Firstly, I heartfeltly thank you for your support earlier this year to raise money to help support Todd (Forge) before his septal ablation surgery to attempt to cure his atrial fibrillation. Thankfully his heart is healing well from the surgery. However, Forge has continually suffered from chronic insomnia — his cardiologist are now concerned that lack of sleep may affect his heart’s continued healing from the surgery.

After his heart surgery and hard recovery (graciously supported in this fundraiser), Forge has been facing intense and crippling sleep issues, and the downstream effects on the mood disorders he lives with and manages daily. 

For too many years, Forge (like me) has faced chronic insomnia, mood disorders, and general exhaustion from lack of rest. Now that he is in a critical healing time after his heart surgery, his cardiologists fear his increased sleep issues may affect his surgery recovery and heart health. During a heart check up on Monday April 26th, his heart rhythm was doing well — but the cardiologist noted their concern about lack of sleep and the continued healing from the ablation. 

Even though he is on very high doses of sleeping medication, Forge can’t get to sleep – or stay asleep through the night. And even with the high doses of medication,along with other holistic approached he has gotten only 15 hours of sleep in the past 7 days. A trend that has sustained for just over eight weeks. 

His psychiatrist and he agree he should be admitted to Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital for behavioral health monitoring. His psychiatrist feels that they have exhausted options in the outpatient clinic. Forge is planning on admitting himself on Wednesday April 28th to Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital. He needs our support in his decision— it’s not an easy one to make. 

His psychiatrist and their team want to monitor Forge’s in-patient, tracking his mood and sleep. They will be looking for the right combination of therapies (both medicinal and mental health counseling) to allow Forge to finally get much needed sleep — for his head and heart. This type of in-patient behavioral health monitoring program can take 2 to 3 plus weeks.

Sadly, this is going to lead to more time out of work for Forge — and right when he was excited about returning to work after his heart surgery.This will be the third extension on his medical leave. Forge now will have to continue with the unexpected cost of paying for his work benefits without a salary (e.g., health insurance, dental, vision, life insurance), and will likely have to support himself for more time out of work after the in-patient psychiatric stay.

Importantly, Forge and I both believe very seriously in working to break the stigma around mental health. We feel as a society we need to better support openness, support, and communication about mental divergence — and appropriate care. 

Because of the convergence of the above reasons, I decided to open this fundraiser again to ask the community once more for funding and support. We are asking for $1500/mo. For living costs over a 2 month period, raising a total of $3000. The original fundraiser raised $5850, and I’m setting a new goal of $8850, to raise the $3000 needed. 

Forge and I will be forever grateful for your help again in this very difficult year.

Xo,
Michael