My name is Michael and my wife's name is Alyssa. We would like to ask for any help that you are willing to provide. Alyssa recently suffered a traumatic episode of PRES syndrome. In layman's terms, PRES is an episode of brain dysfunction resulting from high blood pressure in the brain. The brain shuts down from this episode and can be fatal if action is not taken quickly. Luckily, due to Alyssa's extensive medical history, we immediately went to the emergency room and she was quickly escalated to ICU at a prominent hospital in our area. Alyssa was sedated and intubated for a couple days, and after waking up, she has to regain brain function. At the time of writing this, it is unclear if she will recover all of her faculties. But the good news is that her personality and almost all of her memory have returned. She will be going to rehab and therapy. During this time, Alyssa lost her father, but only found out a few days after he was laid to rest, because she was cognitively deficient at the time.

I would like to further explain our situation. Alyssa was diagnosed with diabetes at age 6. Her disease was well managed for most of her life. However, starting at age 21, there has been steady increasing health issues over the years. At 21 she was diagnosed with glaucoma in her left eye, she can only see light and shapes from it. At age 26, she became disabled due to having orthostatic hypotension, and her inability to work has worn on her for many years, resulting in treatment for depression. At age 27, she began having kidney failure. Her mother stepped up and selflessly gave her a kidney. At age 28, Alyssa tragically lost her sister to medical complications, from attempts to treat a stroke. Her sister left behind a newborn aged 1 and a half years old. I cannot describe in words how close her family is to each other. The loss of her sister devastated her parents and her, even to this day they have not healed from that loss. At age 29, Alyssa finally had to have her native kidneys removed (leaving only the transplanted kidney in her body). At age 33, in the fall of 2022, Alyssa was informed that her transplanted kidney was in rejection. That meant she would need another transplant eventually. Then in January of 2023, the best thing to happen in her life, Alyssa and I met each other. We fell in love at first sight, and were married 9 months later.

Toward the end of 2023, Alyssa started experiencing regular stroke-like episodes. Even when we rushed to the emergency room, we were told she was not having strokes. She still suffers these episodes, to varying degrees, to this day (more on this later). Her quality of life is tremendously decreased due to ailments from unknown causes and side effects of various medications (in recent years she has had to take up to 20 pills 2 times a day, at one point). In the fall of 2024, she was hospitalized and put on dialysis from the rejection of her kidney. The doctors recommended she receive a dual kidney-pancreas transplant, and she was listed for transplant as inactive. We began the work-up to have her moved to active on the list for transplant. During that process, Alyssa's health was very erratic. She had episodes of high and low blood pressure, high and low blood sugar, and numerous visits to the emergency room, hospitalizations, and 911 calls a few times. In the spring of 2025, the work-up tests found that she had blockages in her heart and needed triple by-pass surgery, at age 35. During recovery, she had complications and needed a pacemaker put in. Additionally, the work-up tests found spots on her brain, shown on an MRI/CT scan. Initially, doctors thought that these were strokes(like mentioned earlier), but after reviewing her scan history they determined that she may have a demyelinating disease. The most common of which is multiple sclerosis. She was tested for MS, and found to be negative. Which is good, but almost all demyelinating diseases are rare, so now diagnosis will be difficult. All of these events resulted in her being delisted for transplant due to being inactive too long, and we had to make an appointment to get back on the list. Which we had to cancel because of the aforementioned hospitalization.

I need to go back in the story for a moment. At the time that Alyssa and I had met, her father's health was declining. A few months later, before our wedding, he was diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma. Thankfully, he was able to attend the wedding, but in the following months his health continued to decline. He fought hard, and a few weeks ago (from the time of writing this) he was hospitalized. The Wednesday before Alyssa's aforementioned episode, he was moved to the ICU and we were told to "make arrangements". On the day of Alyssa's hospitalization (Friday), her mother was in the ICU with her father, and I was in a different hospital ER with Alyssa. I initially thought that I had lost Alyssa (based on her symptomatology), and that she was going to be brain dead. But I didn't want to scare her mother, because I was not told anything yet by the doctors. I got a call in the afternoon from a family friend, and was told Alyssa's father had passed away. Alyssa was in a catatonic state, and could not receive the news. Her mother briefly grieved over her father's body, then immediately drove the Alyssa's side to find her in a state that recalled memories of what happened to Alyssa's sister. Alyssa's father was buried days later, without Alyssa being aware, due to her recovering mental state. Alyssa has since been told the news, but her and her mother are completely broken right now.

I have struggled to find work over the past year. Alyssa and I have accepted the fact that we are going to be a single income family, and that we will always struggle financially. I am 40 years old and Alyssa is 36 years old. We rent a crappy apartment in a relatively bad neighborhood. She is on Medicare and Medicaid and I am a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, so I have VA benefits. However, medical bills still seem to find their way to our mailbox. I did not work and made no money for roughly 2 weeks while all of this was happening. I have never been the type of person to ask for help. I believe that I should take responsibility for myself and my mistakes, even if those mistakes are financial. However, I have come to realize that we need help. We are behind and need anything that you can offer to help us catch back up. Thank you for taking the time to read our story. And even if you don't donate anything, please take the time to pray for us. God bless you.