***To make a donation and help Izabelle please click on the link:
How much would you pay for one breath? Could you put a dollar amount on the importance of that one sip of air? What if every breath you took was filled with pain? What would you pay for one, pain-free breath? A breath that didn’t make you cough; your lungs burning, your head spinning as you struggle for enough air. How much would that breath be worth to you then? For those people that live with Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (we’ll call it IPAH for short), this is a question Izzy asks herself every single day. In 2017, Izzy started experiencing strange symptoms; chest pain, heart palpitations and shortness of breath. She was only 24 years old. These problems started impacting every facet of her life. The shortness of breath would come on suddenly; often triggered by laughing, or talking. Izzy would have coughing fits that would leave her close to blacking out. The coughing became so bad that she would later learn that her vocal cords had become paralyzed because of the trauma. Eventually, she was so drained from the lack of oxygen, that she had to use a wheelchair. Even simple physical activity exhausted her. More tests would reveal that the left side of Izzy’s heart had swollen to twice the normal size. Her stay at the General Hospital was soon upgraded to a transfer to the Heart Institute and up to the Coronary Care Unit Floor. More tests, more medication, and a heart catheter that was incorrectly inserted, would all lead to Izzy’s resting heart rate spiking from 180 beats per minute (almost twice the average resting rate) to over 235 beats per minute for hours at a time. Her heart was trying desperately to pump blood to her lungs….and it was failing. Izzy’s lungs were dying. There was only one other option--a double lung transplant. So back to the original question, How much would you pay for one pain-free breath? Izzy and her family live in Ottawa, Ontario Canada. The surgery will take place in Toronto, Ontario Canada, about 300 miles away. Due to the nature of the surgery, the family must be ready to go at a moment’s notice. This means that they must leave Ottawa for a period of up to 2 years (the approximate wait list time for a double lung transplant) and move to Toronto; one of the most expensive cities in Canada and even more expensive in this crazy economy. In her current condition, Izzy is unable to work. In a major metropolitan city like Toronto, this is not enough to get by. Your generous contribution will help with some of the following: Rent Utilities Food Transportation Cost as well as their current bills. The simple fact is, this is a life-saving surgery. It’s not optional. It’s not nice to have. It’s life-saving. So if you can spare a few dollars to help this young woman in her time of need, it would be deeply appreciated. Thank you for all of your help ♥PLEASE SHARE AND DONATE <3
