My name is Mayrose and Mike is my funny, sarcastic, sweet and caring brother in law. He is married to my amazing, strong and beautiful sister Emmy. I was 15 when he started dating my sister in 2004.. and I think we all knew he was different than anyone else she dated. Mike has been having breathing issues since November 2017. In February of 2018 they diagnosed him with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which has no treatment or cure. They did a biopsy in March, which confirmed this diagnosis. In April the pulmonologist informed them that he sent the biopsy tissue to 2 other pathologists who determined that it most likely was the fibrosis but could potentially be something else and it was too hard to determine so they could not offer an official diagnosis. This started months of extra testing to include bloodwork, scans, breathing tests, and trying multiple different medications to see if Mike responded to anything. At first, we thought there may have been some minor improvement and started to have hope. This hope was destroyed when he started to decline more. And then continued to decline. Mike is on oxygen 24/7 now. He can’t go anywhere without dragging a tank with him. He has barely any energy or strength and has basically become home bound. On November 26, 2018 we were informed that Mike had declined so much that the doctor wanted to start the process to get him on the lung transplant list. Mike has been out of work since February and was denied social security disability, so he has not had any income. The medical bills are piling up to well over $8,000 and will just continue to increase. Along with the medical costs, they will have thousands in travel expenses as well. You see, the lung transplant will have to happen in Pittsburgh, Pa which is about 5 1/2 hours from their home. The first consultation requires a week long stay - on their own dime. Mike will not be admitted to the hospital so they will need to get a hotel, pay for gas and food, along with preparing for their kids and pets to be cared for while they are gone. There will be many trips to Pittsburgh for testing, preparing and monitoring. Then when, or if, he gets a lung transplant there will be months of required staying in the Pittsburgh area for post-transplant monitoring and therapy. Worst case scenario is that he dies before finding a new set of lungs, and then the family is left with funeral expenses on top of everything else. We have no idea if he has months or years.... and even after a successful lung transplant, there are a whole new set of complications and lifetime medications. This family will have an unknown amount of medical bills, hotel bills, and other miscellaneous bills over the next few years to what could be the next 10 years... we just aren’t sure. There are so many unknowns still. The only thing we know for certain right now is that they need some financial help.