Love For Ashley

Eight hundred and Thirty-Two dollars and Eighty-Seven cents ($837.87), that is what it cost us for Ashley's recent trip Shands Hospital. One trip that only included an MRI with contrast and blood work. Eight hundred and Thirty-Two dollars and Eighty-Seven sents for an MRI, gas, labs, meals, and parking just for Ashley to be at the hospital for a total of two hours at the least. A visit that takes us all day to complete. Just one trip! Multiply that amount by 3 or 4 and you might have a better understanding of what we spend out-of-pocket on just Ashley alone for her visits to Shands Hospital Liver Clinic That's $2,498.61 to $3,331.48 dollars out of our pocket each year just for her trips to Shands. That doesn't include the visits to her pediatrician which can be once a week or labs done at our local Quest Diagnostic Center (at least 6 times a year). Okay now even more of a shocker...multiply that yearly amount by 11. That's $36,646.28. That's just only a fractio...

Since Ashley has been doing so well we have not done any fundraisers since Christmas last year. However, the cookbook fundraiser is ongoing. Since we have asked people not to donate to Ashley's Liver Transplant Fund with the American Liver Foundation, we have not received any donations. As much as we would like to continue to raise money to cover Ashley's current and future medical expenses, we just don't have a beneficial fund set up for Ashley as of right now. But much to my surprise someone donated to Ashley early this month and I was not even aware. It has been months since I checked the PayPal account so tonight I logged onto the account and discovered that on June 1 E. O'Brien from Spring Hill, Florida donated $25 to Ashley's Fund. Thank you E. O'Brien, whoever you are, your gift will help pay for Ashley's trip to Shands Hospital on June 26. Ashley Thanks You! If you would like to help Ashley with her medical expenses, you too can donate through Pay...

What would keep a person up past 3:30 am? Decisions... As most of you know we have been using ALF (American Liver Foundation) for Ashley's Liver Transplant Fund. However, in the past year, we have found that ALF is not offering us what we need among a few other reasons which I will not blog about. When we opened Ashley's account with ALF we did so quickly after the death of my dad during Christmas 2006 and New Year 2007, we did not have time to research the best fundraising organizations. There are so many organizations out there from ALF , COTA , NTAF . But because of my dad's untimely death and because his dying wish was that friends, family, etc. donate to Ashley to help defray our medical costs, the first organization that came to mind was the American Liver Foundation. After all, Ashley does have a liver disease. Now, both my husband and I are wondering if we should have used COTA. We have also thought and inquired about opening up a local trust fund for Ashley. Howeve...

Many people have asked us why we are raising funds now even though Ashley isn't listed for a transplant yet. First, let me say that we are raising funds now because we know that Ashley will need a liver transplant in the future. Honestly, we should have started raising funds for Ashley's medical care the day she was diagnosed at 6 weeks of age. Statistics are not in favor of Ashley living with her liver disease into adulthood. Statistics are not in favor of Ashley living through her teen years without a liver transplant. Therefore, we finally removed the denial curtain and let reality slap us in the face. It is because of research into Ashley's liver disease and conversations with her doctors that made us decide that fundraising was not only recommended but needed. Ashley will always require lifelong medical care even if she does beat the statistics. Our second reason for doing fundraising is the cost of medicine, from hospital visits, labs to outpatient procedures; th...