Help Matthew Overcome His Medical and Financial Challenges

Matthew has had 25 surgeries since January 2021, when he almost died from necrotizing pancreatitis. He is currently in ICU and is in dire need of financial help. While struggling just to live, he's also struggling to care for his family. He has developed many health complications beyond the initial issues that landed him in a coma for three weeks in 2021, making it impossible for him to work. Lately, he averages an ER trip about once every two weeks. This week alone, he has visited the ER twice, where it was discovered he was in diabetic ketoacidosis for the third time. If you know anything about that, you know that it is a "life-threatening complication of diabetes that occurs when the body doesn't have enough insulin to process blood sugar into energy." Without swift treatment, he could have slipped into a coma or died.

I would like to go into a little bit of detail regarding what Matthew experiences on a daily basis, but the landscape of his pain and complications are ever-changing, and usually not for the good, which makes it difficult to summarize. The main factor that causes the frequent diabetic ketoacidosis (and ER visits when he is close to it) is the diabetes that he developed after the necrotizing pancreatitis. Basically, his pancreas doesn't function, and because of this, insulin is not produced to control his blood sugar levels. But it seems that sometimes his pancreas will decide to kick in for a second, throwing off everything he does to control it. So not only does he have the scary high numbers, sometimes he drops so low that it is also life threatening. Just about a month ago, Matthew's wife, Danielle, almost had to use the epi pen given to him when his sugars are so low that he could go into a coma. In this particular instance, his monitor reading was malfunctioning, and if she had used the epi pen on him, it could've killed him. These are the daily rollercoasters that everyone around Matthew goes through.

Most recently, Matthew had a problem with his stitches from a previous surgery, that resulted in him undergoing yet another surgery (his 25th). Long story short, when Matthew's pancreas failed in 2021, it affected other organs in his abdominal cavity. Everything was out of place for a long time, and he had to be closed up that way for a while, with a wound vac in place for a bit to drain things as he healed. About a year ago, he had his "major surgery," where they went in and put his organs back in place, and finally stitched him up with "permanent stitches.". We came to find out later that the materials used to stitch him up were too thick, and Matthew experienced awful pain as they started to poke up through his skin, eventually causing infection. A little over a month ago, Matthew had to surgery to fix these stitches, but unfortunately that involved him having to be completely opened up again. To our surprise, they didn't completely close him this time, so his stomach has been somewhat tacked together to allow the skin to close and heal, with a wound vac attached for draining. Needless to say, that did not help things when got sick on Tuesday and developed the diabetic ketoacidosis. Additionally, he was told he has a possible bowel obstruction, which would most likely require another surgery.

Because Matthew's case is unique, and not many people survive what he went through (he had a 17% chance to live), it seems that the local medical community is somewhat unsure of what to do with him. His diabetes doesn't follow the rules of Type 1 or Type 2. Our whole family is constantly frustrated with what seems to be guesswork and experimentation with Matthew's treatment. The surgeon who saved his life no longer works at the hospital and it makes him very nervous to have new people working on him. I could write a whole post about the mishaps and scary moments. But, we can't be too upset because he is thankfully still alive.

Matthew has been told that there are things that could improve his quality of life, such as trials, stem cells, etc., but they're only available in states other than where he lives, and he has no way of affording the treatments, let alone the cost of flights and somewhere to stay. At the moment, and for the past few years, he and our family have been struggling to pay his rent and survive. Stress is a trigger with his diabetes, and there seems to be an endless supply of it for Matthew. Our entire family has exhausted all of our personal financial resources to help out. Any help that you can provide to help him is appreciated beyond what words can express. It would be so nice for Matthew to be able to focus solely on his health and survival. Thank you.