Putting a Smile on my “Angels Face”

My wife "Chasity" suffers daily from a birth defect called Gastroschisis and Omphalocele  She has had over 17 surgeries in her 37 years of life, and now she goes in the hospital every other month for about 1-2 weeks at a time. This has caused her to not be able to work any longer! Her intestines have stopped absorbing nutrition and she has been on  Total  Parental  Nutrition (TPN) for the past 3 1/2- 4 years. Meaning she has to get all her nutrition through an IV bag into a port in her chest over 8 hours every night. Rather than eating food like the rest of us. She also fights reoccurring infections due to the port and has undergone 8 additional operations to remove and replace her port when it causes an infection.  She has recently been getting a lot of kidney problems, bladder infections and has been hospitalized for sepsis to many times to count.  Her latest diagnosis to add to the pile of existing problems is called D-lactic acidosis. It basically takes any carbohydrates, sugars and so forth and produces neurotoxins in her bloodstream causing her to  appear extremely intoxicated, it could even result in a coma.   

My Goals to achieve for her.....

My most important goal with this is that I really want to get the word out to as many people as possible about these conditions she faces daily. It's really rare and almost impossible to find other adults with these conditions for a support group. We have not been told of any cures for these conditions, we can only pray and trust God. And hope this gets out to enough people with the possibility that a interested doctor might read it and actually be familiar with it or know of a way to provide a opportunity for an improved lifestyle. Or to be able to research it and willing to try a new operation or something.  Her (bucket list) or number one thing she would absolutely die for is to meet the signers of the group "Journey". And attend one of their concerts! I think she would faint on the spot. Also I would love to be able to fulfill other dreams she has and take her on a few trips to let her experience traveling to see new places, I really want to make her so happy, but it is hard to do now that she can no longer work and is frequently in the hospital.  Or even to find times that she is feeling well enough to get out and away from all her doctors long enough. So I thought I would give this fundraiser a try. All of her current doctors basically just try to manage her condition the best they can to make her comfortable. We also have 2 great sons age 12 and 15 that as you could imagine the toll it takes on them to see their mom constantly sick, or in the hospital again.  It has been extremely difficult on our entire family but we have been fortunate enough to live a true testament that families stick together no matter the issues we are faced with.  Chasity is the backbone of this family and her smile will light up any room as soon as she walks in. If you have been fortunate enough to ever meet her then you already know what I mean. She has such a giving heart and cares only about everyone else, above her own needs.

She is an amazing, intelligent, strong and God loving woman. She always sets her goals as high as the sky. I would have never made it in the military for the last 17 years if I didn't have her as my backbone/battle buddy. Her sense of humor is out of this world. Her number one favorite show to watch is Ellen, and Impractical Jokers on TruTV. She dreams to one day be on that show as the 5th person. You will probably never see her not smiling and laughing. She has a remarkable way of putting all her issues on the back burner per say, and make whoever she is talking to feel like they are most important person to her. She has even literally given the jacket off her back to a lady that was walking in the rain at like 11 pm one night, and plus gave the lady a ride home. Another instance I can recall was when she gave another family that was struggling at the time, she gave them a car!! Yes I said a Car!! My wife was just in tears knowing they had to walk everywhere they had to go and we had two cars in our driveway. So she just gave it to them one day, and said please don't try to give it back nor pay any money for it. She has the kindest heart that I have ever seen in any person.  

If you would like to help. You can in several ways. First and most important is to get the word out to more people and to educate yourself and others on these conditions, please look them up and read more about it, I placed a few links below if you're interested. And please, please, post this to all your social sites and email it to everyone you know. Together we may be able to get the word to the right people that could help her get better. I believe  there is a way out there to fix her. Even though she is discouraged that there may be hope in a complete cure. Also if you would like to donate to my fundraiser I would be grateful, no donation is to small! 

Keep the dream alive! I met my beautiful wife in high school.. and we have been married now for over 17 years. I could not ever imagine this world without her in it. Please get the word out.. Please

Prayer always works!! please continue to pray for our family..........

*** All the money donated will go towards research and our attempts to get this out to as many people as we can. News paper articles, flyers, advertising, doctor visits, trips to other doctors far away. I am in the process of trying to get a consult with the intestinal transplant clinic in Cleveland Ohio. Tricare covers some of it here locally but it won't pay for non-referral things like getting the consults and going to other clinics in hope to find a cure or any of the above mentioned ideas. ***

Thank you, for taking the time to read this post.

- Gastroschisis:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001987/ 

- Omphalocele: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001989/

 -Total  Parental  Nutrition (TPN): http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a601166.html

- D-lactic acidosis: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9556700

God Bless You.. 

Loving Husband Troy wife Chasity and Family Cody Jacob