Hello! My name is Matt and the beautiful blonde standing next to me my amazing beautiful queen and wife, Melissa in the picture. We had been fighting to make sure Mel is okay f

My name is Matt, and to your right on the screen is my wife, Melissa. As a short introduction, I met Melissa in 2000, sometime during the summer, when my family and I first moved in. It was barely the second day, and almost immediately, we became best friends, a bond that lasted throughout high school and college. She was always a beacon of light and helped me get out of the gutter whenever I stumbled, even with how much of my life I fumbled.

On March 22nd, 2014, we got married.

Since then, we've had a stellar life, one that any happy couple could hope for. Still, on November 14th, 2024, after years of struggling with various medical conditions and problems, Melissa's doctor gave her a terminal diagnosis: End Stage Liver Disease.

This condition is when your liver is in the final stage of failing, causing her blood pressure to consistently drop, her ammonia levels to rise to dangerous heights (which in turn can cause brain damage over long periods amidst incognitive episodes), and she is still struggling after a Thyroid Storm caused her to have a heart attack, go into a coma, and partially collapse the bottom of one of her lungs.

She's been in and out of the hospital in recent weeks, struggling with rising ammonia levels, and soon after, an infection from a fluid that is consistently building in her abdomen (which needs weekly paracentesis, i.e., draining) to keep her alive.

Initially, Melissa had hopes of an organ transplant, but lacks two points or whatever it is to get one, nor do any of the doctors think she would survive surgery to have half a healthy liver transplanted into her. She was given months to live and is now bedridden and barely able to move even her fingers. Since then, she's been lacking adequate medical care, mostly because of my conditions (currently disabled and permanently on oxygen), I haven't been able to take care of her as she needs to be.

Before all of this started, I was put into a coma because of COVID, which makes taking care of her at home extremely difficult. My lungs are full of scar tissue from both that horrible disease and a bullet wound I suffered during my service in the US Navy. Though she gets regular visits from nurses when she's home, it's usually not enough to keep her healthy and safe, and several times before her current 6-week stay in the hospital, she's had to be taken in by EMS.

Initially, she was going to be regularly attending a health center for physical therapy to get most of her motor functions back, including the ability to walk or at least use a wheelchair, but since our coverage expired (Medicare Days), having used up 100 days to stay in a facility to take care of her, which meant she had to come home for 63 days in between to get them back until they reset.

Unfortunately, this means I have to rely on in-home care, which can only be around for two hours, only for two days every week, to get her cleaned and taken care of, but my wife needs round-the-clock care because she is in the final stages of liver failure. I can't do it. I've tried. I have family over to help, and they've tried when they can, but I'm mostly by myself and struggling in my current condition. I'm 100% disabled permanently through the military, too sick to work, and recently, I am dealing with my recent (as of January 2025) diagnosis of Esophageal Carcinoma Stage 3.

Originally, it was Stage 2, but in the last few weeks, a second tumor has appeared in my neck and it's been progressed to stage 3 because of the aggressiveness of the spread, and last week, my gallbladder has become inflamed—likely due to the cancer and the stress—and I'm running out of options.

I know if Melissa returns home without the proper care, she's going to die sooner, and in pain. I don't want that. I don't want her to suffer because our health industry simply refuses to take care of her without significant income. Any help right now would be greatly appreciated.

I'm tired.