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Here is a brief history of Elijah and the Kidney Problem.
Elijah grew up in Southern California, the only son
of a Preacher and Dental Hygienist. In 1998 the family
trekked across country to settle down in Salem, MA.
Elijah was part of many bands throughout his adolescents;
the longest-lived was Good For Life, where he met some
of his best friends. In 2002 Elijah decided to part
ways with band life and started his career as a singer
songwriter. Life has moved pretty quickly since then.
In 2003 Elijah met a very adorable young lady at a music
festival he was playing at and where she was running
an art exhibit. In Sept of 2003 they started dating,
and by the ripe old age of 19 he was married to Rhonda
Dudek in August of 2004 amidst friends and family on
the hottest day of the year in an apple orchard.***
The next year was a good one for the couple. They opened
their shop Share an Umbrella in Salem which supported
causes much like this one by selling goods of independent
designers and donating at least 10% of each sale to
charity. Music and art was going well for the two. Elijah
was ending his junior year of college, Rhonda, who had
recently graduated Rhode Island School of Design, had
just had a successful Holiday Season selling her jewelry.
In February of 2006 Elijah began to get severe headaches
debilitating enough to keep him from class, and yes,
even playing shows. The Excedrin didn’t seem to
be working its magic, so they pawned the pain off on
his wisdom teeth needing to be removed. The couple started
to worry once Elijah told Rhonda his peripheral vision
suddenly went blurry. After a couple days of Rhonda
trying to get Elijah to see a doctor, he finally called
a musician friend of theirs named Jim Trick who happens
to be an eye doctor as well. Jim set up an appointment
for Elijah that very day with an eye specialist in our
area. After several quick tests Dr. Gottipotti told
Elijah to go to the Emergency room for some blood work
because his blood pressure may be high. The two thought
this was a bit extreme and were seriously considering
a Taco Bell stop before heading over, but last minute
decided against it and went straight to the ER.
Once in the ER the nurse took Elijah’s blood
pressure in the check in room. She proceeded
to freak out, yell at Rhonda to finish checking Elijah
in because she had to get him in there STAT. The nurse
grabbed Elijah without another word, some big doors
slammed and locked behind them and Rhonda was left in
the waiting room scared out of her wits because a blood
pressure of 209/125 didn’t mean a thing to her.
Turns out it meant quite a lot though. Hours later,
when Rhonda was allowed to see her seemingly healthy
21 year old husband of 2 years, she was shocked to see
IV’s, tubes, patches and the works hooked up to
him. Elijah’s blood pressure was so high it was
causing intense pressure in his head (which caused the
headaches), caused the veins in his eyes to burst (which
caused his blurred vision, the fluid went into the line
of site), and in a month or so time, would have giving
him brain damage. No one is sure how long his blood
pressure had been so high, but Dr.s said that at that
rate you have about 4-6 months to live. From the amount
of damage his kidneys suffered they estimate he was
on about his 4th month.
Later that night he was transferred to the Intensive
Care Unit where they remained for the next 5 days. In
that time Dr. Trebbin walked into their life. A tall,
goofy, very respectable man took over Elijah’s
care and has since shown him the kind of care you would
expect from a father. Still, no one knows how this all
happened. Elijah suffered severe kidney damage, but
what caused it, high blood pressure developing a kidney
disease, or a kidney disease which causes high blood
pressure?
5 Months later we find out it was the latter. IGA nephropathy.
A rare and rapidly progressing form. Elijah’s
case is actually unique to himself as they have never
seen a pattern like his (we all knew he was special).
All Dr.’s expected Elijah to have a good 50 years
of life in his damaged kidneys, which were working at
about 60%, he just had to take lots of meds and special
diet and things should be okay. But in September 2006
Elijah’s numbers dropped significantly and his
disease went in for the kill. His function went down
to 10%, and in the last few months has dropped to about
4%.
Because of all of this Elijah has had to take a break
from work, school, and music due to frequent Dr. appointments,
lack of energy (which he has weekly shots for), and
for just feeling plain old sick. The couple moved in
with Elijah’s parents back in October to help
dissuade the lack of income and for some extra care
for Elijah. Rhonda has been working a 40hr/week nanny
position and about 20hrs a week on jewelry to generate
a little extra income. All the while hoping to get this
transplant underway.
At this point they have found a donor, a wonderful friend,
Jason Rozen, of Elijah has offered up his organ and
set the date for the transplant. Elijah’s body
is at the end of its ropes though. He is fighting off
uremia, the condition you are in when your body is poisoning
itself because your kidneys aren’t filtering out
the bad stuff. (That’s what a kidney’s main
job is) He is itchy and having to get hour-long infusions
of iron because there is a possibility he is bleeding
internally. All in all, it’s going to be a pretty
long 3 weeks. All are hoping and praying Elijah can
make it to the transplant without having to go on dialysis
(when a machine filters your blood and essentially does
the work of your kidneys). Although Elijah would normally
be placed on dialysis at this point, They were told
by their surgeon that if they could skip dialysis that
the transplant would have a better success rate.
Here's a list of the drugs Elijah's been on this year:
Lisinopril (blood pressure/kidney health)
Labatelol (blood pressure)
Nifedical (blood pressure)
Lasiks (fluid retention)
Intrevenous Methyl Predinisolone (steroid)
Prednisone (steroid) <---The Devil.
Fish oil (kidney health)
Iron (energy)
Procrit shots (red blood cell booster)
Epogin shots (red blood cell booster)
Intrevenous Iron (energy)
Phoslo (potassium binder)
Fosrenol (potassium binder)
He also has a stringent diet with sodium, potassium,
protein, and caffeine restrictions that will hopefully
be less strict after his surgery. Post surgery Elijah
will be on immunosupressents (They kill your immune
system.) his whole life so that his body does not reject
his new organ.
{elijah healthy August 2005, Colorado Honeymoon}
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{January 2006}
{Before Elijah went in the hospital. Around the
time the headaches started. Yellow skin, skinny
minny |
{Prednisone Meds made Elijah swollen, pimply,
and c-r-a-z-y. August 2006} |
{Sept 2006, just before they found out Elijah's
kidneys failed. That's 20pds of fluid in there}
{His legs were so swollen that his toenails began
to leak fluid. It was horrifying} |
 
{more swollen legs. indents from pressing finger
down in his skin and stay like that for around
5 mins}
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{May 2007, hives from some new medication that
will help stop the deterioration of Elijah's bone} |
{Luckily Elijah discovered the world of fixing
& breaking mopeds to fill his time} |
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