Donate to Keep Kris Walking!!

Hey ya'll.

My name is Kris Burgos and I've been an MMA instructor for 15 years and doing martial arts in Taekwondo, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Wrestling, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for over 30. Throughout my years, I've also played football and basketball, done track and field, skydived, hiked mountains throughout the US and Mexico and I plan for so much more. I'm also a writer and have a comic book publishing company with my wife Andrea, where we release my own titles, attend comic conventions all over the country and when in season, we have our own tent at street fairs to sell our wares.

Oh wait... I'm also a New Yorker.

I walk everywhere.

Factor in my random dancing around and my animated storytelling, despite what my video game and movie watching habits may say, moving around is a major part of my life.

Well, "all good things..." has creeped in the past 2 years and the wear and tear on my body has led me in dire need of spinal surgery.

The lower back pain really kicked in 2 years ago, around the time I was rebuilding, almost from the ground up, the MMA school I work at when Covid-19 was winding down. First was the aching pain in the back, then came the shooting sciatica in the left leg, then the numbness in my foot. Sometimes, when standing around, the numbness would occasionally spread to my right foot. This went on for about a year with me dealing with it.

I acted on it by stretching and seeing a chiropractor for a few months in late 2022 before finally going to my doctor this past March after nothing was working. I started to feel some aches in my neck and despite the x-rays saying I've got some pinching in my neck, my insurance wouldn't cover MRIs to see if there was more to the damage without several months of physical therapy preceding it (thanks Oxford).

I've always said I've got a high tolerance for pain but I knew I couldn't endure the pain of therapy or waiting any longer, so I paid for the MRIs out of pocket. By this time in May/June, I could barely stand up straight for ten minutes before needing to squat and stretch my lower back. Luckily, the place I went, hooked me up with the out-of-pocket discount. ($1000 off from $1900 is a big deal), however... I needed three of them. One for each part of my back; Cervical, Thoracic & Lumbar.

Several more months have gone by and my neck and right shoulder are on fire, followed by constant pins and needles and numbness in my right arm, before I finally sat in a room with an orthopedic surgeon where he made clear the situation I'm in.

I have spinal stenosis.

It's a genetic trait/disease where the spinal column is tighter than normal and the spinal cord is squeezed, primarily at the neck and lower back. (For my fellow Mets fans, this is what led to David Wright's shortened career.) Making the stenosis worse, I have several herniated discs in my lower back... and my neck.

So, how bad is it?

If the numbing, pinching, stinging, throbbing pains, the inability to stand straight, look up, bend back, and move around for 10 minutes without stopping weren't enough... the surgery for my neck was scheduled for only 2 weeks after that appointment. It's that bad.

I've been told "no kicks to the head", and "don't trip on the sidewalk... because if you do, you're paralyzed. (Or at least highly likely to be.)" Seeking out a second opinion, which came with two surgeons, I received verbiage along the lines of, "this should have been operated on a while ago, you're a ticking time bomb for being paralyzed." One medical professional even stated I've been "living lucky" as a hard bump from someone while standing on the subway could be enough to "do me in".

I actually appreciate how dire the doctors have been to get in my thick head that I'm in a bad way, because honestly, I'd still be teaching as normal as I could, doing sprawls and break falls, some light sparring, or lifting my comic boxes and moving tables and tents (I try my best to do everything to the best of my ability). Not knowing that any of them have the potential to change my life or actually end it.

So here I am... doing what I try never to do: I'm asking for help.

With all of my paying out of pocket for procedures and life and running my own business with my wife, this year as a whole has drained the wallet. And while I am happy my insurance is (finally) helping out with the $217k surgery, I'll still have a $9k gorilla on my back after this surgery and I have to start planning for a second in 3-6 months for my lower back (which, according to doctors will be more expensive and have an even longer recovery period despite being less life-threatening).

So, please, if you know me, you know I'm not about asking for help. Call it a pride thing or a stubbornness thing or whatever. But right now, I'm an anxious wreck who can't stand the stress of these surgeries and debt. I'm also scared out of my mind that I'm having 2 discs completely replaced in my neck on November 16th with the second surgery being a bone fusion in my lower back sometime next year. This GoFundMe will (hopefully) pay for them both as well as any other medical necessities during my recovery time.

Any and all help I can get on this journey will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!