Alex & Colleen's restart after his work accident

Hello, my name is Alex. My wife, Colleen, and I are asking for support in offsetting the debt that we have incurred due to our relocation and my very slow recovery (a year and a half) from a life-altering work accident. The recovery process has been very frustrating due to the limited understanding of my injury in the medical world. This has led to minimal support from the established aid programs that are available to us.

The combined financial strain from the accident and pandemic forced us to move away from our established lives of 16 years in Los Angeles. I was no longer able to continue in my dream career in TV/Film production and Colleen had to leave her blossoming career as a make-up artist to care for me. I love her so much for everything she has done for me and just want to give her the life we were so close to having.

Colleen has established herself quickly in our new location to become one of the top make-up artist around. She has made great strides within a very short amount of time. We are in an area that has minimal resources and support for someone of her talent. Although she is putting her all into what industry there is, it's not enough to support us and cancel out debt while Alex is recovering. We have been able to survive up to this point with the very generous and loving support of my retired parents. They can no longer help us fill in our financial gaps without impacting their hard-earned retirement.

To be able to stand on our own two feet again without destroying our credit would be an amazing beginning for our new life path. Anything additional would immediately go to my loving parents. We can't tell you all how much of a help in my recovery they have been. We don't know where we would be without them.

So Alex, What happened?

A year and a half ago I was injured while performing my duties as a rigging grip. I sustained auditory trauma compounded by barometric trauma which damaged my inner ear nerves and vestibular system. This caused a severe loss in my ability to regulate my balance, severe tinnitus, intermittent headaches, a reduction in my cognitive abilities and an inability to equalize my ears. The medical treatment that I had received through the worker's compensation system led to making my condition worse.

My quality of life is a small fraction of what it once was. I no longer can do many of the activities that I once loved. This includes flying to simply riding a bike or going for a long hike. I can not physically strain myself without getting vertigo and nausea. I am a different person due to this accident and the financial strain that has overcome our lives is making it even harder to find our new place in the world.

My disability prevents me from finding any work that is in line with my established skill set and has even limited my ability to get certifications that would allow me to use my knowledge base in the non-entertainment world (heavy machine op, CDL, etc.). The job search continues, but I am very limited in what I can do as a career. For now, I am trying my best with temporary positions that can accommodate but pay a quarter of what I was once making.