Help Jason Caudell get well!
Donation protected
Jason has been battling an un-diagnosed illness since March of 2011. At this point he has endured 17 surgeries and just passed a total of 53 weeks of being hospitalized since March 2011. Most of the hospitalizations have been at UCLA which is 3 hours away from the Tulare County area we live in.
A little background; Jason and I (Heather) have been married for almost 14 years and together we have adopted 5 wonderful kids. Ashton, the oldest is 14, Kai is 13 (and he seriously thinks he is at least 25!), Danavea is 12, Brayden is 10 and little miss Rhylie is 8. They alone keep us very busy. Jason also is the Pastor of Sierra Cowboy Church which he is building from the ground up.
In March of 2011 Jason has a mole removed from his bicep of his left arm. Path labs came back as Melanoma and the margins were clear. Yay! So we thought. A couple days after the removal the site became severely infected and he had to be hospitalized for 30 days. These first 30 days were crazy. He endured several surgeries, multiple blood transfusions, blood clots, had a filter installed into his vena cava to help block any clots from going into his heart, lungs or brain. He was released and ended up right back in a few weeks later with more complications. We decided that our local hospital was not equipped to handle the complexities of his condition so we transferred to UCLA.
At this point over 2 years later they do have him diagnosed with IgG subclass 2 deficiency. Which means he has a compromised immune system which at this point is requiring monthly IViG transfusions. But these transfusions are not helping his arm. It will not heal and none of the doctors we have gone to can figure out why. They have tried different surgical and medical interventions with no success. Every surgery the arm will heal to a point then start to regress and form debilitating infections that continue to eat away the tissue and muscle in his arm now spreading into his back. These infections have gone into his blood stream multiple times, once sending him into septic shock. That was scary! It has also traveled into different areas in his body like his heart. He is on constant IV antibiotics which we have been able to do at home through a PICC line or his recently installed Port in his chest which allows to at least be home a couple weeks at a time before ending back up in the hospital.
All of this has financially devastated us. We had to sell his beloved Yukon and we are working on selling off other stuff as well to fund his treatment and to be able to keep a house of 7 fed and housed. We are no where close to the end of this battle and we are getting to a point that we don't know how we will continue to get him to UCLA to be treated or elsewhere to continue looking for a diagnosis. We are only paying the medical bills that we have to pay in order to continue receiving treatment like his IV meds. You can't imagine how expensive those little pouches of medicine are! The rest of the bills that are piling out the door will be dealt when he is healthy because they don't accept cupcakes as payment! Their loss! ;-)
People who know me know me as Wonder Woman for being able to keep everything together and running for as long as I have. And those who know me personally know I DO NOT ask for help! I have this terrible flaw that forces me to do anything and everything myself which actually is the force behind me being able to keep the house running by myself with Jason being in the hospital 3 hours away so much. So if Wonder Woman is asking for help then it you know we really need your help.....we are at a point where we are running out of options.
And a lot of you have asked how they can help and how they can donate and this site is how!
Every penny helps! A dollar can help towards parking down at UCLA, gas to get down there or a pair shoes for these 5 kids who will not stop growing! I've tried... The youngest boy missed a snack and almost died.. Thankfully he miraculously recovered after overhearing that I might have cookies in the house... ;-)
More importantly, Jason and I cannot express how grateful and blessed we are for all those that have stepped up over the last 2 years and have helped out with cooking dinner, watching the kids so I can be with Jason during the really bad times, helping take the kids back and forth to school, housing me and the kids when we do get to go visit him while at UCLA along with many other blessings that have been bestowed upon our family throughout this. I am constantly amazed by the generosity of people even in the hard times I know they are personally facing or by even complete strangers!! We serve a big God and it is by his grace that we have made it this far. And for the blessed people that have been a part of our journey and our lives.
=)
A little background; Jason and I (Heather) have been married for almost 14 years and together we have adopted 5 wonderful kids. Ashton, the oldest is 14, Kai is 13 (and he seriously thinks he is at least 25!), Danavea is 12, Brayden is 10 and little miss Rhylie is 8. They alone keep us very busy. Jason also is the Pastor of Sierra Cowboy Church which he is building from the ground up.
In March of 2011 Jason has a mole removed from his bicep of his left arm. Path labs came back as Melanoma and the margins were clear. Yay! So we thought. A couple days after the removal the site became severely infected and he had to be hospitalized for 30 days. These first 30 days were crazy. He endured several surgeries, multiple blood transfusions, blood clots, had a filter installed into his vena cava to help block any clots from going into his heart, lungs or brain. He was released and ended up right back in a few weeks later with more complications. We decided that our local hospital was not equipped to handle the complexities of his condition so we transferred to UCLA.
At this point over 2 years later they do have him diagnosed with IgG subclass 2 deficiency. Which means he has a compromised immune system which at this point is requiring monthly IViG transfusions. But these transfusions are not helping his arm. It will not heal and none of the doctors we have gone to can figure out why. They have tried different surgical and medical interventions with no success. Every surgery the arm will heal to a point then start to regress and form debilitating infections that continue to eat away the tissue and muscle in his arm now spreading into his back. These infections have gone into his blood stream multiple times, once sending him into septic shock. That was scary! It has also traveled into different areas in his body like his heart. He is on constant IV antibiotics which we have been able to do at home through a PICC line or his recently installed Port in his chest which allows to at least be home a couple weeks at a time before ending back up in the hospital.
All of this has financially devastated us. We had to sell his beloved Yukon and we are working on selling off other stuff as well to fund his treatment and to be able to keep a house of 7 fed and housed. We are no where close to the end of this battle and we are getting to a point that we don't know how we will continue to get him to UCLA to be treated or elsewhere to continue looking for a diagnosis. We are only paying the medical bills that we have to pay in order to continue receiving treatment like his IV meds. You can't imagine how expensive those little pouches of medicine are! The rest of the bills that are piling out the door will be dealt when he is healthy because they don't accept cupcakes as payment! Their loss! ;-)
People who know me know me as Wonder Woman for being able to keep everything together and running for as long as I have. And those who know me personally know I DO NOT ask for help! I have this terrible flaw that forces me to do anything and everything myself which actually is the force behind me being able to keep the house running by myself with Jason being in the hospital 3 hours away so much. So if Wonder Woman is asking for help then it you know we really need your help.....we are at a point where we are running out of options.
And a lot of you have asked how they can help and how they can donate and this site is how!
Every penny helps! A dollar can help towards parking down at UCLA, gas to get down there or a pair shoes for these 5 kids who will not stop growing! I've tried... The youngest boy missed a snack and almost died.. Thankfully he miraculously recovered after overhearing that I might have cookies in the house... ;-)
More importantly, Jason and I cannot express how grateful and blessed we are for all those that have stepped up over the last 2 years and have helped out with cooking dinner, watching the kids so I can be with Jason during the really bad times, helping take the kids back and forth to school, housing me and the kids when we do get to go visit him while at UCLA along with many other blessings that have been bestowed upon our family throughout this. I am constantly amazed by the generosity of people even in the hard times I know they are personally facing or by even complete strangers!! We serve a big God and it is by his grace that we have made it this far. And for the blessed people that have been a part of our journey and our lives.
=)
Organizer
PastorJason S. Caudell
Organizer
Visalia, CA
