Roy Varnell, Jr. is a loving Husband, Father, and Grandfather who loves spending time with family and friends. In July 2021, Roy was diagnosed with End Stage Renal Disease and put on dialysis. Being on dialysis has greatly impacted Roy’s quality of life.
Roy grew up raising and working with livestock. He was active in FFA and showing animals. In college, he was on the Eastern Oklahoma State College Meat Judging team and won multiple awards. He also earned an associate’s degree in Agricultural Science. He passed his love of raising and showing livestock to his daughter Rachel, and he helped her with showing from the time she was 7 years old until she graduated high school. His love of raising and working with animals continues, but due to his disease and being on dialysis, he is limited on what he can do. Roy also loves to spend time with his family and enjoys going to rodeos, bull riding events, zoos, animal safaris, livestock shows and taking trips with his family.
Since being on dialysis, Roy is not able to do as much as he would like to do. He has three treatments a week, each treatment lasting 4 hours. The treatments drain him physically and cause his blood pressure to drop, sometimes to dangerously low levels. When his blood pressure drops, it causes very painful cramping, dizziness, and lightheadedness, and it takes him several hours to recover and feel OK again.
Being on dialysis also causes issues with being able to travel or take vacations. If he wants to travel anywhere for more than two days, he has to work to find a dialysis clinic where he can get a treatment while he is on vacation. This takes precious time away from his vacation time and time with his family and friends. Not to mention, he does not feel his best after treatments, which also impacts the quality of his vacation time.
Roy is working with the Nazih Zuhdi Transplant Institute at Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City to be placed on the kidney transplant list to get a new kidney and be able to come off dialysis. When he was placed on dialysis in July 2021, he was told he would have to conquer several hurdles before the transplant team would even talk to him. The biggest of these was losing weight. He has lost 180 pounds and is still losing! Due to his health, he is not able to exercise so this weight loss is a HUGE ACCOMPLISHMENT! He has fought hard to get to this point!
The transplant team is now moving forward to get Roy listed on the transplant list. One of the last requirements to be placed is raising money for his out-of-pocket expenses he will have when he receives his new kidney. He has to raise a minimum of $2,500.00 to be placed on the transplant list. While the required amount is $2,500.00, he knows this will not cover all of the costs he and his wife will have post-surgery, so he hopes to raise a minimum of $5,000.00. When he receives the transplant, he and his wife Janet will be required to stay in Oklahoma City for up to two weeks, possibly longer, after his surgery. The funds he is raising will go towards hotel costs, food, gasoline, and other expenses. Once he is able to come home, he will still have many follow up visits to his care team in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, so he will continue to have expenses for gasoline, not to mention out-of-pocket costs for his medications he will be on for the rest of his life.
Roy looks forward to a more active and fun life post-transplant. He wants to be able to do more with his cattle and sheep. He is also looking forward to having more energy to spend time with his kids, grandkids, family, and friends. He is excited to be able to just up and go on a road trip or vacation and not have to worry about finding somewhere to get a dialysis treatment while he is on vacation.
Please donate in Roy’s honor today and ask your friends and family to donate too! We would love to plan some fundraisers in Roy’s honor too, so if you are able to help with that, please contact his wife, Janet at [email protected] or their friend, Teresa Ellis at [email protected]. Thank you for your generous support!
