Hi everyone, Ryan here.

As some of you may know, our Sarah has been dealing with a chronic condition that affects her central nervous system for over 10 years. More specifically, her turbinates’- which are tools and sensors for inhaling, exhaling and delivering oxygen throughout her body, have been damaged by a sinus surgery when she was 25.

What do your turbinates’ do? They humidify, direct, clean, and warm the air in which you breathe 24/7. They also contain brain to lung receptors and are responsible for registering oxygen delivery and how much air a person needs. (the Doctor removed a large portion of her inferior turbinates) When those receptors are damaged it’s difficult for one to breathe and the oxygen doesn’t get properly registered and transported throughout the body. Sarah has had shortness of breath, shallow breathing, fatigue, sleep disruption, scabs in her nasal cavity, hypoventilation and weakness. Despite her struggling to breathe, Sarah continues with school and shows up for herself every day. Unfortunately, things have recently taken a bad turn.

After multiple visits to the hospital and some ambulance rides this past month, Sarah’s labs have shown that her red blood cells, protein distribution, and bicarbonate are abnormal. Red blood cells are important for oxygen delivery in the body, and her numbers have been consistently low. She has been treated for anemia, but her RBC’s stay low. Her breathing is often shallow and consistently hypo-ventilated and this has affected her oxygen transport in her blood, Her resting heart rate beats faster than normal, and her kidneys are working overtime for something called compensated respiratory acidosis with over normal production of bicarbonate. Her well-being has been severely affected by this with symptoms including medication intolerance, kidney function, waking up in the middle of the night with chest pain, insomnia, inability to breathe, fainting, dizziness, and her blood pressure dropping. She has consulted with her doctor about getting back on her CPAP machine and will be receiving oxygen therapy.

While we are incredibly grateful for her doctor’s recommendations for a CPAP and oxygen treatment, they will help, but they are also a band- aid. Long-term hypoventilation and respiratory acidosis can lead to organ failure.

I’ve seen firsthand how much she struggles to breathe, and it breaks my heart. I also see how many people care about her and ask what they can do to help... I’m here to tell you how you can help.

I’m setting up a fundraiser for those of you that want to help get Sarah back to Ohio for treatment. What treatment? Stem Cell injections into her damaged turbinate to regrow the turbinate and its function are offered at Sarah’s specialist’s office in Columbus, Ohio. It has a high success rate for patients with symptoms and troubles exactly like Sarah. Sarah has received this treatment in the past, and it greatly helped with her symptoms, but it is costly. At $4,000 per session and with Sarah in school, it is hard for her to save for this treatment. The institute that provides this care is called the U.S Advanced Sinus Care and Research. Her doctor is Dr. Subinoy Das. He was featured on the Today Show discussing cases that include Sarah and is working hard to get insurance companies to get this treatment covered, but in the meantime, unfortunately, everything is out of pocket.

It's not in either of our nature to ask people for money or donations, but the world is expensive right now, and it’s extremely difficult to come up with the unexpected funds to receive this treatment. There have been several of our friends and family that have asked how they can help, and any little contribution helps us to achieve this goal!

Sarah has been pretty weak lately and is praying that she doesn’t have to call off school next semester and can get better. As far as how many treatments Sarah needs, it depends how she feels following the injection. Dr’s recommendations are back-to-back injections, once per year, until she feels better.

All in all, I just want to see Sarah happy and healthy again. She’s worked so hard in recent years to achieve her goals, and she’s been excelling so much in school. I’d hate to see something derail her when there’s a treatment available that could greatly improve her quality of life.

I truly thank everyone in advance for reading through this and even considering to help us on this journey to get Sarah healthy again.

We plan to keep everyone posted on the progress.