
The Rogue Family Medical & Poverty Trauma Fight for Survival
Donation protected
Any Help Means Something
When You Have Nothing.
My name is Drake. I have a Service Dog &
he has an Emotional Support Kitty, my little family. We Really Need Your Help!
If you have been following our story, you know it has been an extremely rough few years. Again, devastatingly, my little family is desperately in need of your help.
Please don’t scroll past.
We beg you to take the time to just read our story.
As you will see, this story is a lot at once.
It is an extremely desperate time, when sudden medical emergencies have trapped me in a literal Catch-22.
I am now too disabled to work the jobs I used to, while I’m not considered disabled enough, yet, to qualify for disability assistance.
Currently, the jobs I have been able to get, not only pay less than I have ever made, but my health has made it difficult to keep them. So, I have lost these positions & have had to resort to working temp service jobs, like DoorDash to keep even the most pitiful amount of money coming in, at all.
But, not only is it not enough to pay my bills, it has caused significant, additional strains on my health, when I was already struggling intensely. Literally, for every day worked, I have to spend, at least, the next day collapsed in bed. Curled in the dark just trying to breathe through the pain & survive.
I’ve had to beg & borrow, from family & friends, get food from shelter donations, get rid of important things to afford doctors & medications. I have now, once again, lost my health insurance, which for a person with daily chronic medical conditions is utterly frightening, as well as, actually dangerously life threatening.
I Need Your Help.
My Sweet Dog Needs Your Help.
His Crazy Little Kitty Needs Your Help.
Please, Help Us in Any Way
with Any Amount You Can.
Donate. Share Our Story.
Get the Word Out.
It had all been excruciatingly painful, frightening & overwhelmingly challenging. Sadly, my current situation has again left me in need of more help. It is so hard to ask. So many wonderful people helped save me & my furbabies before & I really can’t believe I am reduced to needing to ask for help again.
There are so many stories out there & my story is no more important than anyone else’s. But for me, my family, my friends, my service dog (the Irish Rogue) & his emotional support kitty (Reno Rogue), this story is important.
For those of you unaware of my situation, allow me to share the ruthlessly brutal details of my story:
Years ago, I survived two brain surgeries, for twin brain aneurysms & catastrophic whiplash from a car accident. The treatments I received saved my life. But, they also resulted in me being left with permanent nerve damage, rare side effects & thoracic outlet syndrome; as well as causing a severely reduced quality of life.
For more than a decade, I have struggled with chronic pain management, including numerous prescriptions, as well as Botox injections in my spine/neck/skull every 90-days. All while being the primary caregiver for my mother after a series of strokes prior to her death.
Then suddenly in the brief timeline between mid-August & the first week of December 2022, I had multiple medical emergencies occur in rapid succession.
These emergencies included:
a Quadruple Heart Bypass
3 Heart Attacks
Multiple Organ Failures
2 Cholecystectomy/Removal of Gallbladder Surgeries (due to issues)
Permanent Damage to Liver, Kidneys & Pancreas
2 Surgical Coronary Angiograms
3 Serious Infections
Vertigo caused by Irregular Heartbeat
Tachycardia
CoVid
Compromised Pulmonary Function
Keloidal & Hypertrophic Scarring with nerve pain
Reduced Vision
(A lot at once, even for the healthiest of bodies, which mine most assuredly is not.)
All of those events occurred on top of my chronic medical conditions. In some cases, the medical emergencies compounded with the chronic conditions, increasing both the pain & the recovery time. I struggle with a lot of the most basic tasks.
The effort & stress on my system has left me wiped out, while still at risk for additional organ failures & complications. My kidneys & pancreas are in an extreme fight to prevent permanent organ failure, right now. My body is suffering the side effects of this desperate attempt to keep those organs.
Even with the aid & support of my family & the wonderful kindness of GoFundMe crowd sourcing, I was unable to work for almost a year, unable to get government assistance & completely depleted all lifetime savings.
I also totaled my car around that time. And, unluckily, I recently had another wreck in the replacement car.
(Standard fare for me, the only luck I normally have is of the bad luck variety.)
With the loss of my most current job. I’m, again, struggling to provide for even the most basic of needs & am at risk of physical collapse due to working low paying dashing jobs which involve minimal manual labor. But, even minimal labor, right now, makes my body collapse beneath me. I am seriously unable to bounce back, so everything just adds more health issues & increasingly dire financial situations.
So, I am humbly turning to you for help.
Please, please, please help!
Literally any amount is appreciated.
Dollars. Pennies. Any Amount.
$1000 pays my rent & utilities for a month.
$800 pays my health insurance for a month.
$400 for my car insurance.
$150-$175 pays for my prescriptions for a month.
$160 makes my car loan payment.
$60 covers the co-pay of a doctor’s visit or medical test. Of which I average, at least, one a week.
$35 pays for a tank of gas to get to & from appointments or drive deliveries
$10 pays for a bag of dog or cat food.
$5 pays for two cans of soup.
$3.99 gets me a pound of grapes
$1 gets 3 packs of Ramen
See? No matter how small or how large, every amount makes a difference. Every penny donated will help give me the additional time needed to heal, aid in medical costs, help with prescription costs, provide shelter, electricity & groceries. Basically helping my little family survive past today, until such a time when I am well enough to provide again for myself or can find a job that will allow me to earn despite these life changes.
I am beyond ashamed.
For me, it is extremely hard to admit, I need your help. I have fought to remain independent & not be a burden, so asking for help is something I am truly reluctant to do. My family & myself have tried every possible route before getting to this point. Tried everything before asking.
But, I’m asking now,
because I’m honestly
at the end of my rope
& I know I can’t hold on like this
for very much longer.
Thank you so much for your support, kind words and whatever assistance you can give.
Drake & the Rogues
Organizer
Katherine Drake Streetman
Organizer
San Antonio, TX