Sorry if this is a lot. I'm currently working with my community health worker at Legacy Medical Firwood in Sandy, Shanna Majerak. Please reach out to her with any questions. My surgery will be at Clackamas Oral Surgery Center.

A little background of what happened: A few years ago, I was diagnosed with a bicuspid aortic heart valve and needed open-heart surgery to install a new valve. As a lead-up to surgery (which was successful), I had a routine angiogram done to check for any blockage in my arteries. Well, the contrast dye was filtered through my kidneys and destroyed them. Lucky me, huh? So now, for the last few years, I've been on kidney dialysis.

Moving forward to today, I knew I had a bad front tooth, so I recently went to a specialist to get a plan. Well, just my luck again, infection has eaten away at my upper jaw bone and now to the point the infection can enter my blood, causing endocarditis on my heart valve, meaning it's life-threatening. So now I need an extraction and a bone graft from a bovine and using platelet-rich plasma for the graft to take. Very long story short, I do not have the $6,950.00 to cover what insurance won't. I've never asked for help much in my life, but I really want to be on earth awhile longer. Being on dialysis, my only income is disability, and that is not enough to really live on.