Hello all,

I am writing on behalf of my husband and my family. Brian is 47 and has been teaching and coaching for over 20 years. We have two children, a high school freshman and an eighth grader (time flies).

In August of 2022, my husband, Brian, was rushed to the hospital after there was concern that he had a ruptured appendix or severe appendicitis. As it turned out, his appendix had ruptured two weeks earlier, and he was septic. He spent the next four days in the hospital, and the doctor said that had he not come in when he did, he likely would not have been able to control the infection. As it was, the infection was so bad that his entire right side was clouded with infection on the scans. They could not even do the surgery for two months because of the extent of the infection. Fast forward, in late October, after continuous antibiotics, they did surgery to remove his appendix and clean out the infection that was still in his side. The surgery was supposed to take around 45 minutes, but the remaining infection was so bad it took over 2 hours.

Brian is a teacher, and the original hospitalization took place right when school started. The first day of school was two days after he left the hospital. He went for the first day of school and only missed days required for appointments until the surgery and only took three days after the surgery. He is incredibly committed to his job and his students. In this case, in my opinion, to the detriment of his own health.

About a year later, he had been having severe problems with his right foot. He went to the doctor for months, and finally, they determined he had to have surgery to avoid a fusion surgery. When doing the foot surgery, the surgeon determined that deterioration in the joint was far more extensive and extreme than he thought or than it should have been. He sent Brian to a specialist who determined that he had Rheumatoid Arthritis, Degenerative Joint Disease, and severe Psoriatic Arthritis (the testing showed levels more than double the highest level of markers for PSA). It explained a lot of what had been going on for years, and it was likely triggered by either Covid or appendicitis (which was likely triggered by mold exposure or Covid). He immediately began treatment for those conditions in the summer of 2023; however, in October, a new insurance company denied covering the treatments. They cost around 20k per treatment, every other month. So, for a year, he got minimal treatments, and while his doctor did everything they could, the disease progressed. He was finally able to begin treatment again in October of 2025. So, he was diagnosed about three years ago but is still essentially about four months into seeing what will work. The doctor added a new weekly med a couple of months ago, and it seems to be helping with the infusions, but it is $560 a month, not insurance eligible, so that is a strain as well.

In basically four years, Brian has gone from being reasonably healthy, taking no medication, running every day, playing golf, playing with our kids, to taking 11 meds a day, plus a weekly injection, a bi-monthly infusion, and constant pain and fatigue. He has not played golf in over three years, he cannot work out, and he takes naps after work nearly every day. He went from always active to many days barely having the energy to move. His biggest complaints are not the pain, it's fatigue, and because of that, the loss of time. Time with our kids, time with his friends, time with his students, and time with his dad. He and his father have played golf since he was a little kid, and since he cannot play golf anymore, he struggles with the lost time almost as much as anything. The meds, especially the chemo med, make him feel bad for the couple of days after he takes it. Since it is once a week, he takes it on Friday so he can work, but then he feels bad over the weekends, which further eats away at family time. Lost time as our kids get older, he gets older, and his dad gets older.

Then, I have had to have several surgical procedures over the past couple of years as well. Nothing like him, but it has further eroded our finances. We have maxed out three credit cards and cashed out money from retirement. We have gotten amazing help from family, and without it, we could not have survived financially. I go to sleep worried we will lose our house on many nights. Then, I also feel guilty because we are so blessed, have so much, and I know we will likely be fine. It is just hard.

We do not deserve to be helped by anybody. Brian has not wanted to do this, in part because he feels like we are not truly “needy” enough. We still have so many blessings and do so many things that others cannot do, but my view is different. It relates to an opportunity Brian has to get a new treatment with stem cells targeting his RA and PSA specifically. The problem is that due to his autoimmune diseases, he cannot use his own stem cells. So, the treatment runs 80k or more in the US. Overseas is cheaper, between 30-40k, depending on where and travel costs. As best we can tell, without being able to schedule it, we cannot get a firm number. He has been conditionally approved for one place that has the treatment and qualifies for their program. But we have to be able to sign a contract that we can pay for to move forward. Brian is not willing to take more away from our family and our kids to pay for the treatment. We do not have easy access to enough funds to just pay for it and have already taken the second mortgage to fix stuff around the house. So, we are in a place where he simply cannot get treatment without something major changing.

Brian has given so much of himself to his students. Even before all of this, he often put his family on the backburner for his students and players. He is an amazing father and husband who puts everybody before himself, but right now, he simply does not have it in him most of the time. He gives everything he has every day to go to school and teach his students, and it costs him in almost every other phase of his life. This treatment may not solve his problems, but the success rate of at least some improvement looks very good, and we would be thrilled to get any improvement. We just need help, and as much as I do not like asking, as uncomfortable as it makes me, as lucky as we are, as much better off as we are than so many others, we are hoping there are people out there who might be willing to help us.

Brian is especially uncomfortable with it, but he said I could go ahead and ask. We have zero expectations of the people we know or anybody to donate anything. We hope and pray some will consider it, but if nobody does anything, we are okay with that as well. It’s embarrassing to ask, and we wish we had other options. If we can get enough to cover the treatment and travel, that would be amazing. If we got more than what we need, we would use it to pay off some credit cards and also donate to various charities.

Either way, we are so blessed, and we hope and pray you and your family are healthy and happy. We would greatly appreciate, whether you donate or not, if you feel moved by our story that you share it with others who might be willing or able to help.

Thanks for reading our story.