Hello,

My name is Teresa Schuy, and I'm doing a fundraiser for Andrew Schuy, my wonderful husband.

The reason for this fundraising is to pay for expensive medical bills, and yes, we have health insurance, but the insurance does not cover all the expenses.

My husband was diagnosed with Vascular Ehlers Danlos Syndrome 9 years ago. This diagnosis started after a trip to the ER; the doctor diagnosed him with a torn mesenteric artery (large artery from your belly button to your lower organs). He had internal bleeding.

Over the past nine years, he’s had other bleeds, but none of them were severe. One of the bleeds happened after a severe cramp in his thigh. After that, he has had ongoing bleeds from his colon and large intestine. We spoke with surgeons who said no, they couldn’t do surgery because they couldn’t guarantee he would survive or even if he would have enough tissue to repair the torn areas.

Vascular Ehlers Danlos Syndrome is a very rare disease and no one is studying its effects on the body. Here in Colorado, there were 5 people with this type of Vascular Ehlers Danlos. There are approximately 14 types of Ehlers Danlos and the most common is double jointed or hypermobility joints.

A year after we bought our first home Andrew was at work and sneezed so hard, he tore his spleen in half. (If you’re a hockey fan it was the same day that Peter Forsberg tore his spleen, May 10th 2001.) This was the first major bleed Andrew suffered. He bled so much that they gave him 2 units of blood. (Side note he’s got B positive blood and each transfusion of blood he has received has been O Positive blood). No surgery because they were not sure he would survive.

All the bleeding episodes has caused him to become very anemic. Most red blood counts (RBC) for men are between 13 and 18. Andrew has been at 7.6 for the last two years. He takes Iron vitamins, and he has had the Iron shot. Sadly, these efforts have not worked well.

Within the last 3 weeks his RBC has dropped to 7.1 which has caused severe exhaustion. He has received one unit of blood and one unit of Iron infusion. This is where we are encountering the large medical bills. He has two more appointments for Iron infusion and each cost $1,300, and we have $5,500 deductible. We don’t know how much the blood transfusion is yet. If these treatments work, he will need to continue these treatments for the rest of his life.

He's been a real hard-working guy all his life, asking for help is not in him. If you can help by donating to our fundraiser, we would appreciate it. If you cannot afford to donate, please take the time to share this post on your social media.

Thank you for your support!