Josh's medical fund

I moved from my family home on Whidbey Island, Washington to Belgrade, Montana in May 2015.  I moved in with my older brother, his girlfriend and my younger sister. My sister and I commuted to Big Sky during the week to work seasonal jobs at a beautiful resort in the mountains.

During the Spring of 2016 we moved to Bozeman. I continued to work at the resort in Big Sky. I was commuting 3 hours a day and worked 8 hour shifts making for long days. I worked in a gym, cleaning machines and taking care of the gym goers. I have enjoyed the gym environment since the age of 14, and at the age of 22 I was finally working a job where I felt I belonged; I was used to working out twice a day and lived by exercise. Since I was a child I have enjoyed helping people and exercising, never had I even thought to put the two together until the idea was given to me by my motivational supervisor. She saw the passion I had in teaching people how to adjust machines to the right settings and my interest in new exercises and the correct techniques of weight lifting. During September 2016 I enrolled in an online Personal Training Program and my season at Big Sky ended. I decided to take the next season off to focus on my online program. I picked up 3 jobs in Bozeman to take care of my financial responsibilities. Until December, I worked 3 jobs only to realize I have not had time to study my PT books. Having to give up a job and income, I started studying again and working at the two most valuable jobs I had: helping a young business grow, and assisting seniors at a center. I continued to work and study for a couple of months until I was told of a personal training school in California that was by my uncle.  I started saving up to move in with my uncle and go to school until the fateful day of April 1st 2017, a day I will never forget.

I woke up for my graveyard shift at the Senior Center in the evening, I went to roll myself out of my bed except my lower body did not roll with me, it felt like a dull numbness. I thought my legs were asleep so I set myself up at the end of my bed patting my legs, expecting them to wake up. I went to stand up, only to collapse with my knees underneath me and my right leg falling out to the side completely limp. I panicked and struggled with nothing but my arms to get myself back onto my bed from the floor in disbelief that the bottom of my breast down was not working, I had done a solid workout no less than 7 hours ago. Luckily my brother had just gotten home from work.  I called him into my room, being April 1st he hoped I was pulling an elaborate April fools joke, I hoped my body was too, he and a friend of ours took me to the ER in Bozeman, only to be flown to Billings, to be flown to Denver to get a final diagnosis. To my surprise my years of exercise had nothing to do with this incident. My diagnosis was Transverse Myelitis. I have been in the Hospital for over two weeks and I will be entering a rehabilitation hospital tomorrow in Denver, Colorado.  The road to recovery is underway, I am very positive and the doctors and therapists say it makes all the difference, had this happened to someone I love I would be a wreck, having been the one diagnosed, I am ready to face it head on!

Transverse Myelitis affects 9 out of a million people.  We still know very little about it other than Transverse Myelitis is a neurological disorder caused by inflammation across both segments of the spinal cord, attacks of inflammation can damage and destroy myelin, the fatty insulation that covers nerve cells fibers, causing paralysis in the spinal segment affected and the lower body muscles and organs. It is believed that the cause of TM is viral infections or abnormal immune reactions. I hope to learn more through experience and other patients to be able to help future TM patients and spread awareness.

Thank you for reading, and sharing, the donation is not nearly as important as simply spreading awareness but I thank you full heartedly for any and all you are able to do.

Blessings,
Josh