Help Christa & Clyde Fight VEDS

Friends & Family ~ My 17-year-old nephew, Clyde, is currently fighting for his life due to a horrible, rare genetic condition and disease called Vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (VEDS), which has no cure. It’s a connective tissue disorder that happens on the DNA level during conception and carries on through birth. While many people are plagued with Eheler-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), the Vascular element is considered the rarest and most severe form of EDS.

Thanks to VEDS, my nephew has endured multiple surgeries for his lungs, colon, intestines, and now spleen and a kidney, all within the last 6 months. It also requires my sister, his primary caregiver, to dedicate 100% of her time and resources toward managing his condition.

Christa and her partner, John, are currently shouldering a high amount of out-of-pocket expenses. At the same time, Clyde is being treated at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, CA, which is 2.5 hours away from their home at Lake Tahoe. Christa must take time off from earning income as an independent business owner of Mt. High Weddings to care for her son. Christa and John are hardworking folk who can’t do this alone.

They say it takes a village, and many supportive folks are offering and asking how to help. So, I’m requesting donations to help with their living expenses, medical costs, and the exuberant amount of out-of-town expenses required to help Christa and John support Clyde. The Tahoe Basin simply does not have the expertise or the resources to help Clyde with this rare and insidious disorder.

Christa and John are proud, integral people who will use all the funds to focus on giving Clyde the best care possible. Any amount of generosity is cherished and appreciated as a blessing from the greater good of the community in this polarized world. Together, we can ease the pain and suffering associated with VEDS.

More about VEDS: It causes a breakdown of healthy collagen, the most abundant protein in our bodies. Collagen helps our skin, organs, veins, muscles, and tissues all stick together so we can function. It’s the thing that makes us tangible as human beings, something we don’t think about much. I’m not a doctor, but I imagine we’d be like melted Play-Doh or Silly Putty without collagen. VEDS is insidious because it’s silent, rare, and difficult to diagnose. It can only be treated or managed, as there is no cure. Life expectancies range from young adulthood to mid-life (40’s early 50’s) at best. It can impact anyone, and the mortality rate is particularly high among adolescent boys: https://thevedsmovement.org/veds/what-is-veds/