Help for Keith and Kristina Miller

Hi, my name is Bryan and Keith has been my best friend since the 7th grade. We met at Hawaii Baptist Academy and the rest is history. Anyone who knows Keith, knows that he is one of the most kind, compassionate, intelligent, generous, caring, funny, and wonderful individuals you will ever come across. We grew up on the island of Oahu together and despite moving to different states for college, Keith and I have managed to remain close throughout every season of life.

In our 30+ year friendship, I have watched Keith give tirelessly to those around him without asking for anything in return. He is always thinking of others and how he can make their life better. Last year, my wife got sick and was confined to a bed most hours of the day for a few months and Keith and Kristina knew her sadness for wanting to still experience life with our kids so they purchased an inflatable bounce house for our backyard so she could watch the kids play through the window. That is just a small example of how thoughtful the Millers are.

Keith has not been able to work since May of 2022 due to many health issues starting with severe nerve damage in his hands, arms, and neck from his job as a software engineer and the many hours spent using his hands and wrists fulfilling his work duties. He was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis which significantly contributes to his pain level as well as receiving carpal tunnel surgery in both arms in the fall of 2022. He spent most of the fall recovering from surgery and trying to regain function of his hands.

To give a quick summation of the last 6 months; in January of 2023, Keith started exhibiting some cognitive issues such as losing time orientation, jumbling of words and loss of short-term memory. Kristina acted quickly and recognized that this could be signs of a stroke and took him to a nearby hospital where they discovered he had a frontal lobe stroke. He still deals daily with executive management capabilities, long and short-term memory problems, impulsiveness, and temporal and spatial issues.

In February of 2023, he was diagnosed with autonomic neuropathy and small fiber neuropathy. The autonomic nervous system controls everything you don’t think about- blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate, sweating, digestion and more. The autonomic neuropathy and small fiber neuropathy brings intense pain and severe nerve and organ damage.

In March of 2023, he was diagnosed with central hearing loss in conjunction with auditory hallucinations because his brain cannot interpret noise correctly.

In April 2023, he was diagnosed with a full atrioventricular block. This essentially means one atrium of the heart is not talking to the other atrium of the heart. This is coupled with a bradycardia that is so low that his heart is not powering his organs properly. His heart is stopping up to 4 seconds at a time and slowing down to 20 beats per minute at times. He will get a pacemaker placed on June 1st to help control his heart rate. It will not resolve the causes, but it will help with symptom management.

The future of Keith’s health is still unknown, but they are working tirelessly to find as many answers as possible and their life is inundated with doctors’ appointments, specialists, & physical and occupational therapy for Keith. Keith and his wife of 13 years, Kristina, have been mostly private about the struggles they have faced the last year but they are quickly running out of resources and options. Unfortunately, Kristina has had chronic health issues over the years that have prohibited her from pursuing full time employment while Keith was working as a software engineer and acting as her care giver. After many years of trying to figure out Kristina’s health, her medical care team was able finally to find a medicine combination that worked to stabilize her energy and pain levels in the late fall 2022. However, post-stroke, Keith is unable to work and requires 24/7 care. His recent medical assessment indicates he is extremely close to needing to be in a full-time nursing facility. Kristina has taken on the role of full-time care giver which has prohibited her from financially supporting them.

Keith and Kristina receive disability, but it does not cover their rent and they have exhausted all savings, financial assistance programs, and pursued every path they can to ensure continued medical care for Keith and to get living expenses covered. It is vitally important that Keith remain in an environment that is familiar and low stress as both are critical to his recovery. Keith went from being the caretaker to the one who now needs immense care and it has been very emotionally taxing, disorienting, and difficult to navigate.

The Millers are facing eviction and have been given a month-to-month lease but they have to come up with a lot of extra money to stay in the month to month agreement. Their disability assistance and all of the other programs they have been using, do not cover the cost of rent or all of their basic living necessities. Rent prices have sky rocketed in the Phoenix area and there is not an option for them to move somewhere else for lesser rent at this time. They are currently paying below market value rent but there is still a shortfall.

Would you please consider donating to help cover living and medical expenses to help alleviate the burden the Millers are currently under? Keith is an absolute ray of light and spreads goodness to all around him and this world needs him here and by helping them navigate the next few months financially we can do our part to help him on his healing journey.

Thank you,

Bryan and Haleigh Carvalho