Dwayne has been battling Chronic Gout for the past 15 years. Gout is also called crystal-induced arthritis and is a condition that occurs when uric acid crystals accumulate in the joints. It affects joints, such as the knee ankle, foot, hands, wrist and elbows. The uric acid usually dissolves in the blood and passes through the kidneys. For people with Gout, the uric acid crystals form and deposit in joints and other tissues. This causes the joint lining to become inflamed, resulting in severe attacks and lots of pain. After several years, the crystals can build up in the joints and surrounding tissue, forming large deposits under the skin called Tophi which look like lumps. Such cases like Dwayne’s, his kidneys are not filtering the crystals so the toxins are staying in his body and making him ill and swelling him up to where he can’t move. In the past few years it has gotten extremely severe for Dwayne and has taken a toll on his body. He has tried several medications and treatments with little luck. He has already lost the mobility in one hand and just recently under went knee replacement surgery In April to get full mobility back in his leg. Anyone that knows Dwayne knows how bad this has affected his life physically and mentally. He’s a young 35 year old man fighting this painful disease that takes over your body.
Over the weekend Dwayne got very sick and his hand started swelling extremely. He went to the doctor and they advised him to go to the hospital immediately. At this point they weren’t sure what was going on and if he had a serious infection in his body. They started him on antibiotics & steroids and as of right now there has been no change. His body is not reacting to the antibiotics or steroids. The swelling on his body is not going down. There are a lot of unanswered questions as to if this is just Gout causing his illness or something else? They are doing a 24hr urinalysis on him to check his kidneys. Right now they are only functioning 70-80%. The doctor told him this is the 2nd worse case of Gout they had ever seen. They ordered a very expensive medication called Rasburicase, which will be given in a form of a shot. This is only the 2nd time it has ever been administered. It’s supposed to have immediate results with reducing the uric acid and cleaning his body out and ridding it of all the toxins. The doctor told him not to let the side effects worry him, that they would be watching him very close and the benefits out weigh the bad. They can’t give him this until they are done with the 24hr testing on his kidneys. So this could take place late this evening or early tomorrow.
Dwayne is the sole provider for his wife and 4 children. He used up all his sick/vacation time during his knee replacement surgery and has no paid time off left. The medical bills are stacking up with no income. The time frame for recovery is unknown at this time and it could be along time before he can return to work. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers!
There has been an account set up for Dwayne for anyone that is interested in helping him and his family out with medical costs they are incurring. You can donate at any Woodforest Bank to the Dwayne Taff Benefit Acct# 1106351479 or mail checks to 27219 Caperidge Dr. Huffman, TX 77336 payable to the Dwayne Taff Benefit.
