Liz Gawel's Recovery Fund

This is us. Or rather, what is happening to our dear friends Liz and Christopher Gawel could happen to any of us.  Life is uncertain and health complications can arise out of nowhere, and with them arise not just physical and mental stress and heartache, but intense financial strain as well.  We want so badly to see our lovely friend Liz get well, but we also want to help take as much daily stress out of their lives as possible.  The last thing a young family facing critical and debilitating illness should have to worry about is money.  Let’s all worry about that for them.  We ask that at this wonderful time of year of giving you consider donating to the Gawel family fund.  We have a goal to raise $50,000 on their behalf.  Your gift of $25.00 or more will go a long way in supporting the long-term medical bills, childcare, and recovery expenses they will face in the tough road ahead.  

Please read the heartfelt and heartbreaking letter below from Christopher about their situation and their specific financial needs at this time.

Sincerely,

Emery Lortsher and Colour Maisch

 

I am writing this on behalf of my wonderful wife Liz Gawel. She is suffering from a fairly rare condition called Common Variable Immune Deficiency (CVID) which means, essentially, that she has no immune system. Actually she does have a bit of an immune system, but unfortunately for her it is attacking her body. Over the last few years she has been hospitalized a number of times including one near death experience fighting the swine flu when she spent several days in an induced coma, four weeks in Intensive Care and then more in rehab. We thought the worst was over and decided to have a baby almost 3 years ago and happily gave birth to our son, Nicholas.

But over the course of the last two years, Liz’s body has stopped producing white blood cells on it’s own and has become covered in swollen, painful lesions. Her face, inside her mouth, tongue, down to the bottom of her feet are covered.  Anytime she so much as bumps one of these lesions she experiences minutes of intense pain (probably like it feels when you stub your toe really badly). The doctors have no way of preventing it or fixing it, and it just keeps getting worse. Obviously the physical pain is horrible, but what really breaks my heart is what it does to her psychologically. When I met Liz, one thing I loved about her was that she didn’t wear makeup and often cut her own hair, and I can honestly say that she is not a vain person... at least no more vain than what one might consider to be healthy...I mean she did bother to bathe and dress cute and always took care of herself. Despite her lack of vanity, having skin covered in red, swollen bumps is just too much for anyone to handle. Going out in public is really tough on her. People, I’m sure meaning no harm or ill will, stare at her, or even point and draw attention to her. In the summer she has to wear long pants and longs sleeve shirts when she goes out of the house. It’s really miserable and sad and is incredibly limiting to our daily lives. 

In addition to this, her vicious little immune system is also attacking her joints, making them swell and throb with pain. It’s gotten so bad that she often needs help opening just about anything, including her pill bottles. To function around the house she has taken to wearing gardening gloves just to try and minimize the pain. She’s actually gotten pretty good with them. I watched her make Christmas ornaments with a glue gun and yarn with those damn gloves and I was seriously impressed!

In fact I can honestly say Liz impresses me on a daily basis. If I was going through what she’s going through I think I would bitch and moan a whole lot more than she does. She has handled all of this with so much grace and strength, and has been amazingly positive, loving, and patient along the way.  I can’t tell you how much I want her to be better--how much I want the pain to go away. She’s such a good person and doesn’t deserve to live like this.

The good news is that she hopefully won’t have to for much longer.  Liz’s team of doctors recently determined that a bone marrow transplant may be the answer and Liz is now scheduled to go to Hunstman Cancer Institute for this procedure on December 17th. Her father has agreed to be her donor.  It has rarely been used to treat her condition, but it’s not unheard of. The fact of the matter is, regardless of how badly her body is deteriorating, she absolutely needs this procedure because the doctors found MDS in her bone marrow as well as other markers meaning Leukemia is an inevitability. So we have to take a chance that this will cure her now because if it doesn’t Leukemia will get her down the road, and then she probably won’t be strong enough to undergo a transplant. There is  simply no way but forward for us now.

Asking for help is so incredibly difficult and it is a struggle to reach out and have to rely on the kindness of friends, as well as the kindness and generosity of strangers. But the reality of our situation has now sunk in, and putting my ego aside, I’ve accepted that we need financial help to make it through this.

We have good insurance and Liz will be in great hands, but insurance doesn’t cover everything and you’d be surprised how quickly co-pays and prescriptions and uncovered procedures can add up. Liz will be in the hospital 4 to 6 weeks if all goes well, and then she will need 24/7 homecare for another 8 weeks. When she comes home it will essentially be a quarantine, so the house will have to be immaculate (all carpet shampoo’d or replaced even) and her food will have to be the healthiest, cleanest, safest food available, which will be another added expense.

The other main factor is our little boy, Nico. Liz has been a stay at home mother since Nico was born, and they have both been very limited regarding activities because of the germ factor for Liz. We need mom to be healthy so that our little boy can start being around other little kids more and Liz won’t have to go to the hospital every time Nico brings sickness back home from school. We really want this transplant and recovery time to have as little impact on Nico as possible. To do that, I will be taking time off from work which will result in increased financial strain.  We are lucky to have a supportive network of extended family who are uprooting their lives in Columbus, Ohio and Chicago  to come to Utah and help take care of us in the coming months. These family members will be staying in our house, but I need help paying for plane tickets and food and all the expenses and increased burdens for them that come with being away from home for an extended period of time.

The bottom line is that I love Liz and Nico so much that I would do anything to make their lives better, so please understand that I wouldn’t be asking for your help if we didn’t need it. We would so appreciate any help you can provide us at this tough time.  Thanks so much for everything and anything. 

-Christopher Gawel