Miracles for Reid & Abby Gray

Reid and Abby Gray married in March of 2014 and within a few months Reid was diagnosed with two auto-immune chronic illnesses – Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC). A few months later they began trying for a family. Four years later, they are waiting on two separate miracles. A new liver for Reid (as a result of his PSC), and a baby to hold in their arms.

In the last several months, Reid’s situation has grown more dire as his doctor believes he has cholangiocarcinoma (cancer in the bile ducts of his liver). This particular cancer is very hard to detect, hard to treat, and has a very low survival rate. This has expedited his need for a liver, and they have been told to “exhaust all possible options”.

They recently traveled to Cleveland Clinic to hopefully be listed with their living donor program. Unfortunately, a living donor is not the best option for Reid (for many reasons we won’t go into here), but it is an option. And it may be their best option to get a liver before the potential cancer spreads. Due to the nature of Reid’s disease, he is ranked very low on the transplant list and would not get a deceased donor liver quickly were he to wait for the traditional route.

Abby's full time job for the past couple of months has been pursuing a transplant for Reid, so she has taken a leave from her paying job. There have been a lot of appointments, coordination and traveling to different transplant centers in different states, as it appears that Texas will be much slower, unless there is a direct donation made to him. So far it looks like they will have to relocate for anywhere from two to six months in order to get Reid a liver. Reid has been able to work for now, but his disease has definitely taken a toll on him and he deals with a lot of fatigue.
During this time, Reid and Abby have had four unsuccessful pregnancies and have gone through three rounds of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) to try to grow their family.  They have yet to have a successful pregnancy, but we hope it's only a matter of time before they have some good news to share on that front. 

Two young people in what should be the time of their lives, instead are in a fight for life. 
 
ANY amount of financial support will help. We so appreciate you sharing in the journey, as so many have, and holding them up when the going is tough.  They are surrounded with wonderful people, and I may be prejudiced, but I KNOW they ARE pretty wonderful people themselves. With your financial support, love and prayers we can help them through this and bring miracles for them.   

Much love, Dee Everett – with support from their entire family  

If you wish for a longer, more detailed version of their story, Abby shares in a blog www.impatientlywaitingforourmiracle.com as a form of therapy and education, and in hopes of helping others who may be experiencing challenges of their own. We all impatiently wait for miracles for them, and trust they will come in time.