My Husband. My Hero. My Everything.

Ok. So here we go. Kenny fought with me over this whole "go fund me" business last October. Here it is July and he can't fight with me now and we need help. He didn't want to "beg" but I know there is no way I can afford what's happening now. I just want him to get better. Here's our story. It sucks... but at the beginning and end there is a wonderful family full of love that wants to live happily ever after. It's just this middle business that blows. Kenny is an awesome man that I have had the privilege to have in my life for the last twenty years. We have been married for eighteen years. It has been amazing. Most people say you will regret getting married young, but for me it was the best decision I ever made. I married my best friend. He's my person. I have always been able to talk to him about anything. He has supported me in everything I have taken on over the years. Of course there have been ups and downs, but we always end on up. We have two awesome kids, Colin, 16, and Ella, 14. We struggled with Colin's autism. You know what?? He's a rockstar when it comes to dealing with autism. We struggled with uncertainties and hospitalization when I was pregnant with Ella. He was there. And now I want to be there for him. Two years ago he started having what just seemed like laryngitis and a sore throat. Well, it didn't go away and kept getting worse. He started seeing an ENT who said he had GERD and was treating him for acid reflux. Well nine months into that when he went to the doc and was scoped, the doc, "Didn't know why his voice wasn't getting better." Soooo, we went for a second opinion. That ENT wasn't sure, but wanted him to see a specialist. And that's the tale as to how we ended up at Mayo Clinic. Kenny was seen by a laryngologist who knew something was wrong. He has surgery on October 21st. The biopsy at that point came back as squamous cell carcinoma. He went through more testing for staging and determination as to what treatment would be best. It was stage III. That's when I first wanted to start this page. I knew cancer treatment was astronomically expensive. He went through seven rounds of chemotherapy and 35 radiation treatments to his head and neck. He couldn't swallow. He had a PEG tube. He could barely breathe his throat was so swollen. He lost almost 90 pounds. He kept his hair cuz he has his priorities straight LOL. But he did it. He did it because he's awesome. He's a hero. He made it through pain and nausea that I could never handle. And he still packed my lunch for me everyday since I had to work to keep our insurance and attempt to pay the bills. I couldn't go with him for treatment. Our insurance company had already denied payment for one PET scan to the tune of $7000 and he needed two more. Cancer treatment is not only painful, but its ridiculously expensive. Even through all of that he wouldn't let me ask for help. Too proud. Well he finished treatment in January and was doing well. There were definitely bumps along the road. Possible osteonecrosis in his neck, aspiration pneumonia, chronic bronchitis, and persistent shortness of breath, but overall he was slowly getting better. His voice still was not improving, but his health seemed to be. As he improved we decided that we would move somewhere new to try and get a fresh start. Since he hasn't been able to work since November, we decided we would find a more affordable home somewhere new. This brings us to Tennessee. Thank you for reading along this far. Our house in Florida was put up for sale and under contract rather quickly. We figured Tennessee would be perfect. Four seasons, decent job market, good schools, low taxes, yada yada. I found a job pretty quickly. We found a great little townhouse. We moved here in the middle of June. It really is a great area. For the last couple of weeks Kenny has been complaining of just feeling bad. Having increased difficulty breathing. He went to the doctor on Monday the 18th and they didn't have much to say. Didn't really know what was wrong. Thursday, July 21st is when our world was turned upside down. Just like a gut punch; no warning. I had gotten home from work. Kenny and I were planning yet another trip to Lowes after dinner to finish up one of the many projects that comes with moving into a new place. He'd been bitching about my many projects but that neither here nor there at this point. He got out of the shower and was having more trouble than usual breathing. Our home was too warm. The a/c has been on the fritz and the new system is supposed to be installed Monday. He asked me to start the car so he could cool off. We were sitting in the car together and he started hyperventilating and couldn't stop. I called 911. He stopped breathing and started turning an awful shade of blue I never want to see again. I pulled him out of the car into the yard and started CPR. Let me tell you, yard CPR is not the way to meet the neighbors. Finally, EMS arrived to take over and hook him up to an AED. When he arrived at the hospital he was essentially dead. He suffered cardiac arrest. The docs were able to pump him full of enough epinephrine and shock him to get his heart started. He had a BP and a pulse when we arrived a few minutes after the ambulance. We are at Park West Medical Center in Knoxville. They have a good team here. They were able to start therapeutic hypothermia right away. He has been cooling off for the last 24 hours and he can start warming up soon. The preliminary info we have from CT and EEG is not looking good. His brain was starved of oxygen for a while. He is on a ventilator with about a zillion tubes attached. As he warms up the docs can run more tests to get a better idea of what is to come. We still have no idea of what kind of prognosis we are looking at and what caused this. Our family has a long road to recovery ahead of us. And this brings me to my "go fund me" request. This current treatment and recovery is not going to be cheap. We are seriously drained after the last round of medical bills and then our move. He will hate me for this but I really feel like I have no other choice, I ask of you: friends, family, acquaintances, friends of friends... Please please can you donate whatever you might be able to, in order to help our family through this. I just started a new job, I have no PTO. I haven't even finished my 90 days, I hope they don't fire me. I have no idea what this will cost. He will be in the ICU for a while. I don't want to be bankrupt, I want my husband back, and that's that. And that brings me to the end of my story. Long, I know. Sad, yes. I hate these sort of things. I'm sorry to ask this of you all, but please help us if you are able. I love him. Colin and Ella love him. He is amazing and we want him back. Thank you.