Help Betsy Monroe Over The Finish Line
Donation protected
UPDATED 2/2015 - For the past 10 years, my beloved wife, Betsy, has been courageously battling a ferocious and debilatating jaw disorder that has required multi-phase surgeries and procedures. Phase One and Two are complete and it's time to complete the Final Phase!
Would you be willing to help us raise the $30,000 we need to complete the Final Phase and get Betsy Over The Finish Line? Phase One and Two cost us well over $200,000 so, we truly can not complete Phase Three without your help!
This final phase needs to happen as soon as possible to support the repair to the joints and enable her to eat normally again. She has been unable to chew normally for 7 years and has been without teeth and unable to chew at all for the past 3 years. The funding of Phase Three would put an end to that for good.
The Good News is that since we put up this page in March 2013, thanks to you, we have raised just over $15,000 to date, half-way to our goal! It has truly been an incredible thing to witness such an outpouring of generosity and humanity from so many! Thank you will never be enough.
So, anything will be of great help, including forwarding this update to anyone you think may be willing to help or even in a position to take a second look since we are now entering another year of fundraising. With sufficient funds, Betsy could be chewing normally by early 2015!
Thank you for taking time to read and consider this and your prayers are truly invaluable to us as well.
Blessings, Rick and Betsy Monroe
*Note - If you'd like to know a bit more detail about Betsy's story, here's an additional synopsis of her fight:
After seven years of efforts to save her degenerating jaw joints, including numerous procedures, adjustments, treatments, medications and countless doctors, it was determined that only her left jaw joint could be saved and her right jaw joint would need complete replacement. The disk between the bones had long worn away and the condyle bones making up the joint had undergone significant remodeling, along with nerve damage. Due to all the destruction, her jaw would also frequently become dislocated. She was in constant, deabilitatingly, gruesome pain 24/7.
After looking at all our options and searching for a surgeon whose methods and experience we could trust, we decided to forgo a mechanical joint replacement and try a method using her own tissue and bone from other parts of her body to rebuild the joint. With God leading the way, we found 1 of a small handful of surgeons in the US able to successfully complete this type of surgery with any real measure of success and traveled to Portland, OR in 2012 for surgery.
Betsy underwent a 7 hour surgery to fully reconstruct her right jaw joint, including tissue and bone grafts. Sadly, the doctor also deemed it necessary to remove ALL of her teeth in order to give her the best chance of stabilizing the jaw repair. In short, it was our best hope of achieving a more natural functioning joint. The recovery from that surgery took 1 full year.
After recovering from her first surgery, she had a planned, follow-up surgery in 2013, though it was not nearly as major of a surgery as the first. Then, throughout 2014, she had numerous procedures and appointments with specialists in an effort to finish the supportive features of the jaw repair and complete steps necessary to fully reconstruct her teeth via full-mouth implants.
As of now, all the necessary hardware to accept the new teeth is in place and her gums are healed. The jaw repair is fully healed and as stable as it can be without the added support and proper spacing her completed teeth will provide. All that's left is for her to be fitted with the permanent molds for what she calls her "forever teeth" and those molds are ready and waiting for her at her doctor's office.
Once final funds are raised, within 2-3 appointments, her permanent teeth will be placed and final bite and joint position adjustments will be made. In fact, now, the sole purpose for this fundraising campaign is to raise these final funds so this can be completed. This is fully possible by early 2015. That would mark the end of her 10 year journey and finally restore her ability to chew normally and provide the final support for her jaw repair.
All in all, she has not been able to chew normally for 7 years and has lived without any teeth nor the ability to chew whatsoever for the past 3 years. Also, since the success of the jaw reconstruction, she is very grateful that her pain has been greatly reduced, but she will not be completely pain-free until her teeth are in place to provide the proper anatomy, ie. space and support, for her joints.
This long process has affected her life in every way imaginable, but she is thankful the end is near and hopeful for whatever the next chapter in her life will be. God is faithful and there is a light at the end of this struggle.
We SO appreciate all the family, friends, colleagues and even some we do not know personally who have prayed for us, supported us and given generously to our fundraising efforts. The total cost has been hundreds of thousands of dollars but we know the end is near and attainable by the grace of God.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and take it into consideration. Though we'd never wish any kind of struggle upon anyone, it is with the utmost sincerity that both Betsy and I would like to close by saying,
"If any one of you ever find yourself in need, we hope we would be one of the first you would reach out to for help. It would be more than our privilege to give back anything we could to make someone else feel as supported and cared for as we have throughout this trying period of our lives. God Bless you all!"
Would you be willing to help us raise the $30,000 we need to complete the Final Phase and get Betsy Over The Finish Line? Phase One and Two cost us well over $200,000 so, we truly can not complete Phase Three without your help!
This final phase needs to happen as soon as possible to support the repair to the joints and enable her to eat normally again. She has been unable to chew normally for 7 years and has been without teeth and unable to chew at all for the past 3 years. The funding of Phase Three would put an end to that for good.
The Good News is that since we put up this page in March 2013, thanks to you, we have raised just over $15,000 to date, half-way to our goal! It has truly been an incredible thing to witness such an outpouring of generosity and humanity from so many! Thank you will never be enough.
So, anything will be of great help, including forwarding this update to anyone you think may be willing to help or even in a position to take a second look since we are now entering another year of fundraising. With sufficient funds, Betsy could be chewing normally by early 2015!
Thank you for taking time to read and consider this and your prayers are truly invaluable to us as well.
Blessings, Rick and Betsy Monroe
*Note - If you'd like to know a bit more detail about Betsy's story, here's an additional synopsis of her fight:
After seven years of efforts to save her degenerating jaw joints, including numerous procedures, adjustments, treatments, medications and countless doctors, it was determined that only her left jaw joint could be saved and her right jaw joint would need complete replacement. The disk between the bones had long worn away and the condyle bones making up the joint had undergone significant remodeling, along with nerve damage. Due to all the destruction, her jaw would also frequently become dislocated. She was in constant, deabilitatingly, gruesome pain 24/7.
After looking at all our options and searching for a surgeon whose methods and experience we could trust, we decided to forgo a mechanical joint replacement and try a method using her own tissue and bone from other parts of her body to rebuild the joint. With God leading the way, we found 1 of a small handful of surgeons in the US able to successfully complete this type of surgery with any real measure of success and traveled to Portland, OR in 2012 for surgery.
Betsy underwent a 7 hour surgery to fully reconstruct her right jaw joint, including tissue and bone grafts. Sadly, the doctor also deemed it necessary to remove ALL of her teeth in order to give her the best chance of stabilizing the jaw repair. In short, it was our best hope of achieving a more natural functioning joint. The recovery from that surgery took 1 full year.
After recovering from her first surgery, she had a planned, follow-up surgery in 2013, though it was not nearly as major of a surgery as the first. Then, throughout 2014, she had numerous procedures and appointments with specialists in an effort to finish the supportive features of the jaw repair and complete steps necessary to fully reconstruct her teeth via full-mouth implants.
As of now, all the necessary hardware to accept the new teeth is in place and her gums are healed. The jaw repair is fully healed and as stable as it can be without the added support and proper spacing her completed teeth will provide. All that's left is for her to be fitted with the permanent molds for what she calls her "forever teeth" and those molds are ready and waiting for her at her doctor's office.
Once final funds are raised, within 2-3 appointments, her permanent teeth will be placed and final bite and joint position adjustments will be made. In fact, now, the sole purpose for this fundraising campaign is to raise these final funds so this can be completed. This is fully possible by early 2015. That would mark the end of her 10 year journey and finally restore her ability to chew normally and provide the final support for her jaw repair.
All in all, she has not been able to chew normally for 7 years and has lived without any teeth nor the ability to chew whatsoever for the past 3 years. Also, since the success of the jaw reconstruction, she is very grateful that her pain has been greatly reduced, but she will not be completely pain-free until her teeth are in place to provide the proper anatomy, ie. space and support, for her joints.
This long process has affected her life in every way imaginable, but she is thankful the end is near and hopeful for whatever the next chapter in her life will be. God is faithful and there is a light at the end of this struggle.
We SO appreciate all the family, friends, colleagues and even some we do not know personally who have prayed for us, supported us and given generously to our fundraising efforts. The total cost has been hundreds of thousands of dollars but we know the end is near and attainable by the grace of God.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and take it into consideration. Though we'd never wish any kind of struggle upon anyone, it is with the utmost sincerity that both Betsy and I would like to close by saying,
"If any one of you ever find yourself in need, we hope we would be one of the first you would reach out to for help. It would be more than our privilege to give back anything we could to make someone else feel as supported and cared for as we have throughout this trying period of our lives. God Bless you all!"
Organizer
Rick Monroe
Organizer
Bothell, WA