Hi, my name is Erica Wellner and with the assistance of Help, Hope, Live, I am raising funds to help with the cost of my kidney transplant and the medications and other costs I will need after transplant. For those who don’t know me let me share a bit about myself and my story.
I am a 41-year-old pastor of an amazing four church cooperative. I have been a pastor since 2015, serving three different parishes throughout Western Pennsylvania. I am currently the lead pastor of the Northeast Somerset Cooperative just south of Johnstown, PA, where I lead four churches with the help of my awesome associate pastor.
So, how does a 41-year-old come to need a kidney transplant? Good question. I did not realize the various issues I had going on were related to end stage kidney disease, until April of 2024. Right after Easter of that year, I went to an urgent care clinic with what I thought was heart issues. They sent me to the local hospital where I was diagnosed with end stage kidney disease (kidney failure), high blood pressure, and diabetes. I would spend the next week in the hospital where they worked to get my blood pressure back to a normal like range and where I would be put on hemodialysis.
When I came home from the hospital, I began hemodialysis treatments three days a week for four hours each day. This greatly impacted my work schedule as my dialysis made me very tired, and there was little I could during those 12 hours each week. But as I said earlier, I serve some amazing churches and they were so helpful and accommodating to the needs of their pastor.
I continued on hemodialysis until late July of 2024, when I switched over to peritoneal (or home) dialysis. Now, rather than spending three days a week for four hours in the dialysis unit, I am able to do dialysis at home while I sleep, which has given me so much of my life back and has helped me get back to my churches and my community. During hemodialysis, I missed being able to help with our local food bank, watching my youth play sports, and being a part of our local ministerium, because I was either in dialysis or did not have the energy.
At the time of writing this, I am close to getting my transplant thanks to the love and generosity of one of my cousins, who happens to be a match. We are both in the final stages of testing to make sure we are both healthy and well enough to move forward. I cannot thank her enough for this gift. And I cannot thank my churches and community enough for their support during this journey.
If you stay connected with my page, you’ll see various fundraisers my churches are putting together to help with my medical costs. If you can participate in any of those fundraisers it would be greatly appreciated. If not, you can donate directly, here, through Help, Hope, Live. Any and all support is greatly appreciated, especially prayer support.
Thanks for stopping by and reading. I’m looking forward to being on the other side of this and getting back fully to my churches and community through your generous support and prayers.
