Help Kristen get healthy.

I'm Cathy, known for 41 years as "Kristen's Mom". In 2019 she was diagnosed with Gastroparesis - basically her stomach is paralyzed. Since that diagnosis, she has been unable to work and has missed lots of birthdays and holiday celebrations, in addition to: getting a feeding tube & chest port (both replaced multiple times), having a pacemaker implanted, has had sepsis 13 times (two times being almost fatal), has been hospitalized 26 times, has had 18 surgeries in 3 years (the most recent this week). Since she has been on TPN (liquid nutrition) since February 2022, she has to wear a backpack hooked up to her port at all times. She can’t eat her favorite foods, or most foods, and some days can’t even hold water down. And we are not even going to talk about the pain.

She has been in the hospital this time for 27 days so far. The surgery we all prayed for is not considered a success at this time, but that could change over the next 6-8 weeks. For now, we're going back to the original treatment plan with the addition of a new medication not covered by insurance. The out-of-pocket cost will be about $6,000, in addition to the cost of the TPN formula and the supplies required to manage the feeding tube, glucose monitoring and power port (about $1,100 a week) in addition to the other 13 medications she takes daily.

Since she has been unable to work, her amazingly wonderful husband Mickey has carried the load...financially, emotionally, and physically. He's working full time and taking care of cats and Kristen. He drives her to every appointment, treatment, infusion, procedure, surgery, ER visit, doctor's office and hospital stays. That includes the time away from work, the gas, needs that pop up while you're 45 minutes away from home, like snacks, drinks, meals, phone chargers... don't get me started on the cost of parking!

This week they learned that the monthly cost of their insurance will increase from $1,361.50 to $1,726.02. Her latest insurance statement shows that her portion of this year's charges is over $300,000. It truly is great insurance but cannot cover every expense, and clearly comes at a cost.

Asking for help is never easy, but here we are. Please know how incredibly grateful we are to all of you who have loved and supported my girl.