Help Matthew's Hospital Stay

Matthew has a rare medical condition,  a Malrotated Colon, that was discovered recently and will require major to surgery to have most of his colon removed. The family has spent the last 16 months in the hospital accruing a major financial deficit while waiting for doctors to come up with a diagnosis. My daughter, Matthew's mom, is a teacher at a local middle school and is having to take unpaid leave to care for Matthew while the doctor's try to fix his condition and hope for a better quality of life. The family has two other children that they are caring for on top up everything else. I want to raise money to pay for Matthew's hospital bill's and give this family some relief after years of pain. 

I am including a post written by my daughter for Facebook because I believe she can say it best. 

This is a long post, but I wanted to update everyone on Matthew:

When God created Matthew He new He was going to be special. Before He even put him in my womb He knew it would take someone strong. And so God picked me to be his mom. I've known there was a greater purpose for our bond than just mom and son since I first held him. I can't explain it, I just knew. And since then I have been his mom, advocate, teacher, counselor, and nurse.

Matthew was born with a collapsed lung and his smaller intestines were malrotated. He spent four months in the hospital after surgery. He has battled severe infections from the very lines that were keeping him alive. Fevers of 105 because he was failure to thrive. He needed blood transfusions after he was diagnosed with Transienthypogammaglobunanemia. He needed his tear ducts repaired and a herniated belly button fixed. He's suffered from cellulitis multiple times. He has an autoimmune disease that isn't very common called Esonophilic Esophagitis which causes him to have a swollen esophagus if he eats the wrong proteins in foods and he doesn't grow as fast. He also has Teradactdily which means his pinkies grew curved (he kinda loves that).

Most recently he has spent 15 months in the hospital because he couldn't go to the bathroom and was in so much pain, couldn't eat or sleep. We were in the hospital running tests and having procedures the same day my Grandmother passed away. It was those results that told us his colon is malrotated, much like his intestines were when he was a baby. But a malrotated colon is EXTREMELY rare. He will be the 2nd child in NC to have this surgery. Also, half of his colon does not function (the part that will be removed). They know the other part CAN work but they don't know if it WILL work. I have chosen to try the risky, aggressive approach because it gives Matthew a 30% chance at a normal life one day. All the other options were way less than that. If the surgery works, Matthew might be able to live without a colostomy bag or cecostomy tube. And if it doesn't, we won't give up hope.

I'm struggling to not feel jealous of parents who have healthy kids. I don't want to be angry at how unfair it is that this beautiful boy's body is being marred with scars and more. I try not to feel helpless when I want to trade my life for his. My heart squeezes so tight I can't breathe and I just tell myself I was chosen for this, and I can't, I won't let him down.

I can't think about the fact that we're drowning in hospital debt, that I can't keep up with graduate classes, that I'm taking a leave of absence from a job I love, that I have two other children who need me too, and that I'm scared ALL the time. But then, I do think about it because I'm human. And then I feel guilty because none of this is really happening to me.

I'm going to hold my son's hand and carry him through whatever the future holds, because that's what a mother does.

Thank you to everyone who has prayed for Matthew and sent love and kind words his way ❤