Michelle Carnes' Double Lung Transplant

Hi, my name is Tori Carnes and I created this GoFundMe for my mom Shelley.

My mom was dignosed with Primary Pulmonary Hypertension in March of 2003. Primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH) is high blood pressure in the lungs. It's a rare lung disorder in which the blood vessels in the lungs narrow and the pressure in the pulmonary artery rises far above normal levels. The only cure for this disease is a lung transplant. Many lung recipiants have expressed their surgery as a "re-birth" since it gave them their lives back.

She has been living with this illness for over 20 years, and it has progressively gotten worse to the point where her medical therapy of 21 years is no longer effective, the side effects of this medication is making other parts of her body severely sick, and she is on oxygen 24/7. Overall, she has had over 380 appointments for this disease. In January of 2023, she started the process to recieve a double lung transplant through Cleveland Clinic.

My mom has always been the best mom. Even though she has had a severe illness and has a continuous IV medication, she was always there to make mine and my siblings childhoods great. She homeschooled us at a young age, drove us to private school, took us to sports practices, made amazing homemade meals, packed our lunches, and did everything to keep our home beautiful and clean. Along with this, she also made it a priority to take us and our friends out to ice skate, go to haunted houses, see movies, and more. She is truly the hardest working person I know. She did all of these things, even though she was extremely sick all of the time, battled exhaustion daily, and lived with the extreme side effects of her life saving medication. Throughout all of these years, she sacrificed living the life she dreamed she could have.

She was FINALLY officially listed for a double lung transplant with a pectus excavatum on December 1st, 2023. A pectus excavatum is when the sternum and ribs begin to grow inward towards the lungs. This is the first double lung transplant surgery and pectus repair to happen ever at Cleveland Clinic. We were told that we would need to have $20,000 saved up to cover three or more months of travel expenses, co-pays, living accomadations, food, and to pay the bills back home.

My mom and her support group will have to live in Cleveland for a minimum of three months after the transplant for several weekly doctors, therapy, and testing appointments for her recovery. However, with this dual surgery, her recovery will most likely be extented.

We appreciate the support and kind words my mom has received over these years. She has a good support system for recovery in place. With the help of this GoFundMe and your kind contributions, we are hoping this will help elimiate some stress during her recovery process. We are looking forward to a new chapter for my mom, where she can have a better health and quality of life overall.