Local Woman Battles Chronic Kidney Failure and Remains Hopeful

Today I talked with an amazing young woman over the phone, which was pretty impressive in itself. You see, Rainee Sellers is deaf. In fact, she has been since birth, but that hasn’t stopped her from much. She uses sign language to communicate and a translator translated her signing so that we could have a conversation by phone. After reading her blog, you’ll have a sense of the optimistic person she is. After having a conversation, I realized how brave she is.

Rainee was born and raised around Sacramento. When she was thirteen years old, an autoimmune disease weakened some of her organs, specifically her kidneys, though they didn’t know it then. She was an active girl, playing softball and basketball in high school. She won awards for her athleticism, but couldn’t tell you today which ones they were. She went on to college and earned an Associates Degree.

She found out there was a problem with her kidneys before she and her husband Marc planned a trip to go scuba diving. She went to her family doctor to receive the necessary physician’s approval when he noticed that her blood pressure was abnormally high. After a series of tests, doctors discovered that she had chronic kidney disease.

Chronic kidney disease is the slow loss of kidney function over time. Symptoms often include a general ill feeling, fatigue, dry or itching skin, headaches, nausea, appetite loss, excessive thirst, bruising easily, vomiting and bone pain. While Rainee isn’t suffering from all of these symptoms, she is feeling the effect of some of them. Visitors to her website can see her updated symptom status and how she’s managing.

Chronic kidney disease isn’t something an antibiotic will take care of or a quick stay in the hospital will relieve. She will need a kidney transplant from a matching donor. The donor will need to be either A or O blood type, and must have their own health insurance. While Rainee’s insurance will take care of the surgery, transportation, hotel and flight, if necessary, the donor will need to have their own insurance if there are any complications after the 6 month cut off provided by her insurance company. Donors would need to be in good general health and have normal kidney function. Those who wouldn’t be good candidates for donation would be people with diabetes, anyone with infectious diseases or cancer, those who have had any history of drug or alcohol abuse, or women who wish to become pregnant.

Several people have tried to become donors, but due to health concerns of their own, this hasn’t worked out.

In talking with Rainee, she expressed how much her faith has affected her outlook. She’s active in her church and in her biography on her website, this “Christian lady” is thankful for much and has plans for even more. She stays positive, even though the deadline to find a matching donor is fast approaching.

“I know in the future that I’ll have a worse situation that I do now. I’m trying to stay positive because staying positive keeps the body well”.

For more information about Rainee and how you can support her, even if kidney donation isn’t an option, please see her website.