Hey friends, asking for a BIG favor! 1st, an update on our daughter, Megan. 2nd, your patience in reading a very long post, lol! Very sorry for the novel! This post may take a minute or two of your time!

So our Daughter Megan is doing well! Out of the Hospital awhile now. She is 6 weeks post-liver transplant and getting back into a teenager routine! Wow, time flies! Her blood counts are returning to normal and stabilizing. Her new liver is coming on line and doing what it’s supposed to do. Platelets, AST/ALT, Bilirubin, GGT. All returning back to normal. Goodness! I think I could be a doctor as much as I’ve learned about blood counts over the last couple years! Megan’s strength and her appetite are returning. Her scars are healing and her overall health continues to improve each day! Did you know they don’t do stitches anymore? Superglue? Really? That’s all that’s been holding our daughter together this past month? Gosh, I had some duct tape in my toolbox, could have saved the hospital a ton of money! Ha! So Megan has started her Junior year of High School and she’s starting to feel and act like a normal teenager again! As much as she can given all the COVID concerns. She even has a boyfriend! Plays football! Imagine that? Following in her ‘mamas’ footsteps…Guess she doesn’t feel like she’s put her poor Father through enough stress already, lol!

Seriously though, he’s a good kid! He laughs at my ‘dad jokes’ so there’s that, haha! We are very blessed and grateful Megan’s recovery is going so well!…If anyone deserves a break, it’s certainly this young 16yr old girl that has her whole life still in front of her! Everything she’s been through! So Crazy! We will continue to update you of any significant changes, but so far, things are tracking well and her body appears to be accepting the transplanted liver!…Praise the Lord!…So about this BIG favor, as her parents, we struggled with this one. More on a personal level. Posting about it, do we ask for help? Swallow our pride? Can we not figure this out on our own? We’re her parents for goodness sake! We can surely get 2nd jobs? Work a thousand hours a week? Retirement, what’s that? You do what you do to support your kids, right? Why is it so hard to ask others for help when you need it? When the reality is there are so many good people in the world willing to lend a hand! Maybe they’re in a position to do so..To help lift people up in their time of need!…Megan’s transplant team keeps telling us…Guys! You need to ‘blast’ it out there! You HAVE to! You have no idea of the challenges Megan will face! Get the message out there! Megan needs this support! Her post-transplant journey is only beginning! She’s doing well but she has many challenges in her future! The anti-rejection drugs, frequent lab draws, clinic visits..they don’t stop when her scars heal. They never stop. All of this will continue her entire life! Plus she will always be at risk for setbacks and complications down the road because she will be immune suppressed…Wait, what?…Umm, can you repeat that? We’re still crying, didn’t hear you. We didn’t ‘want’ to hear them. Our hearts broke when they told us. So hard to comprehend! But that’s what transplant patients deal with. Until we went through this as a family we had no idea! It has completely changed our perspective for the hardships so many transplant families face! I’ve only been admitted to a hospital 2 or 3 times in my entire life? What our 16yr old daughter Megan has had to endure the last 2 years and what she still has to face in the future is mind boggling to us! It breaks our hearts as parents to think about! Takes us to very dark, depressing places…To add some perspective, I’ve added a photo of Megan’s medical wristband collection. A collection I encouraged her to start awhile back. Something to help tell her medical story. Whenever we get back home from a medical procedure now we place her hospital ID bracelets in a collection jar. Something to look at from time to time and reflect on. How many times she’s faced a medical challenge in her life head on and found the strength to get through it! Proof that she is stronger than she realizes! So many people have no idea what transplant patients go through behind the scenes! Crazy when you think about the sacrifices families make to try and find answers! Trying to figure out a way to get better! And then how do you even begin to pay for it? Because you are running on emotions most of the time! Not stopping to think about the financial side of it!

Megan will have to deal with medical expenses and face potential health setbacks her entire life! She ‘needs’ to fund raise and ask for help! Of course we have health insurance. We would never have gotten this far without it! But it never covers everything! Wow, they are SO not kidding when they tell you this! Don’t get me started on that topic…that’s a much longer novel and a debate for another day!…So to the point, we have researched several programs for fund raising, gofundme, FB fundraising…among others. There are tons of online options and organizations. All good programs but we wanted something more focused on ‘medical’ expenses. Something where all funds raised would be managed and audited strictly for Megan’s medical expenses. Not only for current expenses but to help her navigate a lifetime of medical expenses yet to come. This poor girl is only 16years old! Her journey is just getting started! The solution we found is COTA (Childrens Organ Transplant Association). Funding that is managed by a well established and respected Non-Profit organization. COTA will assist with transplant-related expenses in her life as her liver transplant journey continues! We cannot hide the fact that our daughter needs help! Financial help on a level that her Mom & Dad cannot begin to sustain! So we ask a favor of sorts?…Would any of you be able or willing to ‘share’ the COTA for Megans Journey Website link for fundraising? On your social media? Maybe to your friends, coworkers? On a bulletin board in a break room? In a Church? Perhaps even to your employer? Sometimes businesses ‘give’ to charitable causes as a tax write off each year. What better purpose than to help children facing hardships? Many employers will even match personal donations their employees make if you ask them to. With COTA the donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. If you host fund raisers in your life for various causes and you need a good cause, please reach out to Nikki directly! Our parental pride keeps us from asking for direct money from friends and family..it’s not in our DNA nor our beliefs to even take it there. But we can no longer deny there is a much bigger picture to consider! Megan needs help! That’s where COTA comes in. Even the smallest amounts add up over time! I’m attaching a link for the COTA website in honor of Megan at the end of this post. You can also google ‘COTA transplant organization’ and navigate to their main website. Be warned…there are tons of families in the same situation. Facing hardships. It can be overwhelming, reading their stories. If you land on the home page you can search for the name ‘Megan Kampe’ at the ‘find a family’ section near the top left and it should take you to Megan’s specific page. Donations made directly from COTAforMegansJourney.com are in her honor to assist with a lifetime of transplant-related expenses. That’s the purpose. The things insurance doesn’t offer coverage for or tell you about add up quickly! There are coverages she’ll always be ineligible for now. Just because she’s had a transplant. On this web page, we’ll be adding more backstory as we find time. Blog updates they call it. It’s a process. Her COTA page hasn’t been up very long but we need to get the message out sooner rather than later. The COTA website is now active and online to accept fundraising. We’re also in the process of putting up a dedicated FB and Instagram page for Megan that we feel would be a more central place to post updates on her health and her transplant journey…something to manage separately, behind the scenes from her ‘teenager’ social life..’Don’t meddle with that part of my life, Dad!’,…if you can imagine her voice, lol! I think she’s getting a little burned out on her Mom & Dad time lately, haha! Wonder why?

Sorry for the long novel on this post! But wanted you guys to have the backstory and reasoning behind the BIG favor we ask of you! Please pray for Megan’s continued recovery and healing! Please, if you have time, share, forward, or mention Megan’s COTA fundraising page that’s listed at the end of this post. Don’t feel obligated to donate yourself but also know that our family would be forever grateful for your support to COTA for Megan’s Journey!

Everyone in life faces hardships on different levels. When it’s your child, and you can’t fix it as a parent. It really stings. It just plain hurts. Knowing when to ask for help is a part of life! Sharing the opportunity to make a positive difference in a child’s future? As a parent, I’ll sign up for that challenge every single time! Thank you guys for your time! In closing, we want to extend a special thank you to the people helping us kickstart the COTA fundraising programs behind the scenes! You know who you are! We could not get any of this going without your commitment and dedication to put the needs of others before yourselves! God is watching over you guys! He knows your sacrifices! To all of our friends and family…from the Kampe family..If you are ever facing hardships or need emotional or spiritual support, please reach out to us! Our family will be here for you! We are eager to offer support however we can! God Bless! – Dad