Hello, my name is Paul Shannon Jr. This past June, I was diagnosed with a rare and incurable liver disease called Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis, or just PSC for short, and I am in end stages. My liver is scarred, inflamed, and enlarged. I also have cirrohsis of the liver along with fibrosis. I won't outline the specifics of the disease here yet, but I wanted to write this to give a quick overview.

So, while no cure exists, there is one chance, which is a liver transplant. I have already been evaluated and my transplant team has decided to list me. However, before I can be placed on the list, there have been some prerequisites that I had to get done first, and I have everything finished except for the dental clearance.

I did get an exam done to determine what all I need, but there are two problems. The first and main problem is that with the amount of work that I need done, it would cost $22,000, $20,000 of which I pay out of pocket, because dental insurance only covers about $2,000 of it. The second problem is that my transplant team is concerned about doing some of the work, like the extractions and root canals, before the transplant, because an infection could occur and affect the new organ. So, I am waiting on my transplant team and my dental team to agree on what bare minimum I can get away with doing, so that I can still receive dental clearance, but have my liver safely transplanted.

Another hurdle for us to get over is the post-transplant costs. As you can probably imagine, a lot of my medications, treatments, appointments and testing have been very pricey. I've been able to somewhat manage it, but having to do so while being put on new medications, having them swapped around and new tests being ordered, it can get out of control very quickly. From my research, a liver transplant seems like it's one of the most expensive surgeries in the world, about $850,000 or so. I don't know how much of that my insurance is going to cover, but I know it's big enough to where everyone recommends having a secondary insurance or some sort of financial plan. One of the things we can do, since we are in Georgia, is get setup through the Georgia Transplant Foundation, which is one direction we're tackling this, but that really only kicks in AFTER the transplant happens, and I'll need at least the first 2 months for recovery.

Speaking of recovery, the transplant will happen in Atlanta, and that is a couple hours away from us. One of the things they told us is that for the first 2 weeks, I'll be staying at the hospital for monitoring, testing and such, but then for the next month, they'll want me to come back to that same hospital to get liver function tests done 3 times a week, and from what I understand, it has to be the Piedmont in Atlanta, so not the one where I live. Driving back and forth to Atlanta three times a week is just not going to be feasible for us, since my whole family has health issues, and we're already struggling financially as it is. So, to that end, we're looking to stay in Atlanta for at least those first six weeks, which means a hefty hotel stay or something comfortably accommodating for my health issues and recovery. The liver is the most important organ in your body, so it's important to me that this be done right. Part of this fundraiser to also raise funds for that.

Unfortunately, this is not the only hurdle that my family and I are facing financially. Five months ago on April 3rd, my dad suddenly fell very ill. We called 911 as a precaution in case it was something serious, and hours later at 1:30 AM, he passed away. We have been stuck having to figure out bills since his passing, and there's a lot we're still sorting out. Between my salary, my mom's survivor's benefits, my aunt's disability check, and a family friend helping us out once a month, which we are SUPER grateful for, it sadly still is not enough. If we could get to a goal of $50,000, then not only will that cover the dental procedures, but it will also help pay for my medical bills (before and after transplant and including medications and all that), household bills, groceries and other unexpected life events that keep occurring, but it also can give us some peace of mind, and anything left of that after my recovery can help pay for at least a bit of the transplant bill.

Thankfully, my work place does FMLA, but it is a bit odd with my situation and how I have to do it. They do exhaust my sick leave first, and then my annual leave, for pay. However, I don't have many, since there are some days I am just too sick to get out of bed, let alone work. I have been fighting past those days here lately because I need the sick time. The annual time is harder to save because I need that for procedures and recovery for the day after for most of it. Once my leave runs out, though, that's it. My job is secured for 3 months, but I will stop being paid, and then it becomes a matter of how do we pay bills, how do we afford groceries, and so on. So, this fundraiser will help that too.

If you can't give anything, that's fine, all I ask is just that you share this and get the word out. I'll put a more in-depth story out about this that has more detail, but believe it or not, this is the short version. If all you can give is a dollar, I'll take it gratefully, because if 10 million people gave a dollar, that would make a real difference, so that's why it's important to me that this be shared.

Thank you.