Jeanette's Lung Transplant Fund

Jeanette is our treasured sister, mother, wife, grandmother, and friend.  After several years of very bothersome bouts with strength-sapping illnesses, Jeanette was initially diagnosed with Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis in 2006. It was nice to finally have a name (if not a reason) for the constant nagging sickness. . . But her disease was kinda sneaky and progressed slowly. By 2009, Jeanette became so consistantly ill that she was forced to stop working -- and was told she needed oxygen 24/7. At this time she was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, which essentially means her lungs are turning to scar tissue, eventually completely. This is an irreversable process and will continue until her lungs cease to function at all. Frustratingly, there is no answer as to "Why?" -- this is just the hand she has been dealt, and the only way she will live is with new lungs.  In 2009, Jeanette began the long process of testing to qualify for transplant surgery. Along with a long list of tests, she was advised that she would have to lose at least 50 pounds to even be considered for the transplant list. It was nearly implossible for her to even walk across the house without needing to rest, so you can imagine how impossible it seemed to drop weight. By 2012, Jeanette had developed another life-threatening condition, Pulmonary Hypertension - which increases the load on her heart, and creates  dangerously low oxygen levels. In December 2015, Jeanette got the thrilling news that she was going to be a first-time grandmother! It was a major changing point for her. She began to systematically monitor her diet and push herself to lose the weight. Knowing that she had a new little life to live for was the push she needed to finally get motivated to make her transplant happen. She has lost 65 pounds to date!!!  Jeanette finally became a candidate for transplant listing in December 2016 -- after a very scary hospitalization at UCSF with heart failure related to the pulmonary hypertension. She's in a pretty dangerous situation now. She needs new lungs or her condition will only worsen. She is actively listed on the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS), and we all wait for that call. Once she gets a transplant, Jeanette and a caregiver will be required to live in San Francisco for 8 weeks, close to the hospital for ongoing care -- insurance doesn't cover that at all. Her husband Dennis has been by her side every step of the way -- often at the expense of his own work, and the post-transplant medications that Jeanette will have to take the rest of her life are crushingly expensive, and only partially covered by any insurance. We want to come together and raise this money so that Jeanette and her family can strictly focus on her health, without the fear and anxiety that financial burden can bring. Please help us give the Schnapps a little room to focus on this transition so that we can eventually celebrate her recovery.