Many of you know our story. Some of you don’t. So let me catch you up to speed…

My mother was born with a very rare genetic lung disease, Alpha-1 Antitrypsin deficiency, which is commonly misdiagnosed as COPD or asthma.

What started out as a normal day…. When I was 12, I was at a basketball game and got the phone call that forever changed our lives. My mom was in a coma and there she stayed for 30+ days. Little did we know our life would never be the same. She recovered and left the hospital on a oxygen machine where she would have to take everywhere with her 24/7 for 10 years. Come to find out, her diagnosis of Asthma was a incorrect diagnosis for her whole life and we learned Alpha-1 was now going to be forever apart of our lives  

In 2012 my mother (Raelene) received a double lung transplant and we thought that answered all our prayers. We were hopeful would have our mother back to great health. We did not know she would also be needing a kidney transplant shortly after due to all of the antirejection medications she has had to depend on for several years. 

My little brother whom we have always called Lil’ Bear/Uncle Bear (hence the title of the fundraiser) His name is Checotah and he’s the real answer to all our prayers. He and my mother did extensive testing to see if they were a match and come to find out they are a complete 100% match. 

He is donating one of his kidneys to our mother on September 13 in Dallas Texas at Baylor University, where her first transplant took place. There in Dallas they will have to live for many weeks while they heal, and attend doctors appointments until they are released to drive back to Oklahoma.

They both have insurance but insurance only pays for so little so we are looking to raise some funds to help on their stay, could be up to 6 weeks (worse case even more). 

Feel free to ask any questions you’d like and PLEASE share this link as well. We greatly appreciate everyone and every little bit will be so helpful. 

The Dittmann Family. ❤️