SIDNEY — For Sidney-native Megan Trigleth, admitting a need for help has not been easy. However, with news that she will soon require a double lung transplant due to cycstic fibrosis, Trigleth realizes reaching out may just save her life.
“I’m not one to ask for help,” Trigleth said. “I’m one to give help. It’s not that I don’t like the support; it’s just that I don’t like people feeling obligated.”
Trigleth, 23, daughter of Roy Collins and Kellie Collins, will hold a fundraising event in Troy from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 24, at Troy Bowl, located at 1530 Mckaig Ave. Proceeds will help Trigleth cover the high costs associated with receiving a lung transplant.
According to Trigleth, the transplant itself will cost a staggering $1 million. Although she has health insurance, it does not cover 100 percent of her healthcare bills and will leave her responsible for $200,000 of the total procedure cost. The evaluation alone, which must happen before she can even be put on the transplant list, will cost $5,400 after insurance.
“The issue that I’m running into is I only have one insurance because I keep getting denied the others,” Trigleth said. “Because I’m married, it’s not just my income they’re taking into account; it’s my husband’s, as well. I have Medicare, but (it) only covers 80 percent of everything, so my husband and I are responsible for the remaining 20 percent.”
Trigleth was just a few months old when she was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis — a genetic, often life-threatening, disease that affects the lungs and digestive system.
“When I was younger, cystic fibrosis wasn’t really well known, so we were at the basics,” she said. “My parents were told that I probably wouldn’t make it into my teens because the medical advances of CF (were so few).”
Trigleth went from having her parents pound on her chest with their hands to loosen the mucus in her lungs as a young child, to using a hand held percussor for the same purpose as she grew older. Since then, medical advances have given CF patients newer and more effective tools to use, all in the name of keeping their lungs as clear as possible.
Although she has exceeded expectations as far as the original prognosis given to her parents when she was a baby, Trigleth still struggles to stay as healthy as possible.
“I get sick pretty often, especially nowadays because I have three major infections that live in my lungs 24/7,” she said. “Right now, I have pseudomonas, staph and MRSA.”
Trigleth said these infections are not contagious to those who do not have cystic fibrosis, and her doctors closely monitor and treat the viruses with ongoing antibiotics.
Throughout the years, Trigleth has done her best to maintain a positive attitude regarding her battle with CF. She has not let the disease keep her from enjoying the things that any non-cystic person would, including getting married and going to college.
In 2016, she married Steven Trigleth, 25, who she describes as the man of her dreams.
“He is the strongest man I’ve ever known,” she said. “Not only to help take care of me, but to dive into a relationship and make a huge commitment when he knows the inevitable outcome of it. He doesn’t make me feel like an inconvenience because I’m sick.”
In 2014, Trigleth graduated from Edison State Community College with a certificate in phlebotomy. In April 2017, she landed her dream job as a phlebotomist at CompuNet at Miami Valley Hospital’s South Campus. She had also been taking additional classes at Edison, working toward furthering her career and becoming a medical laboratory technician.
Unfortunately, in October 2017, Trigleth was told by her doctors that she would require a lung transplant. Not only would she have to begin the often long and strenuous process of getting on the transplant list, she was also informed that her health had deteriorated to the point she would no longer be able to work or attend school.
“Because of the transplant news, I had to take a medical leave,” Trigleth said. “But, they’re such a great company and such a great hospital, they said I’m welcome to come back whenever I’m able.”
Trigleth was also given a guarantee by Edison State that her credit hours would be saved, so that whenever she is able to return to school, she does not have to restart the program.
The fundraiser on Saturday will include “dutch bowling,” priced at $30 per couple. Half of this money will go to the bowling alley and half will go to Trigleth.
There will also be a raffle, bake sale and silent auction. Trigleth said she has received coupons and gift cards from businesses within the Sidney area, including restaurants and hair styling salons, which will be used for the auction.
For the main raffle prize, local pilot Chris Gibbs has donated a 45-minute flight for four in his Twin Cessna 335 airplane. A $300 value, the flight will take off from the Bellefontaine airport and will include aerial views of west central Ohio.
Tickets to enter into the raffle are $15 each, or 2 for $25, and will be available at the fundraiser, as well as the Marathon gas station, located at 1001 Milligan Court, in Sidney, where Trigleth’s mother, Kellie Collins, works.
Trigleth encourages those who are unable to attend her fundraiser to consider donating to the CF Foundation in her honor.
“As of right now, CF is not a curable disease, but the CFF (does) a ton of research and comes out with new antibiotics almost every year that are huge improvements,” she said. “Hopefully, one day, they’ll be able to find that cure. The lung transplant isn’t a cure, but it will definitely give me more years to my life.”
Those interested in donating to Trigleth’s GoFundMe account, go to www.gofundme.com/moretomorrowsformegan.
