Rich is getting new lungs!

TL;DR: Rich was born with a rare congenital disease that has left him with ~35% lung capacity and it's time for him to get those suckers replaced, most likely sometime in the next 4-6 months. We have to take time off work unpaid, we have a mortgage to pay, an unknown amount of medical expenses coming, and it would be awesome if you could help us out. ❤️

The long version: Rich was born with a rare congenital disease called Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia. Remember in science class when you learned about those tiny microscopic hairs in your body that move things around and help you do things like clear junk out of your lungs?

Rich's don't work.

This means that he can't effectively clear his lungs, which makes him super prone to lung infections. After 53 years of multiple infections per year, his lungs are badly damaged and permanently colonized by bacteria. It's difficult for him to get the oxygen he needs and he's on supplemental oxygen most of the time. Needless to say, this impedes his ability to do most of the things many of us take for granted.

The lung transplant has always been a "when", not an "if". He's been working with an excellent pulmonologist at UW Hospital in Madison, WI, and has been preparing for this eventuality for a couple years. At the beginning of March, we found out that it's time for him to take the next step in the process.

Rich just completed the most recent milestone in this journey, a 4-day battery of tests and evaluations at UW Hospital. In the next couple weeks, the results of this evaluation will be reviewed by a panel of experts to ensure he's a good candidate for transplant. Once the review is complete, the most likely scenario is that he will be given a couple additional goals to reach (things like losing a little more weight, or keeping an exercise log for x amount of time are the most common). Once that's done, he'll be ready to go on the list for new lungs.

The average wait for lungs at UW Hospital is about two weeks right now, although the nature of the beast is that it could take 3 days or 3 months; there's no way to tell. This makes it really hard to prepare for, as you can imagine, but we're doing what we can.

Recovery from a lung transplant takes 6-12 months. Rich won't be able to work during a fair portion of this, and Jess will need to take some time off work to care for him when he comes home from the hospital. This time off will be mostly unpaid.

We're waiting to find out exactly how much of this procedure will be covered by our health insurance. After surgery he'll be on dozens of medications, some of which are *extremely* expensive if not covered by insurance (like, $3500/mo), and we don't yet know whether or to what extent these will be covered, either. There's the possibility of additional hospital admissions due to complications on top of all of this, too.

We're coming to you, our friends and family, to ask for your assistance in filling in the gaps in our income and covering expenses during this period. The funds will be used for stuff like paying the mortgage and other household expenses, as well as covering any medical costs that come up in this process.

Anything extra we raise will go toward things that will help relieve Jess's mental and emotional load, like fencing for a dog run so the dogs can go out unaccompanied, occasional assistance with keeping the house clean, helping with travel expenses for Jess's mom to drive to and from Michigan as our secondary caregiver, etc.

We know that times are tough for everyone right now, and donating your hard-earned money isn't a decision that's taken lightly. Anything you might be able to do to help us out would be so appreciated and will help make Rich's recovery so much easier and less stressful.

We love y'all so much. Your support means more to us than we can possibly express.

Rich and Jess