Help Jesse Graves after life-saving surgery!

October '23 Update:

Hello friends of the Graves family!

Jesse is doing well six months after her second liver transplant surgery. The lab values at her most recent check up in Denver were great! The doctors will continue to monitor her heart, spleen and new liver in the coming months. The whole family is slowly getting back to a new normal and working on their mental health after all the medical chaos and uncertainty of the last couple of years. Medical bills and traveling expenses have stacked up and any help you can give is appreciated!

Thank you for reaching out with your love and support. Share if you can!

Original:

Hello, My name is Naomi Peterson and I am finally starting a fundraiser to help Jesse Graves and her amazing family during this difficult time. I had the privilege of getting to know Jesse and her husband, Jordan, as we worked together in college at MSU. Jesse told me of her Wilson's diagnosis and the difficulties she faced as a result. Even then, I was amazed at the grace and inner peace she approached life with. (Wilson's disease is a genetic disorder that causes copper to accumulate in the organs- particularly the liver, eyes and brain.) She was on maintenance medication and the symptoms were managed for many years. Jesse married Jordan in 2007 and their miracle children were born in 2015 and 2016. Her condition deteriorated last year to the point where a liver transplant became necessary. Through a generous donor, Jess was able to receive a living donor liver transplant on October 31st. The recovery has been longer and more challenging than was anticipated. Jess and Jordan are staying in short-term rentals with their 2 boys until she is healed enough to go back to their home in Wyoming.

The family has used up all they were able to save on a teacher's salary and needs our support as they continue on Jesse's healing journey. Any amount you can give will help them with Jess's medications, travel expenses for follow-up visits, rental expenses and food while they are in Denver. The whole family is fun, generous and loving and they are truly the most wonderful people you will ever meet! Let's band together and support Jesse's amazing smile and Jordan's famous hugs!

Here is the story of Jesse's journey so far:

Jesse was diagnosed at age 16 with Wilson’s Disease. She initially did months of inpatient treatment at the University of Michigan hospital and was prescribed a maintenance medication for the rest of her life. About ten years ago, she had what she calls a “Wilson’s relapse.” She developed tremors in her extremities and her speech patterns were like those of a stroke victim. Since then, she has slowly been improving. She no longer walks with a cane, her hand tremors have diminished by quite a bit, and her speech is mostly back to normal. Two years ago, she was told by her liver specialist in Billings, MT that her liver had deteriorated to such a condition that she should establish a relationship with a transplant center. They were concerned that she may need a liver transplant in the future and that we should get more information and make contacts.

In the fall of 2021, Jess had an esophageal bleed that required an ambulance trip and surgical procedure to stop the bleeding. In December 2021, she had her initial meetings and tests done at UC Anschutz in Aurora, CO. The initial message was that she would eventually need a transplant, but it would probably be 3-5 years before it became critical. She and Jordan started budgeting for this eventuality with that in mind. Shortly after, they told her that she needed to start seeking live donors right away, as her liver was in a worse condition than they thought. In October 2022, she was contacted and given a transplant date. Jesse, Jordan and their boys packed up everything they needed for the next 8 weeks and moved to Denver, CO.

On October 31st, Jesse's transplant was a success! Her surgeon took pictures of her evicted liver to show her post-surgery. Jess describes it as looking like “black and dark red, bumpy all over. It looked like it had something that had been forgotten on the grill for a few hours.” After two weeks of inpatient care, she was discharged. Later that day, she was readmitted with an allergic reaction to one of her medications. After testing and treatment, she was discharged again. She was readmitted less than a week later with an infection at her incision site. She was treated and discharged after another week of inpatient care. She had checkups and home health care for a week, then was readmitted again after a CT scan identified fluid pockets on her new liver, causing severe nausea. She was discharged on December 20th with a drain. With upcoming appointments and procedures scheduled, she and her family hope to be allowed to return home to Wyoming in mid-January, several weeks later than originally anticipated.

Jess’s husband Jordan, and their two sons Pip and Huck, ages 6 and 7, have all been with her in the greater Denver area during this time. Jordan teaches 7th-grade math for an online school in Wyoming that their boys both attend. While Jess has been hospitalized, Jordan has been working full-time teaching, as well as being the boys’ learning coach. They have moved to four different locations in the Denver area as their stay has been extended several times. They all work to care for Jess when she’s been at home, as well as keeping on top of their school work. They celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas away from home, but thankfully both holidays were over periods of time when Jess was discharged from the hospital.

The boys are not allowed onto the recovery floor during flu season, so their only contact with their mom during her hospitalizations was over the Internet. Friends and family were able to watch the boys for occasional mornings or afternoons so that Jordan could visit Jess during her recovery. From the beginning of this journey until now, Jess and her family have been struck by the miraculous provision of God and the generosity of the people in their lives. From their friend, Justin Arndt, donating a portion of his liver to make Jess’s transplant possible, to the financial, time, and spiritual support they have received from their family and friends, they know God is working to make all of this happen.