Help Juliana & Kevin keep our home & pay med bills

**UPDATED 7-30-2023**

Hi, my name is Kevin, and I'm fundraising to help with the bills, cost of treatment, and related expenses of my mom's complex medical issues. And for the immediate need of assistance to keep us from losing our apartment, everything we have, and becoming homeless.

The immediate need:

$ 1800 to pay off back (post-pandemic was originally $2400) water/utility bills we are receiving final notices for since the change in management recently at the apartment complex

$ 3000 to keep our apartment, pay for basic needs, and pay for non-covered prescriptions while I secure another job

What brought us to need help:

Due to my mom's complex medical issues and recently being diagnosed legally blind, we share an apartment. My income is and has been the sole income in the household. Because of her medical issues she has been unable to work and has been fighting the state for disability for years. She has had to resort to having attorney representation to, hopefully, finally get it approved near the end of this year so she can contribute to the household. The pandemic wiped out what savings and 401k I had back then. In 2021 I found a job with a start-up working remotely but had to take a substantial pay cut compared to what I had been making at my previous job so that I could be home to help my mother when needed.

Since then because of the pay cut and increasing medical bills, and non-covered issues (cane training for the blind my mom needs right now isn't covered and is +$5000), we've struggled to stay afloat. We've kept barely above water while I was working having to make hard decisions on which bills or medications we could pay for or afford at that moment. I had been working at the start-up until 7-28-2023 when I was informed I was being furloughed. My last paycheck will not even cover rent, basic necessities, medications, or other bills and obligations for August let alone further. Nor will I be able to put anything toward the back-due amounts I've been working on paying down. There was no severance package offered and I have no savings, 401k, or safety net to fall back on. The only other family member we have is my brother who is currently on disability from suffering 3rd degree burns on his neck, chest, shoulder, arms, and hands from a cooking accident involving boiling oil.

Our family is no stranger to adversity or loss. My family lost everything we had and my mother was bankrupted dealing with the cost of treating my youngest brother Nicholas (link is his younger years before my mom and I brought him to Ohio for treatment) complex medical issues when he was diagnosed at a young age with cancer, bone marrow failure, and other complex medical issues that ultimately took his life at 9 years old in 2013. Every test we postpone or medication we have to skip complicates things and postpones my mom's brain aneurysm surgery further, which the doctors already say is a ticking time bomb.

I need some help to get her some of the care she needs, keep the roof over our head in the short term, and buy me some time in the short term to find another job to pay for the day-to-day. If you want more information a more indepth timeline is listed below from the original post and there is an update recaping most of what has happened over the last year since the original post. Any donation will go a long way to helping us.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and consider our plight.

Kevin and Juliana

In Depth Timeline

From original GFM Posted July 2022

In mid-July 2021, my mom had a CT scan to investigate lumps in her neck and under her arm. During the scan, the radiologist thought he saw what looked like a brain aneurysm and suggested to her doctor that she have an MRA immediately. With Covid running rampant, it took nearly two months to get the scan, which confirmed a fairly large brain aneurysm. My mom is immune compromised and potentially has an underlying neuromuscular disease. So the next steps weren’t simple, especially during the Covid outbreaks. The neuromuscular disease I’m referring to is Mitochondrial; it is the same disease that played a role in my youngest brother being unable to tolerate chemotherapy for his cancer at age three and subsequently played a role in his passing at age nine.

By late November 2021 through January 2022, my mom had to establish several specialists in the Bay Area. And since January 2022 to current, she’s had to travel to the city two to three times a week for appointments, testing, or procedures and has at least two appointments per week with her local doctors.

On May 24th 2022 she had a muscle biopsy procedure to understand better how the neuromuscular disease may impact her current health issues. Unfortunately, she had complications from the procedure and developed DVT (deep vein thrombosis) in her left leg. And to make matters worse, the DVT can not be treated the standard way because of the brain aneurysm. The medication typically used to treat DVT could potentially rupture the brain aneurysm. So the doctors have been closely monitoring the DVT until the recent scan came in. The recent update showed the DVT has worsened and migrated to different areas. One area of migration that the doctors are deeply concerned about is the groin vein, which could cause an abdominal aorta aneurysm, pulmonary embolism, or worse, which I don’t want to think about. The doctors referred to the current issue as, May Thurners syndrome.

The doctors initially discussed putting in a filter to get the DVT under control. However, after the last update, they are now discussing whether to put in a stent and/or possibly perform angioplasty surgery. Whichever direction the doctors decide to go, she will need to have a few different injections to boost her immunity and balance out her metabolic issues, which aren’t covered by her insurance. Once the DVT is controlled, she will need several weeks to recover before they’ll be able to operate on the brain aneurysm, and that’s providing no additional complications present themselves.

Unfortunately, my mom has not been able to work for years due to her complicated medical issues & doctors' schedules. She applied for SSI but has yet to be successful. So in the meantime, we’ve been surviving off one income, which hasn’t been easy. I’ve been doing my best to cover everything on my own.

Things have gotten so tight financially that my mom had to cancel two appointments in the city recently because we couldn’t afford the gas, tolls or parking. And about the same time, we received a notification from our apartment complex stating we still owe them approximately $2400 from the Covid shutdown. Apparently, the complex manager who recently retired made an accounting error, which wasn’t in our favor. So we currently have until July 31st, 2022 to pay the remaining balance; otherwise, we could potentially be evicted. I have been doing everything possible to navigate through this challenging time, but any resources we’ve had available have gone dry. And the added stress is impacting my mom's health even more.

The doctors are concerned that her blood pressure is getting worse and her heart rate has been elevated, so she is now required to check it every four hours since it is not healthy for the brain aneurysm or the DVT. The doctors keep telling her to avoid stress which is an oxymoron. Between her complex medical issues and now facing the possibility of eviction, stress is difficult to avoid currently.

A friend recently suggested that I set up a go fund me, but since I don’t really do social media, I didn’t think it would be helpful. He mentioned that I didn’t need a social media presence to do a go fund me, but with us being very private people and generally the ones helping others, I was finding it difficult to ask people for help. However, as my mom’s medical issues require more attention, I realized I needed to swallow my pride and reach out for help for my mom's sake. So we would be grateful for any consideration during this difficult time.

All donations will be used to: hopefully avoid eviction, pay for uncovered medical procedures, offset copayments, deductibles for medications covered and prescriptions not currently covered, as well as to help pay for gas, tolls, and parking when she goes to see her doctors in the city.

Kevin & Mom