Ari’s A Lifesaver, Let’s Help Save Her Smile! ❤️

Please Help Fund Major Surgery To Restore Quality of Life and Smile For Volunteer Crisis Counselor Ari 

Hi, my name is Cathy Dennis. My family and I appreciate you taking the time to support our journey. One of the very first things most people will notice about my 24 year old daughter Ari Dennis (besides her colorful wheels) is her hopeful smile, sense of humor,  and positive disposition. Despite the things she has and continues to face, she is able to use these experiences to help others through their own dark times as a volunteer Crisis Counselor for the Crisis Text Line. We hope to be able to fundraise to urgently restore her smile with major oral surgery to remove all of her destroyed teeth and get implant fixed dentures, restoring some quality of life so she can continue to spread hope and get back the smile she gives others

 

Ari's Journey

Life has been anything but easy for Ari, though she may only be 24 she has faced many trials. Living with chronic incurable illnesses and disabilities is a daily battle in itself let alone the long term effects it has and continues to cause physically, emotionally, and financially. Ari was born with a genetic connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (classical type) which affects collagen in the body causing missing and faulty collagen. Collagen acts like the glue and foundation of the body, lining important organs and joints, when this collagen is effected it can cause a storm of other co morbid chronic illnesses. Over the course of this 24 year journey Ari has lost her GI tract motility & ability, autonomic function, ability to walk or stand, urological function, ability to work, ability to go to school, social life, daily functioning, and so much more.

However one thing she has never lost is her positivity, appreciation for life, and empathy to help others going through their own struggles mentally or physically as a crisis counselor for the Crisis Text Line and advocate in a local chronic pain and illness support group she helps with in our city. Normally Ari is fundraising for non profit organizations that help others going through the same or similar illnesses. Although helping others is preferred, we don't have many options other than to ask for help as we've already faced many financial struggles due to medical care over the years.

One of the things that has effected Ari the most is her battle with gastroparesis and intestinal dysmotility which in her case means total paralysis of her stomach and small intestine. Unable to digest food or liquids, Ari relies on TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition) which is essentially IV nutrition she receives through a central line in her chest that goes directly into her heart. Although this keeps her alive, it comes with a lot of life threatening complications and doesn't mitigate the debilitating and progressively destructive symptoms that come from her incurable chronic illnesses.

 

"In life everyone will go through difficult things that are out of your control. What is in your control is how you choose to deal with it . So I choose happiness" - Ari

The Goal

For the majority of her 24 years of life, Ari has had to deal with vomiting 10-15 times every single day. As you can imagine this has completely destroyed her teeth and has unfortunately gotten to a point of her rotten teeth being unable to save, severely lessening quality of life as a result on top of everything else her conditions cause. Despite all efforts taken over multiple years the acid from frequent vomiting destroys any repairs made and her complex medical conditions require specialty dental care in a hospital with general anesthesia which is both expensive, risky for her health, and difficult to go through over and over. For many years she has gone through debilitating pain as her teeth continue to be destroyed more every day. There is no enamel left and her teeth have begun breaking as a result causing painful dangerous infections and exposed nerves though she never lets it destroys her hope.

The Cost

After meeting with several specialty oral maxillofacial surgeons and prosthodontist it has been unfortunately determined that the best option for Ari is to remove all of her teeth including impacted horizontal wisdom teeth and surgically place implants with fixed implant supported dentures. This has turned into an urgent situation given the immense pain Ari is in along with having broken infected teeth that threaten her other conditions. While regular dentures cost less, they wouldn't be a suitable option given the frequent vomiting. Though removing all of her destroyed teeth and putting implants is what Ari is in urgent need of, medicaid will only cover the hospital stay but not the surgery or fixed dentures themselves which comes at the astronomical cost of around $42,000 total. But even just $25,000 would make a huge difference. The oral surgeons cost for surgery to remove all of her teeth and impacted wisdom teeth and place implants is around $15,000 the prosthodontists cost for top and bottom implant supported fixed dentures come to $27,000.

Any financial assistance is so greatly appreciated!!prayers are also welcomed and needed. Restoring any quality of life we can for Ari would be a life changing blessing and help her in continuing to use her own pain and scars to be someone else's sign of hope. This impacts her life immensely. Sharing our story and fundraiser would also be of immense help and we are so grateful you've taken the time to read a little about our journey. From the bottom of our hearts, our family thanks you.