Surgery- We drove from N.H. to New York City on Feb 14, 2007 thru snow
We drove from Portsmouth N.H. to New York City on Valentines Day 2007 for 10 hours in that blizzard for help from a Kidney Specialist. Her Kidney will be fixed by April 1st, 2007, but the 7 month struggle has drained us financially.
I am a 28 year old hard working professional. I swallow my pride before you today and ask for financial help. My long term girlfriend (someday my wife) has been very sick since August 2006. She has been in great pain for the past 7 months with an obstructed kidney.
Technically her problem is called a UPJ obstruction - the surgery to repair it is called a Robotic Assisted Pyleoplasty.
We are focused and tough, and have been unrelenting in our pursuit of the Doctor’s help and a resolution. Elizabeth’s kidney problem has been going on for 7 months now, and just when we think it will only be a couple more days or weeks till they fix it, the doctors pushed it off for months. Please read on if you want to make a difference in a few good people’s lives: We are volunteers in the community, working for Meals on Wheels, Make a Wish Foundation and donate money for hungry people at the grocery store etc.
-We could use some real help financially.
History of what is happening to us: My 27 year old girlfriend is hard working, and is employed as a contractor for an Insurance company. Additionally, she is getting an accelerated MBA at the University of New Hampshire through this pain and mess (only because she started the class work before this sickness). She is knee deep in school debt and can’t delay her education since she will default on loans. We are counting on an increase in her salary to help us out of debt when she graduates (which won’t be until July). She is a real trooper and I only wish I was the one with the problem. Telling her Brett Favre played through a few games with a broken thumb used to keep her spirits up, but not so much anymore.
In August of 2006, she had severe nausea & shooting pain through the back and right flank- it was a mystery illness at the hospital for the first few visits and they thought it was stones but none of the scans such as the IVP Ultrasounds and Cat-Scan without contrast showed anything. Meanwhile her pain every night was ratcheting up, and on the 1-10 scale nurses use went from 4’s, to 5’s and then 7, 8’s and then off the chart.
The Urologists in N.H. were scratching their heads and passed the buck- referring us to a specialist in Burlington, M.A. at the Lahey Clinic. A few weeks later due to their schedule, the Specialist there conducted a CT scan with contrast and the culprit could be seen from a mile away. Her right renal pelvis was huge and blown up, her kidney was not draining due to crossing vessels carrying blood to that part of the body were actually constricting and pinching shut the drainage ureter from that kidney.
A stent was placed inside that pinched ureter to force it open. She felt better, and a final test called a pyleogram was done to prove this was indeed the real culprit. It was, and she tested fully obstructed.
This doctor at the Lahey clinic is good, almost too good. All his patients are terminal with kidney and bladder cancer etc, and my girlfriend is not. He could not do the surgery until April 1st, and it will take 20-30 days for her to recover from then! We respect and understand that others have it worse then us. I feel horrible that there are worse than this scenarios. But again, this has been devastating for us since August- we actually missed Thanksgiving and told ourselves that we would not miss Christmas! Hah! The shifting goal posts were difficult to deal with emotionally for her. She just wants to be healthy. She does not give a squat about money.
Although she is not terminal, she is still in a lot of pain. It comes from the now floppy extra renal pelvis and an extra vein blocking stuff, and the temporary stent aggravating everything from her kidney to her bladder. (she actually had the stent replaced with another due that they can only be in up to 6-8 weeks before they get brittle and old.)
We have been running around like chickens with our heads cut off. She is not sitting at home watching cartoons, but trying to go to work, still going to night classes when she can etc.
We went to New York to the NYU medical center this Valentine’s day through that crazy blizzard because there is a doctor there that specializes in a Da Vinci Robot assisted pyleoplasty surgery (which is Doctor speak for the name of her surgery.) It requires a reconstruction of the kidney to fix the abnormality.
He was wonderful and we will be having surgery with him on the 16th of this March, 2007! He is the best surgeon for this in the United States. We have to stay in N.Y. city at the hospital dorm from the 8th of March till a few days after the surgery because they pull the stent out the 8th to allow the kidney to swell back up to maximum aggravation and size- allowing a perfect surgery and cutting the right things in the right places.
Our parents and her Boss have been wonderfully supportive, but we have worn out our welcome in asking for anything more from them. They have given all they can.
We have gotten this far on our own, and if we don’t get one penny, some-how, someway we will come out of this.
Now comes the part I am embarrassed about, but I have REFUSED TO LOSE this whole time, I may as well swallow my pride and ask for help. Stressing out accomplishes nothing. We are in pretty deep, and I sure don’t want for strangers to pay me ALL the way out of the debt we have incurred. Put some money instead to some sick 2 year old child, instead of paying ALL my bills. I only will speak of debt that is immediate.
If we got a little money from this we would be ecstatic! If we get a large Total donation amount, we as a family will not accept a penny over $15,000, period. This is already asking way too much. I have a variety of bills: In the neighborhood of $15,000 total from all this and before we got side-swiped by this fiasco. Please consider that the bills are part of the problem but the reason I ask for help is that this has kept both of us away from work at great length, and we kept being told by the Doctor in M.A. that a spot may open up on the schedule and to just hold on for a few more weeks. But our dates never changed and this whole thing has just sucked us dry financially. We also need money to make the trip to NY, which will cost from $2000-$3000 just for the room and board for us on the cheap for 10 days.
I am the kind of guy that would get 3 jobs to figure out a way, but when Elizabeth cannot get out of bed some days to microwave a bowl of soup, how can I really commit to additional employers that way? Our lives have been ripped apart by this. My $5000 credit union card is $100 under max at 7.9 %, a home depot card of $2,500 at 21%- two good friends lent me $3500 cash each, but now they need it back. Her father passed when she was 19, so she put herself through college through federal loans. Her mother is a widow who is eligible for public assistance, so money from her parents is not an option now.
We are blessed in the first place that there is a surgery to fix this. I am a man that will figure a way, but right now we have to get through the last part of our journey and have this surgery. Even if we only eat baloney sandwiches from now on, and while in New York, N.Y. from March 7th- till the 20th, we still need some monetary help.
Although I feel strong and tempered from this, I really could use some help now to relieve this direct pressure in regards to money and focus on getting Elizabeth fixed. Again, If we got a little money from this we would be ecstatic! If we get a large Total donation amount, we as a family will not accept a penny over $15,000, period. This is already asking way too much. If we were to reach this goal (in my wildest dreams!) anything over would be donated to the Make a wish Foundation- they provide terminal children the ability to live out a dream they have, whether it be a trip to Disney World, or just to go fishing for an afternoon.
Someday soon, I know I will be able to go fishing for an afternoon. Till that day, I will keep up the fight.
All the best to you all- Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.
Some scan pictures are below. My ebay handle is JAHKNWS, I am not listing or selling anything at the moment due to our schedules, but you can search for an ebay user and see my feedback is 100% perfect, 50+ transactions. Everyone’s comments are about how I am a man who does what he says he will do.
Thank you again,
Adam and Elizabeth in New Hampshire.
Paypal account:
NYsurgery@hotmail.com
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