Chad's Heart Transplant Fund

In June of 2015 my life and the life of my wife and 3 wonderful children changed forever. Our lives were normal for the most part I worked full time as a sales manager my wife worked and still does as a nurse and we were happily raising our 3 children ages 4,8,9. Around the 2nd week in June 2015 I started to become ill but I didn't think much of it other then I probably just had a cold or the flu so I went on about my normal everyday life. On June 19th everything took a terrible turn for the worse. I started having trouble breathing my arms went numb and I had terrible chest pain. I happened to be in the Duluth area when this happened. Thankfully I have a sister who is a cardiac nurse who I was able to call for help and she got me to the local emergency room. I don't remember allot of what happened during that time but I know I spent 4-5 days at Saint Mary's hospital cardiac icu in Duluth while they ran all kinds of tests on me. My family and I along with the medical staff there decided it would be a good idea to transfer me to the cardiac specialists at Mayo Clinic Rochester. After being transfered and Mayo Clinic running many of there own tests they diagnosised me with  Myocarditis and put me on several oral medications and sent me home with the idea I would rest and hopefully start to feel better and return for a check up  in a month or so. I went home took all of my medication but never really got better. Over the next 6-8 months I had many visits to the Mayo Clinic and the doctors tried many different medication doses but nothing ever really made me feel better. I still had trouble walking around my house I would get dizzy all the time life was just miserable. The day finally came in march of 2016 when the doctors sat my wife and I down and told us the next option would be a IV medication called milrinon and I would need to be listed for Heart Transplant! The doctors didn't waste any time putting a picc line in my arm and going through the process of listing me for transplant. They also started teaching us all about the new med pump I would have to wear and how to change out med bags every 24 hours. I still remember the first time I had to change my med bag and home by myself thinking how  fragile life really is. Here I am 28 years old just a year earlyier I was running around playing with my kids and doing family activities and now I'm stuck at home with this med pump unable to play with my kids and waiting for a phone call that I had a heart waiting for me. I waited at home on the milrinone pump for another 8-10 months and at first the medicine seemed to help or at least keep me from having such bad symptoms but over time I started returning to constant chest pain, breathing problems and just a overall poor quality of life. In January of 2017 My family and I decided the time had finally come for me to be admitted to Saint Mary's hospital Mayo Clinic in Rochester. It was a very hard decision because my wife has to stay in Saint Cloud to work and my children still need to go to school.  My wife and children have been amazing during this time but it has definitely taken a toll on us. I have now been living in the hospital awaiting my transplant 109 days today. On top of all the stresses of living in the hospital and being away from family there is the constant stress of paying the bills. My wife continues to work full time and take care of our 3 young children while still trying to be strong for me. She has managed to visit me almost every weekend. This whole process has been financially draining and we are already constantly struggling to pay our bills and keep up with everything. I'm not sure what we're going to do after I have my transplant and my wife needs to be away from work so she can be my caregiver. Any funds raised will be used to help pay for current and future medical bills along with both pre and post transplant cost of living expenses. All funds will be greatly appreciated and help my amazing family during this tough chapter in our lives.