This post is dedicated to help Justen Charters reach his $5,000 goal. Please read the paragraphs below written by his mother, Diane.
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4/4/2013 - It has recently ended and he not only reached his $5,000 goal, he got $462 extra!!
In June of 2010, twenty six year old Justen Charters fell ill on a church mission within the United States. When he had his first doctor visit, he was spending three to four hours a day in the restroom, passing watery stools. The doctors did some blood work and found that he a few elevated liver enzymes. He underwent an ultrasound for Hepatitis and the test returned negative. The doctor also prescribed him some medication to stop his stomach spasms. The medication worked for a few days, then stopped working all together in addition to caused him severe cotton mouth and made it very difficult for him to reveal his bladder.
A few more weeks passed and the problem with Justen's stomach still persisted. He met with another doctor who was informed that the meds were not only, not working but causing problems too and Justen was told to discontinue the medication. He had stools tested for giardia and parasites and those also returned negative. Another three weeks passed and Justen tried to endure his situation the best he could, but upon hearing that Justen's stomach issues were getting worse, including stabbing pains in the gut, a dull ache in the chest and getting faint with little to no exertion, the church Justen was representing pulled him from his mission, citing his condition needed to be remedied.
Justen returned home and went through a battery of tests. He had CT scans on his abdomen, chest and pelvis. He had a full GI work up for celiacs, khrons, colitis and ulcerative colitis. He was tested for allergies too. All the tests returned negative. By this time Justen had been home nearly two months and lost 22lbs. He went from 150 lbs to 128 lbs. He met with a natreopathic doctor who did another stool test and she found that his immunity levels in his gut were very low. He was told the immunity levels take many months sometimes a few years to raise back to normal levels. He started to get a vitamin IV weekly from the doctor because his body was still turning everything he ate into waste. The recommendations of the natreopath after the vitamin IV did little good for Justen.
By this time nearly a year had passed. Justen still did not have any answers. He was still spending 3-4 hours a day in the restroom, very thin and his body was severely atrophied. Despite Justen's difficult trial, he tried to remain positive and continued to deal with it smiling. Another year passed and on a few days before Thanksgiving in 2011 he was going to the restroom and vomitting at the same time, not keeping any food down whatsoever and getting dizzy just taking a few steps. An ambulance picked Justen up and he was admitted to the ER. He had a 103.4 fever, chills running up and down his body, could not get warm and was doing his best to stay with it. The doctors there were trying to prevent Justen from going into septic-shock (The 2nd leading cause of death in the ICU) The doctors succeeded and Justen was discharged four days later.
His blood tests showed low red blood cells, low potassium, low white blood cells and low lymphocytes. He was pointed towards a hematologist thinking to himself "This is it, I'm going to finally find out what the heck is the matter with me." Only to be disappointed and have the hematologist baffled that his blood work was now normal. By this time Justen was passing bright red and sometimes dark red clotted blood in his stools. A few months later Justen was trying to play doctor by himself, very frustrated with all of his medical experiences, so he bought some vitamins and special supplements. He started to gain some weight back which was miraculous in itself because had tried everything from a high calorie diet to protein shakes. Was it his immunity levels? He didn’t know. He was also able to start working out again. He had to start with 5lb dumb bells but within seven months he was lifting 27.5 dumb bells and two months after that he was lifting 32lb dumb bells. He also gained back the weight he lost. Things seemed to be finally turning around for Justen until a few months ago.
His health has declined again. He has lost 10lbs in the last two months. He eats a lot and tries to exercise daily but it is not coming back like he hoped. He is also passing red blood and sometimes clotted dark red blood in his stools 3-4 times a week. He is also leaking blood through his underwear onto his jeans, which is not only alarming but embarrassing for Justen as well. His face is once again gaunt, his neck thin and his eyes sunken. Justen does not have medical insurance and cannot qualify for disability because he was never diagnosed. Work is also slow for Justen and he is not able to pay for the high quality diet his body was on a few months back or his gym membership or doctor visits. Justen can't get a job outside of the home because the mornings are the most difficult time for Justen's body, he is usually in the restroom the first hours of the morning and he does not know how he is going to feel one day to the next, or one hour to the next.
We need your help to get Justen back on his feet again. Back at the doctors even if he is only able to pay the very minimum on each bill, back to a healthy diet so his body is able to take in the nutrition it needs, some basic needs, and back to a good work out that starts with low intensity so he can work out the kinks and hopefully get his muscles to grow again. He thought his recovery was over but Justen isn't out of the woods yet. Thank you for listening to his story. And even if you can donate 1 dollar, it will help Justen a lot.
Sincerely, Justen’s mother Diane
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