Rosa's liver transplant
Donation protected
As many of you know my partner Rosa is in the process of getting a live transplant.
Her medical journey started around 15+ years ago when she contracted Hepatitis C. During her treatment of Hepatitis C she devoted her life to helping others on the path to clean and sober living. Working at various recovery facilities over the past 13 years she also realized the severity of damage to her body caused by alcoholism and hepatitis c. She will be celebrating 15 years clean as of January 17th, 2018.
During her time being treated for Hepatitis C she contracted Cirhosis of the Liver, but the doctors didn't tell her of the severity of the disease. 4 years ago during a check up appointment for her Hepatitis C the doctors gave her the bad news, her Cirhosis was now Stage 4. At Stage 4 the liver can no longer process out the everyday toxins the body intakes from the simple tasks such as eating and drinking. Because of this her body retains the fluids and she has to go to the hospital every 10 days to get the fluids drained from her manually. They remove anywhere from 2-10 liters a visit. Her immune system has deteriorated and because of the toxins being retained her kidney has also been affected. The build up of toxins although can be regulated with medications can not be fully controlled. Every 2-3 months her ammonia levels rise to a level that it not safe for the body and her brain puts her into a toxic coma. We have to call the ambulance and they have to carry her out of bed and transport her to the emergencey room where we have to watch and wait for her to wake up. This scary process can take up to 2-3 days for her to wake up and this last time they had to put her on life support to ensure that she didn't choke on saliva or vomit in the middle of the night.
The road to recovery is long, in California, the process to get on the Liver Donor list is scored by a system that rates how sick the individual is, the worse they are the higher the score which means the higher up on the list they are. Because of the love and care of her family she has been keeping up with her medications but this also means her scores are not high enough in California. We have been going through this cycle for over 2 years now, waiting and watching our loved one deteriorate before our eyes and doing our best to keep hopes up during this process. Last month we were blessed with some good news from her Specialist, they were going to start sending her prognosis and scores to different states that have lower thresholds for the scores with the possibility of finding somewhere she can qualify for a transplant more immediately. She will be going to Alabama for her evaluation on January 8th, 2018.
While in Alabama for the evaluation and when she goes back for the surgery and the post surgery recovery her medical benefits will not cover all her expenses. They will cover her hotel stay, her flight, and her medical expenses minus her co-pay and deductible. This is where we need some help, neither her nor I, Cindy, will be working during this time and will have very limited fund to live off of. We will need to cover transportation, food, copays and the remainder of the medical bills while in Alabama. This has been estimated at $9,000 - $15,000 in expenses. We are reaching out to our friends and family to look into your hearts and help us make Rosa's surgeries and recovery the only thing she has to worry about. If you can look into your heart to help us during this time of need, anything is appreciated and everything helps. If all of our friends and family and our childrens friends and family donated at least $1 it would help us tremendously. Please take this time to share some love and pay it forward.
Thank you.
Her medical journey started around 15+ years ago when she contracted Hepatitis C. During her treatment of Hepatitis C she devoted her life to helping others on the path to clean and sober living. Working at various recovery facilities over the past 13 years she also realized the severity of damage to her body caused by alcoholism and hepatitis c. She will be celebrating 15 years clean as of January 17th, 2018.
During her time being treated for Hepatitis C she contracted Cirhosis of the Liver, but the doctors didn't tell her of the severity of the disease. 4 years ago during a check up appointment for her Hepatitis C the doctors gave her the bad news, her Cirhosis was now Stage 4. At Stage 4 the liver can no longer process out the everyday toxins the body intakes from the simple tasks such as eating and drinking. Because of this her body retains the fluids and she has to go to the hospital every 10 days to get the fluids drained from her manually. They remove anywhere from 2-10 liters a visit. Her immune system has deteriorated and because of the toxins being retained her kidney has also been affected. The build up of toxins although can be regulated with medications can not be fully controlled. Every 2-3 months her ammonia levels rise to a level that it not safe for the body and her brain puts her into a toxic coma. We have to call the ambulance and they have to carry her out of bed and transport her to the emergencey room where we have to watch and wait for her to wake up. This scary process can take up to 2-3 days for her to wake up and this last time they had to put her on life support to ensure that she didn't choke on saliva or vomit in the middle of the night.
The road to recovery is long, in California, the process to get on the Liver Donor list is scored by a system that rates how sick the individual is, the worse they are the higher the score which means the higher up on the list they are. Because of the love and care of her family she has been keeping up with her medications but this also means her scores are not high enough in California. We have been going through this cycle for over 2 years now, waiting and watching our loved one deteriorate before our eyes and doing our best to keep hopes up during this process. Last month we were blessed with some good news from her Specialist, they were going to start sending her prognosis and scores to different states that have lower thresholds for the scores with the possibility of finding somewhere she can qualify for a transplant more immediately. She will be going to Alabama for her evaluation on January 8th, 2018.
While in Alabama for the evaluation and when she goes back for the surgery and the post surgery recovery her medical benefits will not cover all her expenses. They will cover her hotel stay, her flight, and her medical expenses minus her co-pay and deductible. This is where we need some help, neither her nor I, Cindy, will be working during this time and will have very limited fund to live off of. We will need to cover transportation, food, copays and the remainder of the medical bills while in Alabama. This has been estimated at $9,000 - $15,000 in expenses. We are reaching out to our friends and family to look into your hearts and help us make Rosa's surgeries and recovery the only thing she has to worry about. If you can look into your heart to help us during this time of need, anything is appreciated and everything helps. If all of our friends and family and our childrens friends and family donated at least $1 it would help us tremendously. Please take this time to share some love and pay it forward.
Thank you.
Organizer
Cindy Gonzales Carrasco
Organizer
San Jose, CA
