#muffstrong

Please Help Crohn’s Patient Joshua Easterling Joshua, affectionately known as “Muffin” suffers from a severe form of Crohn’s Disease. Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) characterized by inflammation of the digestive or gastrointestinal (GI) tract. In fact, Crohn’s can affect any part of the GI tract, from the mouth to the anus, but is more commonly found at the end of the small intestine where it joins the large intestine. It can also affect: eyes, skin and joints. Joshua was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease in 2012 after more than 6 months of testing and rapid unexplained weight loss. In late 2012 Joshua has gone from 176 to 105 pounds and was hospitalized for more than 9 weeks from complications from the disease. During that time he nearly died several times and had 4 surgeries. He has since had several more surgeries and suffers daily from chronic pain and diarrhea caused by the disease as well as having frequent infections due to his Crohn’s. Despite all of this Joshua has managed to finish his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern Maine and is currently working toward his C.P.A. He hopes to one day run his own accounting and bookkeeping business. Due to Joshua’s illness and the often embarrassing nature of the disease Joshua is currently unable to work. He receives a small disability payment each month that barely covers his rent and basic expenses, often needing assistance to buy food. Though Joshua has a very supportive family that helps him with his expenses when they can, it is often difficult to keep up with his bills and he is currently behind on many of them. We are asking for contributions to help Joshua with his basic expenses. Currently his rent is behind due to his disability payment not being enough to cover rent, a phone, food and gas. We would like to help Josh get ahead so he can concentrate on healing. Currently Joshua is hospitalized due to complications from his illness and has just had another surgery. No one is sure how long he will be hospitalized for. In addition, his medical coverage does not include prescriptions and his prescriptions can be very costly, sometimes several hundred dollars per month after a hospitalization. No donation is too small and all are greatly appreciated by Joshua and his family who love him dearly and hope this will help relieve some of his stress and help him to heal when he returns home.