Support Dallas and Dae in Their Time of Need

I Thank God this isn't an obituary.

I’ve vacillated between writing and releasing this event or keeping it quiet. I may laugh and joke on social media, but my generation was raised to be very private, hunker down and essentially suffer in silence and if the battle was lost, the first words anyone would say would be: “why didn’t he say anything.”

About a week and a half ago, in a moment of not quite having my full faculties, I placed a cryptic message on my page that said “I almost saw Mother Logan,” who is no longer with us as of 2002 and before I knew it I was hit with a storm of messages (across all platforms) that I quickly took it down because at the time I didn’t have the energy or strength to address everyone’s concerns, but it made me say I have a lot of people who love me and I owe them an explanation.

The other day I placed a message on my page that said: “I Live With An Honest To God Hero.” That hero is Dae Howerton. Let me tell you this: If Dae wasn’t there, I would be dead. Literally.

Saturday, March 8, I was rushed to the UCLA emergency room in an altered mental state, and incredibly, incredibly sick. I was in a state of multi organ failure, my body was creating and filling up with ammonia and I was so sick that when Dae was trying to get into my telephone to contact my doctor he kept asking me for the code. He told me I held my hand up (with nothing in it) and with my other hand I was pressing the code to open the phone (by pressing nothing in the palm of my hand). They (the doctors) told him if he would’ve waited one more day that I would not be here. If he waited even later in that day, I would’ve died. As they stood outside my hospital room in the ICU they said to him “he is very sick, we may not be able to do anything.” I knew I was ill, but to me I just felt under the weather and all I wanted to do was “ride it out” and if I didn’t feel good by Monday THEN I would go.

A lot of you were witnessing my weight loss journey and I was proud of it, then something happened and the weight loss was no longer mine to control and I was down to 195lb. And while that may seem like a nice amount of weight, when I came out the bathroom, Dae said me “Dallas, you’re wasting away.” Seeing myself every day I denied this. I crawled back into bed. At this point, there was very little appetite and in a 24 hour day, I may have been sleeping 23 of those hours. Dae looked at me and burst into tears and said “Dallas, you are dying. I can’t let that happen.” He forcibly dressed me (he had to, I was fighting him in my feeble state all the while). He then placed me in an office chair we had in the apartment, wheeled me downstairs and through the parking lot and into the car and proceeded to save my life.

The reason for the weight loss in the beginning is because I had “developed” Afib (a heart condition) and my cardiologist urged that I lose weight and I started on that journey. Through all of my doctor visits I also found out that I was severely anemic and at that time they could not find the source. I was started on a regimen of various heart medications, blood thinners and iron (which turned my stool very dark). I brought this concern up to my doctor and was told that is a side effect of the iron medication (also come to find out not only was my stool dark, it was “tarry” and masking that I was losing blood).

Running around with various tests and still not quite finding the source, they were about to do a bone marrow procedure. In the interim I developed jaundice that was so bad, my eyes looked like I was a Marvel character, my skin started turning yellow and severely itchy, so they threw medication at that. So here I am taking heart meds, anemia meds, jaundice meds. Inside my liver and kidneys were taking a beating. I was getting weaker and weaker. I had no strength at photo shoots, I didn’t want to eat, I could barely drink water, but in my MIND I was just under the weather. Which inevitably led to Dae creating a make shift wheel chair and getting me to the hospital.

Once there, the amazing team at UCLA worked around the clock to save me. There was transfusions, dialysis and bunches of other tests. Dae was there every step of the way being my advocate. Going back and forth home to take care of our animals. Securing photo shoots and trying not to break down. My best friend Butch came into town from NY immediately and helped Dae keeping him sane and helping whenever and wherever he could. He was a godsend. Only a very few close people knew what was going on and of course every time another person came into the loop, the question always was “how come you didn’t say anything.” The only reply he had was “I had no answers to give.”

There were talks of liver transplants and kidney transplants and I was denied because I was so sick that it became a balancing game of “if we put him on the list, he may not survive and we would waste an organ that could go to someone that can survive.” By the grace of God I was not a drinker, or smoker, but the state of my health and my age played a factor. In order for me to even be considered for any organ transplant, I had to get better. Dae jumped into action and was reaching out to transplant hospitals from Oregon to Alabama sending out letters and having people write letters to those in control on my behalf. He wasn’t going down without a fight.

Long story short, after a few endoscopic procedures, MRIs and a bunch of other regimens, I slowly started getting better. Through all these procedures they ruled out I don’t have cancer and my liver is healing to the point that I do not need a transplant. I am home now and not 100%. I am slowly on the mend and hopefully in a couple of months I will be fully functional. So if anything, please thank Dae.

Without him there would be no me.

The reason for this GoFund Me is to help us get back on our feet.

Thank you