Help Me Help My Mom ❤️

My name is Erin Phillips and I am starting this Go Fund Me Page in hopes to help raise money for my mom, Robin Thomas, for her medical treatments. 

My mom had not been feeling well for several weeks. She was not her normal spunky and vibrant self. My sister and I knew something was wrong. She was feeling nauseous all of the time and was having difficulting eating, and then she noticed there was blood in her urine. My sister took her to the doctor to have some tests ran to try to figure out what was going on. The lab results came back and her kidneys were only functioning at 15%. My sister immediately took her to Augusta Medical in Fishersville on Friday, September 7, 2018. She was admitted and stayed in the hospital for 5 days. She was scheduled to have a kidney biopsy, but that was pushed back because she developed a UTI and the kidney biopsy could not be performed if there was an infection in her system. They let her go home on Tuesday, September 11, 2018. She was thankful for this, but we all knew that this was temporary, just until her UTI went away. 

Friday, September 14, 2018, mom had to go to the doctor’s office for more blood tests to determine if the UTI was gone so the kidney biopsy could be scheduled. There it was determined that the UTI was gone, however her kidney function had dropped to 9%. Her kidney biopsy was scheduled for the following Monday, September 17th at Augusta Medical.

Mom’s biopsy was performed on Monday (Sept. 17) and the preliminary results would be back anywhere from 24-72 hours. On Tuesday, the kidney doctors did not want to wait for the results to come back to do treatment, so they decided to go ahead and get her started on dialysis. Since her kidneys weren’t functioning properly, her system needed to be cleaned out to rid toxins and waste from her body. They took her to surgery and placed a port in and began dialysis on that day. The next step was steroids, which she began on Wednesday. On Wednesday evening the kidney doctor came into her room with the preliminary results from the kidney biopsy. The news was not good. 

The results from mom’s biopsy indicated that she has ANCA negative necrotizing glomerulonephritis. Mom and I both looked at the doctor puzzled. We had no idea how to even pronounce that word, much less what it was. She also had a spleen infarction. That’s where part of the oxygen supply to the organ is interrupted which leads to partial or complete tissue death in the organ. We asked what the ANCA negative necrotizing glomerulonephritis was. In a nutshell what has happened is her immune system is attacking her kidneys. The diagnosis given is very very rare. In order to treat this, mom has to continue dialysis, continue the steroids, be placed on immunosuppressants to shut down her immune system to prevent it from attacking her kidneys, and also must do a plasma exchange which is also called Plasmapheresis. The plasma exchange could not be performed at Augusta, so she was transferred to UVA yesterday (Sept. 20) after her regular dialysis was performed. 

They are choosing to do the Plasma Exchange as a form of treatment to clean the blood to remove any antibodies that are causing the immune system to attack her kidneys. They will start that today(Sept. 21). 

My mom’s husband Mickey, my sister Taylor, and I have all been with her, rotating shifts so she does not have to be alone through this. She is 62 years old and just retired in January and does not have the income as she once did. My stepdad also had to switch jobs in January in which they lost their insurance. Mom has had a very trying year. She had to have her gallbladder removed in April. She was also diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy in July. She had blood work completed both of those times, and there was no abnormalities shown in her kidney function either of those times. Her kidney function decline came on rapidly and declined rapidly. The doctor’s are still working to find out what is causing her immune system to attack her kidneys. 

The procedures are very very expensive, but she has to have this done if she wants to get better. Anyone who knows me knows that I will do anything I can for anyone, especially my family. Everyone also knows I love my momma so much and I cannot imagine a world without her in it. It breaks my heart to see her suffer, to lay in a hospital bed without being able to do anything to help her. I’m trying my best to hold myself together for her. I never ask anyone for anything, but I really need help in helping my momma. After all she is going through, she shouldn’t have to worry about the cost of treatment or how she is going to pay for it.

So I’m asking everyone to please donate, any little bit helps. If you can’t donate, then please share the post, spread the word. I as well as my mom will appreciate it more than you will ever know. I will be posting updates as much as I can to keep everyone informed of how she is doing.