Please donate to help....medical expenses and YAWI

I am 49 years old and live in West Monroe, La. I enjoy spending time with my family and encouraging other people. I also enjoy making people laugh, cooking, fishing, hunting, swimming, and attending church. I have a beautiful wife of 25 years as well as an amazing 15-year-old son who is a freshman in high school. I am asking for donations to help cover some of our medical and travel expenses during this difficult time. Kidney failure and dialysis has taken over my life. In December, I had to retire early with 10 years of service to the Ouachita Parish Fire Department which means my family lost my income and health insurance.

Over the last twenty years, I have served my community through my job as an emergency dispatcher. I became a double amputee from a wreck caused by drinking and driving at 22 years old. I was the only survivor in this event that took the lives of two friends. I now share the experience as a living example to young people through our non-profit organization, You Are Worth It. YAWI has given myself as well as many other living examples the opportunity to share their testimonies since it was created in 2016. We are growing and everything seems to be coming together to allow us to make a huge positive impact on a massive scale. Your donation will help us make it though this difficult time as well as help others. Any funds above and beyond what is needed for expenses will be applied to reaching and helping others through You Are Worth It.

I am a follower of Jesus Christ. In 2016, I walked for the first time in 20 years on two prosthetic legs as a direct result of a literal miracle of God. Sharing my testimony and seeing God moving gave me the strength and will to publicly set the goal to walk and be an example that any adversity can be overcome through hard work and determination. My body was drawn up badly from the years in a wheelchair. The last seven years have been spent forcing my body back into an upright position. It has been brutal, but the experience has brought me into a closer relationship with God. I am walking better and standing straighter than I have in nearly 28 years. I am almost there but now my kidneys are failing.

I was diagnosed with focal segmental glomerular sclerosis (FSGS) in 2016, a disease in which scar tissue develops on the glomeruli, the small parts of the kidneys that filter waste from the blood. FSGS can be caused by a variety of conditions but was probably caused by years of obesity. Given the diagnosis, I vowed to make the changes in my lifestyle necessary to save my kidney function. Through diet and exercise, I maintained great function for several years. I have lost over 100 pounds of excess weight throughout this journey.

In 2020, I had surgery to remove my gallbladder and there were complications. I underwent several procedures to reopen the passageway from my stomach to my pancreas and liver. Throughout 2020 and 2021, the gastrologist would place a stent into the passageway for a month or so then take it out to see if it would stay open. After several attempts with plastic stents, they decided to use a metal stent that could stay in for 3 months. Unfortunately, my body had a reaction to the metal, and I broke out in horrible sores all over my body. I begged for three months for the stent to be removed to no avail. I was told that I had scabies time and time again without any evidence other than the sores. During this time my kidney function began to decrease. The sores cleared once the stent was removed but the damage had been done. Since then, my kidney function has continued to decrease and I have been forced to start dialysis.

Dialysis has taken over my life but it keeping me alive until I receive a kidney.

We are struggling but we will make it through this difficult time together. Please consider helping us so that we can continue to help others. Thank you.