Hey there. My name is Chrissy. I currently live with my 2 adult children, Kendle and Adison and my husband, Steve in Bloomington, IN.

I have had medical issues my entire life. From before I was even born. My mother had toxic shock and I had to be delivered via C-Section. The Dr had to make the incision larger than with my brother and sister because I had absorbed all the amniotic fluid. My mom told me, when I was born, I was black with dark hair. She knew there was something wrong. But in a few hours my skin pinked up and my hair turned to blonde curls. I wasn't able to drink formula, breast milk, or cow's milk, because it went through me like glass. My mom bought a goat. Even one spoonful of ice cream would throw me into instant pneumonia and when they would raise my arms to take an X-ray, I'd stop breathing. My maternal grandmother gave me a dose of turpentine, which I didn't discover until I had children, was paint thinner. She didn't like me much. I was diagnosed with herpes simplex when I was an infant because a baby sitter with a fever blister kissed me on the mouth. It still gets me today and I've unfortunately passed it to a few family members unknowingly at the time. By 2nd grade I had terrible kidney issues, frequently getting urinary tract infections and running fevers of over 105. My best friend in elementary school was the school nurse. I was also subjected to every type of abuse imaginable from a baby. Though, I had loving parents. They are both gone now. My mom passed in 2020 from congestive heart failure due to chemotherapy for breast cancer and my dad died in 2025 from an aortic aneurysm. He had prostate cancer, liver cancer, and basal cell carcinoma. Both were at Camp LeJune for extended periods of time with my mom growing up there. I've been diagnosed with so many things and had so many surgeries both for removal of organs (appendix, gallbladder, uterus, and just recently the body and tail of my pancreas and my spleen-supposed to have the ovaries out soon too). My Dr now, thinks he is pretty sure I have ANA-NEGATIVE Lupus, because I have all the diagnosis and symptoms, and then some. I'm constantly at war with every organ in my body. My right kidney has not stopped throbbing for 4 years. I have fibromyalgia, PCOS, chronic kidney stone and infections, IC, IBS, PCOS, endometriosis, Raynaud's syndrome, fatty liver disease and fibrosis, pancreatitis and so much more. But I still smile and try to be happy as can be.

Fast forward to today. I have been terribly sick since February 2025. I've lost nearly 80 lbs unintentionally. Going from 230 to less than 160. In February my tongue started falling apart, losing taste buds in patches and growing back, really sore. By July, I could hardly eat anything as everything made me sick. I've had a hard time with work and trying to make Dr's listen.i started adding them ALL to my emails, including a pancreatic specialist I wasn't supposed to see until April (last seen 2019 for an exploratory surgery and pancreatic IPMN's). They reached out immediately and by December 11th, I was having another MRCP. They called me in the next week to meet with the surgeon to discuss options and start pre-op testing. He told me, some of the IPMN's had turned from simple into mixed type which turns quickly into pancreatic cancer. If I didn't have it already, I would within a year or two, but I don't have 10 years. He opted to do a Distal Pancreatectomy and Splenectomy because when he looked closer at the imaging, the IPMN's were filling the pancreatic main branch and he's hoping to have delayed the inevitable, but we won't know until pathology reports come back. I went into "failure to thrive" mode because of the weight loss and sickness. Surgery kept getting pushed back. I was hospitalized twice. During the second 2 week hospital stay, I had an NJ Tube placement to get supplemental nutrition. This helped keep my weight steady. Surgery was performed on January 22nd.

The Dr removed the body and tail of the pancreas and the spleen. He said I had severe pancreatitis and we are currently waiting for results from pathology to see if it is cancer. I'm back home for now after another lengthy stay in the hospital to recover from surgery, but I pushed through. During that time, my husband has lost lots of hours from work, our son is only getting 1 day a week at his current job, but because he's Autistic, he's having trouble getting into something else now, even though he's a good, hard worker. Our daughter's boss passed away and now her job is up in the air as well and she's not getting paid either. I can't work for quite some time. Steve works his butt off, but even as an Assistant Manager he's only making about $16/hr. We are struggling. We were told we don't make enough for Marketplace anymore, and he makes too much for us to get Medicaid, but if we keep our current health insurance, it'll be over $1000/mo, which is more than our rent. The funds from this would go to help with monthly bills, gas, medical bills and prescriptions, and gas to get back and forth to all these appointments.

We have had a few amazing people reach out to help us, but I was told to create a GoFundMe to help, because it would reach more people. With the bills, hospital stays and trips up to Indy and food, it's already past gone.

I am making this as well, in hopes that my story reaches as many people as possible. So they can see what I've been through and maybe gain hope from it. So if they ever have anything like this happen to them in the future, they can advocate for themselves. Through all of this, I have never lost my sunny disposition for long, and I try to help as many people as I can as well, when I'm able.

Just found out this morning our daughter has borderline fatty liver disease as well. She's getting so many of my symptoms I started having at her age and it worries me for her.

Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity as well! It won't go unnoticed.

From the Smith, Richards Family