hemodialysis 3 times a week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. She is also currently testing to be put on the donor list for a transplant which ultimately will be the only thing that will save her life.

This is a terrible thing that has happened to them through no fault of their own. Fast forward to March 15, 2020, Jen slipped at home and the resulting twist and fall onto her left leg caused it to shatter in 8 places and broke her ankle but thankfully 2 days later she had surgery to fix it.

The surgery left Jen with a metal rod from the knee to ankle and it was seemingly fixed until 3 months later when she began putting weight on the leg and the ankle felt squishy. It started to hurt and swell up so they went back to the doctor. X-rays showed the screws had broken and the rod was now shoved down in her ankle bone so they promptly booked to see a Trauma Surgeon (finally some good news when they hear he served as a Navy trauma surgeon so he was the best in the south available). Following the appointment it turned out Jen also had a leg infection and had lost a significant amount of blood which they chalked up to the prior surgery. They also had to warn them he might not be able to save her leg, however luck was on their side and he was able to repair and save the leg!

Everything seemed to be going well with physical therapy but she was still unable to walk without help. Jumping forward to November 2020 she was rushed to the hospital to have 2 stents put in her heart! Then she needed a blood transfusion (this is when the nose bleeds started happening). By December, she spent 2 weeks back in the hospital, 4 more bags of blood but no one had any idea how she kept losing it. She was told the nose bleeds weren't the cause?!

Then in January of 2021 she went to her local hospital in her small town because she couldn't stop throwing up and her nose bleed wouldn't stop. They did blood work and the doctor came in and said "I'm sorry, but we aren't equipped to handle you. You need to get to a bigger hospital... NOW"! She was exhausted, so the next morning she went down to Rome Georgia to Redmond hospital. After they did a full workup to look into what's wrong, 5 doctors came into her room and she was told she was basically almost dead. It was discovered during her 40-day hospital stay; a medication she was taking for psoriasis called Methotrexate ate all of her bone marrow. 10 bags of blood and 8 bags of platelets plus numerous fluids and antibiotics given to her put her in end-stage kidney failure and thus began her dialysis journey which brings us to this event.

Whether you donate, stop by to cheer us on or share the event, we really appreciate it ❤️ I understand that no amount I raise can undo what they've been through together but what if doing this gives them even one more stress free day then its going to be worth it 🙂

Thank you for taking the time to read this and catch-up on their journey and I hope your having a great 2023!