Hi. My name is Bridget and Tomas is my 19 year old son. In 2015, at the age of 12, we were told that he had Progressive Multiple Sclerosis. His brain had old, new, and enhancing lesions all over. We needed to start treatments immediately. Some worked and some made his MS worse. Stem Cell Transplant kept being brought up but we were concerned about how hard his recovery would be. As well as the percentage of risk that he could get an infection and die. Personally, I was mortified! Tomas said he wanted to have the transplant. He wanted to fight MS and he was determined to kick MS in the butt!! He got very sick last February and it continued for 2 more months. It was a very hard time but with an intense treatment of intravenous steroids, Tomas got well enough to start the procedure of transplant. First he went through a lumbar puncture and a bone marrow biopsy. Next he had to get a central line placed into his chest. This helped with blood draws and chemo infusion. After all of this was done he started getting a shot in the stomach daily so that his body could produce stem cells. His body was finally ready for the machine to pull the stem cells from his body. This was the hardest part because he was in so much pain. I've never seen him hurt that bad. But he did it and gave the drs way more than what they needed. Next step was to put him in the hospital. He was there for 3 weeks. He went through Chemo and Radiation. This was really rough. He got pretty sick. He lost all of his hair and he was so pale with dark circles under his eyes. It broke my heart. Once he got through that, they did the transplant. That was the easiest part off all this. He only felt really cold. Then we waited. Anything that could go bad for him was during this time. Fortunately, everything went smoothly, he got discharged from the hospital, and was so ready to go home!

Once he got home we knew that's when a new battle was going to start. He is at zero immunity. All of the immunizations that he got as a baby/child were wiped out. You can imagine my biggest fear is for him to get sick in this new reality of living in a pandemic. So he is isolated. He can't go to school. He can't work. He can't go into any stores or restaurants. He barely leaves the house. He has basically lost a year of his life. The last time he worked was in January. He is in need of money so when he can start college up again he will be ready. For my birthday I was hoping that my friends and family would donate to help Tomas through this healing and difficult time. I think it will make him feel good to have some money that he can call his. Anything will help. Even $5! I would be so grateful. Please share with your friends and family. Thank you so much.