Aid for Chad and Rachael's Medical Costs

Many of you know Chad and Rachael Trump. They are always willing to pitch in and help everyone without ever asking for help themselves. Which is why I am asking for help, for them. I have set up a Go Fund Me page to help raise funds to help pay the Catastrophic Medical Costs that their medical insurance will not cover. As of right now we do not know what that total will be. Yes, they know I am setting this up for them. Are they happy about it probably not. Do I feel guilty not one bit, as I pulled the big sister card on them.

Their Medical Journy started the morning of April 29th. Chad woke Rachael up letting her know something had changed and he needed to go to the ER. For those of you who know Chad well he rarely goes to the Doctor’s so for him to request this was huge. Chad had woken up and started to get up to get ready for work. When he stood up and looked to his right he fell towards the bed. When he turned to the left, he also started to fall. Both times he was able to catch himself and kept himself from falling to the ground. He then woke Rachael up as he was unable to walk without falling. What worried him was he had been able to walk just fine at 3 am that morning to use the bathroom. Barely three hours later he was unable to walk on his own.

Off to the ER they headed with Chad safely in a wheelchair. They both were thinking it might be a Vertigo issue. The staff ran a battery of tests; Blood Work, Urine Sample, CT scan, EKG, PET/CT and several more. The Doctor finally came back with the news that Chad had a brain tumor located in the Right Temporal Lobe. They decided the best course of action was getting him to another hospital. Once a bed had been secured for him that night at Redding Mercy Medical Center. He was then taken by ambulance to our local airport, flown to Redding and then taken to the hospital by ambulance.

Rachael and her mom headed over to Redding the next morning. When they got there, he was doing great other than not being able to walk on his own. He was in good spirits and his was his normal friendly chatty self. He had some amazing nurses helping them all out. With his personality everyone is his friend and now he has a lot more of them. They were finally able to meet with his neurosurgeon, Dr. Casto-Moure, and immediately felt at ease with him. He explained that the tumor was 4 cm in size and approximately the size of a golf ball and it needed to be removed. He believed it to be a Meningioma which is a slow growing tumor.

Chad underwent an angiogram on Friday May 2nd. The surgery was scheduled to start at 8am on Saturday May 3rd. He started with an embolization that should have taken 2 hours and ended up taking 4 hours. The OR staff was wonderful in keeping Rachael and her mom in the loop with what was happening. They were expecting the actual surgery to be about 5-6 hours long and for it to be done around 5pm. The Anesthesiologist called them at 1:40pm to say that the surgery had just started. They were contacted again in the middle of the surgery to let them know it was going well and that his vitals were doing great with very little blood loss. The surgeon was taking it slowly, careful and very meticulously. Finally, around 8:30 pm they were notified that the doctor was closing up the opening. Just before 10pm Dr. Castro-Moure called to let them know that he was able to get 95% of the tumor and that the rest would be shrunk by radiosurgery in a few months after Chad had healed from this surgery. The doctor came to see them after he was done while Chad was being taken into recovery. The doctor told them the surgery went well and all of Chad’s vitals were great. He showed them why he couldn’t go any further on the removal of the tumor. The base of it was right between his carotid artery and a major nerve. He didn’t want to cause any issues by cutting any further.

They were able to see Chad just before midnight once he was moved from recovery to ICU. He was doing well, minus a very sore throat from being intubated and really wanting ice chips. The next day found Chad having a sore throat and his head being sore as well. He also could barely move his right arm due to pain. This was caused by being in one place for almost 14 hours. With physical therapy and a strong will Chad was sent home by medical transport just 6 days after having a Craniotomy.

Chad is currently staying in Fortuna with his in-laws receiving 24-hour care in a safe environment. He is doing really well and has had since had his staples removed and the incision looks great. They are hoping he will be starting occupational and physical therapy very soon. He still has quite the road to recovery, but we are so happy that he is on the road to recovery. With his strong will and stubborn determination, he is achieving some of the milestones in healing early. He is chomping at the bit ready to be healthy and back to work.

I would like to thank you for any donations that are made to help this wonderful family out. Soon, with more tests and procedures more medical bills will be coming in as well. All donations will help no matter how big or small and are greatly appreciated. If you wish to donate directly to the family, please email me and I can get you the information to do so. If you are unable to donate you can help by simply sharing this out to friends and family.

I will share some photos of his journey just be aware some of them are hard to look at.