Help Olivia Battle Severe Crohn's Disease

UPDATE:

Olivia has been released from the hospital! She is so grateful to be home after almost 2 weeks. We are trying to figure out what foods she will be able to tolerate as she is far from healed. She will have to take steroids for at least the next month and is on other medications for pain. I’m grateful she’s home but I’m nervous about being the only caregiver. My work has been understanding but how long will that continue? Please continue to pray for healing. We feel your prayers and are so thankful.

ORIGINAL POST:

Olivia is 20 years old and suffers from POTS and is on the autism spectrum. Her biggest fear is doctors and needles. On September 3rd, after suffering for several days with full body pain and GI upset, Olivia finally agreed to go to the ER to be examined. Olivia was quickly admitted to the hospital after a CT scan showed severe intestinal inflammation.

Olivia faced down her greatest fears over the next several days as 2 regular IVs were placed and then 2 midline IVs were also placed. Doctors ran over 63 tests trying to determine what was causing the high fevers (103) and high white blood cell count (17,000). More CT scans were done as Olivia suffered from constant vomiting and painful diarrhea. After 7 days in the hospital, an endoscopy and a colonoscopy were performed. Several biopsies were taken, but the results took 5 days to come back. The GI Dr. was unable to complete the colonoscopy due to the severe inflammation present. Just adding air to the bowels caused bleeding. Dr. Martinez said Olivia has one of the worst cases of what he suspected to be Crohn’s disease he’s ever seen. Olivia was immediately started on high-dose steroids to try to combat the inflammation. Biopsy results did confirm Crohn’s disease, but by this point, Olivia was having some cardiac issues and was moved to ICU. More tests cleared her for now, but she will need to see a cardiologist upon her release from the hospital.

Olivia was finally able to eat soft foods after not eating for 11 days and being on no liquids by mouth for 3 days after the colonoscopy. So far, she is tolerating the soft foods well, but she still has a very long road ahead that will require lifelong medication and dietary and lifestyle changes.

As Olivia’s mom, I do carry insurance for her, but our out-of-pocket expenses have already totaled over $3,000 and we are only just beginning. I have been unable to work during Olivia’s entire hospital stay as she needed me to stay with her day and night and begged me not to leave her. Nothing is as important as my children, so, of course, I haven’t left her side except for a few hours to go home to shower and get us more clothes. The medications Dr. Martinez thinks will work best for her are extremely expensive. If insurance covers the medication, which is still up in the air, it will take several weeks to secure approval. Olivia needs to start this medication immediately to prevent further damage to her intestines. The medication she needs will cost over $2,000 per treatment, and the Dr. says per his experience, she will need at least 2 doses before we hear back from insurance.

My insurance has a $7,500 out-of-pocket maximum, so we are facing about $11,500 in expenses within the next few weeks. I am loathe to ask people for money, but as a single mom, this is going to be a severe financial hardship. I am humbly asking for any donation amount you can afford to help Olivia get the care and medication she needs to recover.