Welcome to the About Jef page.

Please mail any donations to:
Jef Bond Kidney Foundation.
1015 E. Brainerd St
Pensacola, FL 32503

Or donate through Paypal and Credit Cards below:

This is My Story:

First of all, a little bit about me.

My name is Jef Bond. I was born in West Palm Beach. When I was approximately 4, my beautiful mother and I moved to paradise A.K.A. Pensacola, FL. Palm Beach is sweet too, but Im thankful for the life I have here in Pensacola. I’ve been here for 31 years. I have friends here that are family to me. As I was growing up here I was shy for the most part, but I did have lots of friends. I was your typical kid. I hated going to school, I loved getting into all sorts of trouble (I never got caught) By the time I made it to high school, I really broke out of my shell. My best friends were Hag, Spud, Shane Murphy, and Jesse Draughon. We made it a duty to get into as much trouble as possible, without getting caught. Mostly just typical teenage trouble. I didn’t drink when I
was a kid(I don’t drink now), so I was always the one driving my friends home from partying, I’m still the designated driver.
Senior skip day was the start of something beautiful. Spud & Jef’s canoe camping. One day of canoeing wasn’t enough, we wanted two days. Spud, a few of our very close friends, and I started Spud & Jef’s canoe camping back in 1991. Spud & Jef’s is how most of Pensacola know me, now. This year will be our 18th annual trip, April 18th & 19th, with or without me. If I get the call for a transplant that weekend, I’m out of here!
I’m also well known in the area for Bond Photographics and Pageant Pros of America, my two photography businesses. I’ve been shooting in Pensacola for about 14 years and about 4 years with PPA all across the country.

My Beliefs:
I believe in Jesus Christ and how he lived. I believe in accepting everyone and finding the good everyone. I believe in Karma. I believe we should all look out for each other with no expectations.

My illness:

Well it all started when I was born. I was born without valves to my ureters, but it was not discovered until I was about 5 years old. By the time the doctors found out what was happening with my body, I had severe kidney damage. 90% of one damaged and 10% of the other damaged. Ureters are the tubes that run from your kidneys to your bladder. The valves to the ureters keep urine from backing up into the kidneys. At first the docs just thought I had a cold, then when they figured the cold was not going away, they did little more research. So when I was 5 years old I had valve replacement surgery. The surgeon sliced into my bladder and put in two new valves. Approximately two years later there was scar tissue and the surgeon went in for surgery number two to fix that. We were told that I would not have any more problems. Not exactly. This is very important advice Im about to give you. When you are no longer on your parents medical
insurance get your own, b/c you never know what's going on with your body unless you are getting 6 month checks. After I became an adult I was no longer on my mother's medical insurance, so I stopped going in for my routine tests (every 6 months). I didn't think I needed to go in for any check ups b/c I didn't have any problems since I was 7 years old and I felt fine. My doctors also told me that I would be fine the rest of my life. When I was 19, I was having a hard time eating and gaining weight. So I went to the doc to see what was wrong and I was diagnosed with Klinefelter's Syndrome (testosterone deficiency). I was prescribed some lifetime meds for that. Well I still didn't have insurance at the age of 19 b/c I felt fine. As the years passed everything was fine until I was about 26. I started feeling out of shape. When I broke a sweat my skin would itch (high phosphorous in my blood). At the time I didn't know what it was.
I just thought I was out of shape. That was a sign of kidney failure. I wasn't suppose to have anymore kidney problems, according to my docs.

I was working as a photographer and a photo lab tech in Pensacola, FL at the time. When I turned 27 I moved to Jacksonville, NC to get a better paying job. I was working for the USMC doing body work on ground equipment. I hated that place. The job wasn't so bad, but the people were depressing and had no ambition. I was their number one employee for saving them money and being efficient. I got written up often for being efficient. My boss was scared that I was going to take his job so he wrote me up for disobeying direct orders all the time. I didn't want his job, I just wanted to pay my bills and save enough money to go back home and start my photography business. Well my dream came true in a not so nice way. One day while I was working, I noticed I couldn't pee. I had the urge but nothing was coming out. I had no idea what was happening. Then a day or two later, I passed out at work. My company sent me to the doc for a
physical to find out what the scoop was with me. My doctor told me I had kidney failure. I had surgery performed on me to possibly reverse the kidney failure but that was a no go. So the next thing I know the doc is telling me that I will die in a few days if I don't start doing dialysis. I felt like I won the lottery! I hated that place so much I was thankful for my kidney failure at the time. The doc said to me, "that's not the response, I expected". All I knew is that I had a chance to live and I didn't have to stay in "hell sweet hell" to do it. So I immediately packed up my car, left my lousy girlfriend, all my furniture, and drove from NC to Pensacola. As soon as arrived my best friend Jesse went with me to check out all the options of dialysis and the necessary procedures to get me started. I don't ever remember being scared. I actually felt very safe and thankful that I could go on living with this thing called
dialysis. Jesse and Tina were me savors at the time. I decided to go with hemodialysis. So I had a surgery where two catheters were put into two veins in my chest. Those tubes were just temporary until the AV Fistula in my wrist was ready. Go to pictures to see the process. The first time I went, Tina came with me. This is where it starts getting scary. When they plugged me into the machine everything was fine until the last hour of the treatment. My entire body started to cramp. Do you know what a "Charlie horse" is? If you do, you are familiar with the extreme pain of one. Now just imagine your thighs, back, toes, feet, calves, and fingers cramping at the same time. I was terrified. I was begging Tina not to leave me and I was begging the dialysis tech not to let me die. By far the scariest moment of my life. Tina, thanks for being there for me. Life is good and I kind of want to stick around for
awhile. Well my first few treatments were bad, but then I started to learn what I could and couldn't eat between treatments and I learned to control my fluid intake between treatments. If I did not take control of my fluid intake between treatments I would suffer. If I didn't eat the proper foods between treatments I would suffer. I was a good patient for the 11 months of Dialysis I had to do. While I was on dialysis I had an excellent support group of friends who watched over me. Jesse Draughon and Mike Haifley two of my closest friends let me stay with them each while I was going thru this. There were many times that Jesse saved my life. He watched me and made sure I was taken care of no matter what. He spent many ER and hospital visits with me too. Kidney failure is the pits, but going thru something like this will make you strong and you will find out who loves you. The biggest lessons of my life came from this experience.
Anyway, while I was on dialysis, my future ex-girlfriend, told me she was going to give me her kidney. At first I told her no, b/c I didn't understand kidney transplants and how common and safe they are to do. Eventually she talked me into it. We did all the testing and yes she was a match. Soon after we discovered she was a match, I developed a stomach ulcer and lost three pints of blood. I had to have three blood transfusions to live. That postponed our transplant plans. We had to wait to see if the antigens in my blood would change or not, before we could proceed. After 3 or 4 months, we retested and everything was a go! I received Hag's kidney Dec. 19, 2001. As soon as woke up from the surgery I was demanding to see Hag. I wanted to know that she made it through ok. She stayed in the hospital for about three days after the surgery and I stayed for about five days. Jesse and
Tina came by for a little visit, my entire family, Jeff Dean, and Scott & Sacha all came down to Gainesville while I recovered. I stayed with my family in Gainesville for three months after the transplant and drove myself to the hospital for check-ups every morning. My Granny stayed with me the entire three months, I was in Gainesville, making sure I was eating well and taking good care of myself. We became very close and I’m so thankful for that time we had together. Having kidney failure the first time around was worth all the love I discovered through my friends and family. I don’t think I would have had that time with her if I didn’t get sick. My relationships with several people became stronger. I am thankful for my life and I look forward to every single moment of my life.

Well life was starting to get back to normal again, not really, but better than dialysis. I continued my checkups every week and visit Gainesville once a month for the first few years and then it drops to about once a month for blood work and every six months to Gainesville for full checkups. That continued for about 7.5 years. Then this past summer while I was traveling (doing my photo shoots-what I do for a living) across the country something happened. I became ill again. I didn't know it was my transplanted kidney failing, but it was. The symptoms were not the same and I was peeing fine. I felt very ill, but I thought it was just a bug. I started feeling ill when I was in Northern California. We had a week long drive to Massachusetts. On the road between California and Massachusetts, I began to feel worse, but not even thinking it was my kidney failing. When we arrived in MA that’s when I started feeling really lousy-lots of vomiting. I was so
committed to getting my next
job done that I pushed off going to the Doctor until after the weekend job was finished. I really wish I would have just blown off that job. You have to understand something though. We have major contracts with our clients and if I fail to meet my client’s terms they could sue me for about $10k. I forgot that I was special and that I have special needs that need to be addressed no matter what. Looking back I could have just let my crew take care of business for me. My next shoot was scheduled the following weekend in Wenatchee, WA. I cancelled that shoot and decided to drive to PA and stay with my very good, god sent friends.
My entire photography crew & I shacked up at Roy & Angie’s house for the next few weeks until our next shoot. At least that was the plan. By day number three at Roy’s, Roy insisted that I go to the ER. Good call! I was delirious. I could barely hold my head up on the way to the ER and I was speaking in slurs. Just thinking about it while I write this makes me tear up. When we arrived at the ER it didn’t take them long to get me in. That’s when my world came shattering down. By the time I found out I had kidney failure again it was too late. First off your kidneys help keep us alive. The ER doc said I should have been dead. My blood count (hemoglobin) was 3.5 when I arrived. I had to have 4 blood transfusions. It took 6 months for my blood count to get back to normal. My creatine level was 22. Creatine is kidney function. The higher the creatine number the worse your kidney function is. If your creatine level is at 1.5 your kidneys may
be failing. Mine was at 22. When I saw the results for the first time, I cried, I balled, I sobbed as much as I did when my Granny passed away. The sobbing continued for three days off and on. I try not to think about it too much. My best friend gave me her kidney. I thought it was going to last forever. The thought of losing her kidney is devastating to me.
For me, honestly I felt like someone died.
When I received Hag’s kidney I felt better than I have felt in years. For seven straight years I watched myself like a hawk. I went to the docs for all my check-ups, I had my blood checked every month, and if I felt just a little bit ill, I would check myself into Baptist Hospital right away. Well the last few months before I lost Hag’s kidney, I was traveling and I didn’t go in for my monthly blood tests. That past sentence just sounds so easy to do.
Our gigs where 16 hours of work daily. We would get in and start setting up immediately, shoot the entire weekend with only 15 minute breaks, finish the gig, and pack up and head to the next gig. Not much down time at all and many many hours on the road. It was seriously a lot of work with very little down time. Seven years with her kidney and no problems and no changes. I’m special, I’m not normal. I forgot that fact. Even when Im traveling I needed to make it a point to get my blood checked, b/c you never know what could happen. Even if everything has been perfectly fine for 7 years, there is no good reason not to keep checking. When I receive my second transplant (I’m on the list), I will get myself checked out every month no matter how wonderful I think I am and while I’m on the road. If you ever suffer from kidney failure, don’t forget how special
you are. If you get a transplant, just remember that the kidney given to you is a gift. You don’t own it and you must take every precaution to make sure it lasts forever. I know you are thinking “of course, why would I think any differently?” It happens, you only feel special for the first few years, and then you start to feel like the average Joe and then you forget that nothing changes and you must follow your routine. I don’t know if that would have changed the out come, but at least I would not have gotten so sick, that I was within hours of dying.
.
While I was on the road I had to cancel a $10k shoot and I had to let my crew shoot on their own for another event. They failed miserably, what should have been a money maker was a money loser. I lost all the money I made for the summer trying to get myself well and back home. Things haven’t turned around for me at all. I’m sick three days a week, every week. Dialysis is rough. On D days I get plugged in through a fat vein in my wrist. My blood is routed to the dialysis machine, cleaned, drained of all fluid, and then routed back into my body. The reason it makes me feel so ill, is that the artificial kidney takes all the fluid off my body (dehydrates me) and filters out the toxins I don’t need, along with the nutrients I do need. When I get off the machine, I feel ok for about an hour, then I go into a minor crash, and lately I’ve been getting horrible migraines that last 10 hours after each treatment. I can’t work at all on D day. I feel so
lousy. I just lie in bed for the rest of the day. Non-D day, I feel fine. I’m fine enough to work. But since I’ve been sick the income just isn’t there. Even though I am going through this, I refuse to let it keep me down. I make the very best of my good days and I rest on my bad days.
I created the Jef Bond Kidney Foundation to help others and myself going through kidney failure, to teach children and adults the necessary precautions to prevent kidney failure, the symptoms, and to teach organ recipients the importance of routine maintenance.

I am being screened for transplant with UAB (Birmingham, AL) and UM (Jackson, MS). I have a couple of potential live kidney donors. The only way I will know for sure if one of them is a match, is by screening each potential donor.
Please Donate. You will receive a “Believe in Your Life” wristband and a thank you letter for your contribution.
If you want to chat with me personally feel free to email me at jefbond@gmail.com or call me at 850-501-1296.



Thank You for visiting

I will add more info about my treatments and my experiences while I go through this. I will also keep you posted on informative info on ways you can help others.

Please help me, go to www.jefbondkidneyfoundation.org and make a donation.

Thank you for your support.