Hello All,

As you may or may not know, Christopher has been working with an Ophthalmologist for the last year or so after he was diagnosed with Kerataconus . Basically the corneas of his eyes are changing in shape, making it hard to see correctly. In some people this is a stable condition that only requires monitoring and possibly long-term intervention, but unfortunately that’s not the case for Christopher.

We learned last month that Christopher's eyes aren't stable. He has a progressive/degenerative form of this disease. His test results are getting worse and the surgeon has determined his condition requires immediate intervention. Without this operation the risk is his vision would continue to degrade to a point that his eyes couldn't focus. He'd effectively be blind.

Surgery involves scraping or abrading his corneas and then flooding them with collagen to strengthen the structures in his eyes and prevent any further deterioration, something called CXL. However, this procedure will mean that short term he won't really be able to see anything as his eyes heal, recovery from this surgery can take a month or more before your vision fully recovers.

Fortunately we are fully insured, but this surgery is more than $40,000 and insurance will only cover a portion. Our out-of-pocket portion will be a lot. Additionally, there are no payment plans available with the surgeon and we have to pay up front.

On top of the surgery cost, Christopher will be out of work on FMLA for most of August, if not longer, and while his job will be protected, FMLA is unpaid leave protection, so he won't be getting paid while he is out of work.

We thought Christopher's condition was stable and we would have more time to save for this procedure in the event he needed intervention, but that isn't how life works I guess and we've found ourselves in a tough spot.

This is obviously a scary situation but Chris has been more worried about paying for it than the surgery itself and I want him to be focused on recovery which is where the real risk from this surgery is.

We have cut back where we can, postponed and canceled anything we could get refunded, but in the circumstances Christopher and I have decided that it is time to ask for help.

We know times are tight for many - so we are eternally grateful for any amount you can donate. For someone who is a visual artist like Christopher, his eye sight is more than a very important sense, it’s part of our future livelihood. While we found ourselves in this situation, we most definitely cannot afford to not do the surgery.

It’s extremely humbling to have to ask for help and wouldn’t if we hadn’t run out of all other options. Thank you for your consideration - let’s get Christopher healed and back behind the camera!