Waiting on transplant, save the house!

Hello, my name is Tessa Everhart and I am hoping for a miracle!! My brother in law, Jason Lee is awaiting a liver transplant due to a genetic anomaly, Alpha 1 Antitrypsin Deficiency. This news has been fast and has catastrophically impacted the lives of the family. Jason and my sister Cassy have three biological children and three bonus children as well as being the hub of the neighborhood play dates. Due to the devastating symptoms and treatment schedule, they are not only at risk of losing their father, but also now at risk of losing their beautiful home. We are out of time and out of options. I know everyone out there is hurting right now but I cannot stand by and do nothing as I watch this travesty unfold for such good people. No one should have to experience this. The funds will go towards the foreclosure notice and help ease the stress of medical care and Jason trying take on too much when he simply cannot.

HERE IS CASSYS EDIT FOR EVERYONE TO TRY TO HELP FILL IN THE GAPS:

Some of you may have noticed that I have not been on Facebook much this year. Since we have reached a point where we can no longer fight this battle alone, I wanted to try to let everyone know what has been going on and how we got to where we are now. For a while now Jason has been battling fatigue, muscle cramps and swelling in his legs. But, like all the stereotypical marriage jokes, I nagged him to see a Dr while he attributed it to working 70-80 hours a week on a concrete factory floor. Sounds logical though, right? So I didn't push harder than nagging. Until January when his body decided to make sure he couldn't just power through anymore. We were at a wrestling meet way out of town and he started having increasing pain in his right side. True to his nature, he would not allow me to leave our daughter's meet to take him to urgent care or the ER. Instead, he went out to the truck and insisted that with the seat reclined, the pain was much better and he would just try to take a nap as he had been working 12 hour shifts. So, I spent the next few hours running back and forth between my daughter's matches and the parking lot to check on him. Each time I checked, he would wake up enough to insist he was just tired and the pain was better. After the meet he continued insisting despite my threats of just dumping him at the ER if he didn't agree to get it checked out. He finally agreed that he would go tomorrow if he didn't feel right. The next morning he couldn't ignore the pain or pretend anymore and asked me to take him to urgent care. This led to being told to go to the ER to have imaging done. The ER did scans and he ended up taking an ambulance ride to be admitted in Chillicothe for more tests. There were suggestions that made no sense after tests and more tests but they did know that his liver was inflamed and gallbladder full of stones. After discharge came waiting for appointments with specialist for gastro. Cirrhosis was their diagnosis and they appeared content to write it off as being due to drinking in his 20s, despite him giving family history. Procedures came next to check things out and address risk of varices in esophagus. Following this procedure the Dr came to inform me that the varices were present and bigger than they had expected but that they were taken care of. She again mentioned him being a drinker and I made her hear me when I expressed reasons for doubting this as the cause. She did order more testing to further investigate cause. Meanwhile more waiting while he had labs and CTs repeatedly done to check for changes. Results showed genetic mutation Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency. We were told to have the kids tested for this as it is hereditary. Puzzle pieces clicked into place and we figure this is what led to his father passing. That too was written off as past drinking and if we had known what it really was, steps could have been taken to reduce Jason's risk of developing issues. 1 of 3 of our children have also tested to show they carry the mutation and the only bright side has been that knowing allows those precautions to be taken to reduce the chances of anyone else going through this in our family. We have met with the liver specialist at OSU and are awaiting contact from the transplant team. We meet the lung specialist at the end of this month to determine if there has been damage to his lungs because part of the problem caused by the Deficiency is that the AAT is a protein made in the lungs to protect them and if your body doesn't make enough, they are more easily damaged. The appointment is to start the process to determine if he would be able to survive a transplant or "die on the table" as one Dr put it. It has been a horrible journey filled with waiting, confusion, fear and worry with him in continued pain as they can do nothing to address the gallbladder that presses on the liver until the liver is taken care of, which can't be taken care of until lungs are assessed. There continues to be regular labs and CT scans done, he has to have procedure for varices repeated every 3 months and while we have insurance, I don't know what we would do without the OSU pharmacy as 1 of his prescriptions isn't covered and would be thousands of dollars a month. He is unable to take pain medication and continues to drag himself to work despite this and fatigue that we have to monitor as he could develop hepatic encephalopathy from the buildup of toxins not managed by the liver. We were doing everything we could to get caught up after the chaos of covid and layoffs and him having to change jobs. I changed agencies and roles to try to get ahead and we were finally seeing light at the end of that tunnel. And then our world turned upside down, he isn't able to work as many hours and has to miss for appointments and procedures. Short term disability took months to approve and caused us to have to get creative to meet needs for necessities, food as he has to change what and how he eats since his body has started consuming muscle, co-pays, medications, gas to get to all these appointments, and while we paid when and what we could, it became a choice of keeping him taken care of to give him the best chances, making sure kids were taken care of and juggling payments for everything else. Short-term disability was just that, short term. I have made endless calls and done everything that has been suggested. We are working with financial counseling, we have applied and been denied for programs and assistance because we both work and are not in immediate danger of being on the street. The mortgage company approved our hardship application and sent paperwork with their solution: double our interest rate and increase our monthly payments, putting what we owe at the end of the loan. We have been backed into a corner and requests for forbearance while we work with financial counseling to figure out if selling to downsize is the best option have been denied.

I am working on longer term solutions, speeding up meeting requirements to become independently licensed to increase income and trying to buy us enough time to make the changes to try to support us with one income. I have hit a wall. I'm the helper, I literally made that my career. I'm not used to not being able to find solutions and needing help but I am exhausted and defeated and have been unable to find another way. We have to get caught up and stay that way long enough to make repairs that he has been physically and now financially unable to do so that we can start focusing on what we need to do to get him through all that is coming. My sisters jumped in when I finally reached the end of hope and had been given the ultimatum of catching up the payments by the end of July or they will move forward with foreclosure as I would not agree to the hardship modification that would be even harder to pay. If you have made it to the end, thank you from my whole heart ❤️