It all started over 2 1/2-3 years ago when my wife (April) was diagnosed with the onset of stage 3 liver failure. It came as a pretty big blow since she had already been diagnosed with diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and now this. At first it wasn’t a daily critical challenge. Then as time went on it got increasingly worse. Her gastroenterologist seemed very reluctant to treat like a patient and more like cattle running through the counter to just get the appointments over with. His lack of focus and inability to seemingly care was apparent. In March of 2022 her declining health hit a tipping point. With her strength weakening, she laid down beside me and said she was gonna take a nap. Little did either of us know, that day would forever change how we approached her failing liver. She was laying by me on the couch and sleeping. At least I thought she was. She actually slipped into a coma. I heard weird sounds and looked over and she was an asphyxiating by her vomit while she was laying on her back. I was blessed to be right there to sit her up and clear her airway. Our 7 year old was freaking out and I redirected her focus to help and it helped.
We called for an ambulance and we followed. It was at that moment I made a decision to switch her doctors and it saved her life. Hemphatic encephalopathy. Her new doctors went above and beyond. She was unfortunately in a coma for 5 days and after she was stabilized, it was hard enough on her body that she had to relearn how to walk, talk, and do everyday tasks. She had 12 weeks of therapy to get her functions as close to normal as they could. This was the beginning of a very hard physical road for us.
Some of the unfortunate effects of a liver problems come and go and one is more permanent. She now will have Kidney damage. One side effect from this swelling and retaining lots of water. High fluctuations in her ammonia levels (which damages her brain every time they get too high and causes loss of mobility, speech, and motor skills), potassium, magnesium, iron fluctuations along with dehydration. Her doctors do what they can to get her back to functioning as normal as possible. Lately we ran into a problem at the end of October 2023 where the insurance dropped her and continued to cover myself and out 7 year old. Since then she has been in the hospital more than at home. Somewhere along the lines of 85/15 with 85 percent being how often she’s been in the hospital to the (roughly) 15 percent being home. We have been working with the liver specialist team getting her ready for the transplant testing to begin. We have 4 kids total, 3 are grown and our 7 year old. The 3 grown kids are ready to test and donate their Kidney for their mom. We have worked really hard to get to this point, and then the insurance happened. She was in the hospital for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas and the doctors want her to go back to a nursing home after she gets released. Here’s where the financial craziness comes in. Her medicine per month averages 4200.00 to keep her alive. The outstanding bill for the hospital is over 125,000.00. The cost for her needing to go to the hospital is about 6000.00, and very well could go up depending on the care she has to receive. (More attention since she can’t walk, therapy, special dietary needs).
There is at least a somewhat silver lining that the insurance might reinstate by the end of January 2024. But until then, I’ve sold everything that I could including selling my 2020 Ford Ranger to help with the bills. But they continue to pile up and increase. So the request for a miracle would be help with the $$145,000.00 that this has crippled us financially. She is only 54 and deserves a long life and the help to get there. I’m with her 24/7 for her every needs and being able to make up the difference isn’t possible while taking care of her. We would greatly appreciate any help that you can give. Thank you for taking the time read our life story. If you’re willing to help:
The PayPal.me link is : paypal.me/dtc2011
The cash app link is :
https://cash.app/$Dadstreasurechest