Where to start. The past year has definitely been challenging for myself and my family. In June of last year, I suffered a stroke due to a blood clot. I lost the ability to swallow for over a week, was dizzy for months on end, and still have numbness on my right side, making my right hand very unstable. I am still paying dearly financially for this but thought the worst was behind me and moved on with life... I was wrong.

On April 28th, after feeling extremely ill for several days, I took my sock off to discover a major issue with my toe. After a trip to the hospital, I was immediately ambulanced over to Memorial in Springfield with wet gangrene in my toe. I immediately was told we were going into surgery and it was going to be gone. Talk about a shock. Three days ago, I was fine. After surgery, I was informed hours later that they would, in fact, have to take another toe as the infection had spread, so they did. I then spent a week in the hospital and was sent home with a PICC line to constantly infuse myself with antibiotics to fight off any infection. I am currently on a wound vac system until I can heal the wound. I have also developed muscle atrophy due to the inability to be active. I will be starting physical therapy soon to hopefully fix that issue. This has been extremely difficult for me mentally and physically, but I know in due time it will get better. That is my story.

Now, even though it has taken a toll mentally and physically, it also has financially. I have had zero pay since the end of April. This is because I did not qualify for short-term nor long-term disability due to my hours in the year prior due to my stroke. In addition to that ginormous stack of bills medical and other. My wife currently works her normal 40-hour job, my second job so I was able to keep it, and is still looking for another. We had savings, but as you could imagine, that has been depleted in time. I have not been released to go back to work yet for the reason of risk to my condition worsening. I am hoping that changes very soon.

I have had a multitude of people suggest this or a fundraising of some sort, but I have put it off. I am a very proud person, and anyone that knows me knows I never ask for help for anything due to pride and stubbornness. I am ashamed of even doing something like this but am willing to put away my pride to better my family. This is extremely difficult for me to type or do, please know that. A lot of people have asked how they can help... this is the way I can think of to help. I am eternally grateful for you taking the time to read my story and consider funding. ❤️ If you would like to not use this platform, there are other ways, so please feel free to reach out.