I am re-posting Tom's letter for all of the new visitors to our blog. It gives a glimpse into our lives and why we started this blog for Elizabeth and our family.
-Trish


Dear Friends,


My wife, Trish and I have been married for 20 years and we have 14-year-old triplets, Jack, Elizabeth and Jessica. Four years into our marriage, I had my first kidney transplant and the triplets were born 10 months after my transplant. Just weeks before their birth, I was injured at work. I broke my left knee in three places, which led to an ulcer on my right foot, which led to an infection and many surgeries on the foot and eventually amputation of my right leg below the knee. One of the triplets, Elizabeth, was damaged with a ventilator tube when she was 6 weeks old while still in the NICU. She came home at 10 weeks of age with a tracheotomy. She has subsequently had 62 airway surgeries over the years to rebuild and maintain her airway. All of her surgeries take place at Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio by Dr. Robin Cotton. We travel 500 miles round trip (from Whitmore Lake, MI) for her surgeries because Cincinnati has the best airway unit in the country. She had her 62nd surgery on August 3 because she has recently developed difficulty breathing while exercising. She is a high school basketball player and she has been pushing herself at the summer practices to keep up because of her breathing.

ElizabethThe surgery revealed that a section of her airway is collapsing and will need to be fixed. The surgery to fix the problem is a Laryngotracheoplasty, where the surgeon will take one of Elizabeth’s ribs and graft it into the weak section of airway to support it. She will be in ICU on a ventilator for 21 days after surgery and then move to a room on the airway unit for up to 2 months of recovery. This is a very risky surgery, but without it, her airway will eventually collapse completely. This will take place at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital early next June. The surgeon doesn’t want to do it now because Elizabeth would have to miss too much school and she is going into 10th grade. She will be in honors classes (her current GPA is 3.94) and it would be very hard to make up that work. He will, of course, do the surgery sooner if she has any more difficulties breathing before the scheduled surgery.

This past year has been full of challenges. I became very ill because my transplanted kidney was dying and I needed dialysis. Trish took classes and was trained to administer my hemo-dialysis at home. We did that from December 05 until I received my transplant on April 6, 2006 from a living donor, a wonderful woman that had heard about me through her church bulletin. She gave me the most generous gift anyone could ever give and I am alive today because of her. I worked hard with physical therapy to regain the strength I had lost from being so sick and then in August of 06, I had a stroke. The stroke really set me back. It affected my right side and my speech. After many months of working hard, I regained my speech and most of my right side although I still have trouble writing. In October 2006, I had cataracts removed from both eyes. The cataracts were caused by the medicine I take to protect my kidney from rejection. In November, I had a bad fall and injured my hip and thigh and was back in a wheel chair until December when I could walk again. In January 2007 the transmission went out on our 1995 Ford Windstar, with 189,000 miles on it. It also has a leak somewhere on the electrical system. All the places we have talked to say the best place for it is the junkyard. In March, we got devastating news. I had gangrene on my toes of my left foot so I had an arteriogram that showed very
little blood flow to my foot. The vascular surgeon did a bypass surgery for this on Wednesday, March 7. I had complications with the bypass; on Friday, March 9 the pulse stopped in my lower leg and foot and I was rushed back to surgery to repair the blockage. My leg couldn’t be saved and it was amputated on April 10, 2007. I am now a double amputee.

Because we did not have reliable transportation for my many medical appointments and hospitalizations, my daughter’s surgeries in Ohio and for my wife to get to work to support our family, we had to borrow money from family and also get a loan to buy a good, used mini-van. Due to my many medical needs, my wife can only work 30 hours a week, so she is available to take care of me and get my daughter and me to our frequent doctor appointments. My wife’s income last year was only $18,605. Even with my workers compensation, it is not enough to pay all of the bills, (food, gas, utilities, insurances, school supplies, clothes, shoes, etc.) for a family of five. We owe quite a few thousands of dollars in medical bills that have already gone to collections and we are struggling to pay a little on that each month.

Have you ever heard of six degrees of separation? It is the theory that any person in the world can be connected to any other person in the world by no more than five acquaintances. You might not know it, but you or five other people you have been in contact with, can either help you or they will know someone that can help you in someway. I am currently using this philosophy for selling raffle tickets for Old St. Pat’s church. If the first person I approach can’t buy one, they know someone else who might, so within a few short weeks I have raised over $2,000 for the church Labor Day Festival. This same philosophy could help my family. If you don’t know how to help us, maybe one of your friends or personal contacts can help us. When my wife Trish takes Elizabeth to Cincinnati for her major surgery in June, our family will be split into two locations. Trish will need to take the Family Leave Act, which means no income for 2 months, and she is the family breadwinner. I will have to stay home with the other 2 children, Jack and Jessica. Not only will we still have our regular monthly bills, we will have added expenses with Trish and Elizabeth staying in Cincinnati for up to 2 months. If they can’t get into the Ronald McDonald House right away, they will have to stay at the next cheapest place which is $50 a day. There will also be the cost of gas for the drive down and back and food for Trish.
Since she was 6 weeks old Elizabeth has undergone 62 airway surgeries, many hospitalizations, and pain. That has been a large part of her life. We are trying to give her the best outcome possible by taking her to the best ENT surgeon in the world for her condition. She deserves the best quality of life we can provide.

We gratefully welcome your help and prayers.

Tom Dawson