Help Sanderson Family

Jon is undergoing the most challenging part of his life, both physically and emotionally. Long story short: Jon will need a liver transplant every 8-10 years for the rest of his life. He is always looking for donors who match his O+ blood type (any positive blood type is a possible match). 

His wife, Heather, has been doing the work of two parents as Jon has been too sick and weak to do most of the things he would normally be able to do on an everyday basis. Since 2016, Jon has been in and out of the hospital and undergoing a multitude of testing and ultimately was diagnosed with Cirrhosis of the liver. The entire family is looking for support from friends, family, and anyone else who is willing to help in any way possible to help ease the burden in their time of need with everything they have going on now and in the future after Jon's transplant surgery. Please continue reading to learn about Jon's story and why he needs your help.

Where it all started:

In 2016, Jon noticed something was off with his body, but of course, being the person he is, he didn’t seek help from doctors at first. He didn't think anything was seriously wrong, but once things started getting bad enough he finally decided to take it seriously. At this point, he couldn’t even drink water without his body rejecting it and he lost an incredible amount of weight in a short period of time. He was taken to the hospital and admitted where we found out that he had Ulcerative Colitis, also known as UC. He had to stay at the hospital because his body was so dehydrated that his kidneys started to shut down. Once out of the hospital, we thought things would get better now that we knew what was happening and it was being treated. Little did we know that 5% of patients with Ulcerative Colitis can form a chronic liver disease called PSC or Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis. This is where the bile ducts inside and outside of the liver become inflamed and scarred and are eventually narrowed or blocked. Once the ducts are narrowed or blocked, bile builds up in the liver causing further liver damage. So, this is where we are: liver failure. Jon was diagnosed with Cirrhosis of the liver in December of 2020 at 31 years old. Jon is now on the liver transplant list waiting for a living or deceased organ donor. As he waits, his body and other organs are being affected as well and starting to deteriorate. When your liver starts to fail, it affects so many different parts of your body and he really had no idea what he was facing. As time has gone on, he has lost all of his muscle mass and is now extremely thin and fragile. He does not have any strength and struggles to even open something as simple as a water bottle. He also has extreme exhaustion and on his days off spends most of the time sleeping.

Since the liver is failing to process all of the bile that is trying to move through it, he has started having a build-up of fluids in his stomach and swelling in his legs and feet. He has to have help putting on his socks and shoes because his feet have gotten so swollen that it is an everyday struggle to put on his work boots. And yes, through all of this he has still managed to go to work because as the sole income of the household, he knows he needs to continue working as long as he can. With the fluid building up in his stomach, it causes him extreme pain that he fights through everyday. With so much extra fluid, there is added pressure pushing on all of his organs making it hard for him to even breathe because his lungs cannot expand to their full capacity. Even going down the stairs in his house makes him so out of breath that he has to sit and take a break just to catch his breath. Through all of this, Jon is doing weekly appointments to have the fluids that have built up in his body drained to try and relieve the pressure and pain it is causing. Each time he goes to have this done, they are pulling 6 liters of fluid from his stomach and that isn't even all of the fluid that he has. That is three 2 liter bottles of fluid pulled each time. They cannot remove more at this point because the shift in all of the organs with the extra space made from removing the fluids would cause other issues he would have to deal with. So now there is little relief that only lasts about 5 days before it builds back up in him again. Every day is a struggle but he is determined to fight until he can get a new liver.

About Jon:

Jon is a son, brother, uncle, husband, friend, and daddy to three beautiful daughters. Jon and Heather met in July of 2013 and married in January 2014. In the early years of marriage, Jon adopted Heather's 7 year old daughter, Ava, as his own and then welcomed twin girls, Lola and Ella, in September of 2014. His life was full of joy and the family spent all of their time making memories together. His twins weren't very old (only two years old) when he started being affected by the UC. They probably don't even remember times when their dad could play and be full of life like he should've been. Now that the girls are 8 years old, it is still hard for them to fully understand why we can't go and do many fun things or why their dad has to be in bed so much. At this point, Jon has to walk with the use of a cane and cannot keep up with everyone else. Lola has commented many times about how she is worried for her dad. Ella has grown very attached to her dad since she was born and is definitely a daddy's girl. She is always helping him and takes pride in being Jon's own personal nurse; she only wants to take care of him. But it's not something an 8 year old should have to worry about. Jon is also very close with his family, so family members from both sides of the family have traveled from out of state to help with care and appointments many times.

Jon has never been one to be able to sit for long. He is always up fixing or building something. His love of working on cars and raising koi fish has had to be pushed to the side as he does not have any strength or energy to do much of anything at this point.

We are in need of your help:

We want to make life easier for Jon and his family and take some stress off of his shoulders as he has other things to worry about with his health and the possibility of a liver transplant. He will be out of work for a minimum of three months, but most people take much longer to recover. We want to help ease any burden on the family so that there isn't any extra stress on Jon during his recovery. Between the stress of all of the doctor visits, hospital visits, surgeries, and procedures they've got a lot on their plate and when it rains it pours. Through Jon's medical journey, his wife was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She had her thyroid removed and is still figuring out the aftermath symptoms and continuing monitoring to make sure the cancer doesn't reappear. On top of that, Covid has hit their family twice now and the doctors have let them know that even the smallest cold could be life or death for Jon. Also, this past month Heather and their oldest daughter, Ava were involved in a car accident that totaled the car. They are going through their fair share of difficult times, so we want to help in any way we can. We are also searching for living donors. Many people do not know that it is an option to donate a portion of your liver to someone in need. The liver regenerates itself and will function normally in just a few months. Living donors do not typically experience any serious long-term complications after donation. Living donors are especially important for those in end-stage liver disease because it ensures these patients get a life-saving organ transplant when they need it. Some patients on the transplant list are left waiting years or possibly may never get a deceased donor transplant before they need it because there is such a small number of deceased organ donors each year. If you feel it in your heart that you would like to donate to their cause even if it is only $1, or a meal… anything will help. If you are looking for more information on how to become a living donor or filling out a questionnaire to see if you might be a match you can go to this website to learn more. 

healthcare.utah.edu/transplant/living-donor

Uofulivingdonor.org