Help Joe and Mindy During This Difficult time!

My brother (Joe) and sister-in-law (Mindy) are currently experiencing tough times and need our help.

Joe and Mindy own a home in New Berlin where they are raising two daughters (ages 7 and 9). Joe is a proud union Millwright who works hard to support his family. He loves his girls unconditionally and believes in them 100%. Mindy works part-time as a string teacher at a local music store/studio where she shares her love of music with her students. She also loves her girls more than anything and spends a lot of time taking care of them, doing arts and crafts, focusing on music, and playing games with them.

Last August, Mindy got bad news – she has breast cancer. Since then, she’s fought through 5 months of chemo. She worked when she could, but she was often exhausted from her treatment and taking care of the kids (and Joe, read on to see why). Unfortunately, she also got COVID in January of this year and had multiple blood clots in her lungs requiring her to be in the hospital for a week. Ahead of her, she still has a mastectomy coming up on April 19th, a few months of recovery, 5-6 weeks of daily radiation treatments, then more recovery, and finally reconstructive surgery, followed by more recovery.

Joe is the only brother that we have left in our family and I’m grateful that he’s still here to keep on keepin’ on (as Joe Dirt once said). The week after Mindy got out of the hospital from COVID, Joe was hospitalized for a failing liver and a bacterial infection called Clostridium Difficile Colitis. After that, he was in and out of the hospital while the doctors tried to stabilize his liver and kidney functions. Sadly, Joe learned he needed a new liver or he wouldn’t survive. By the grace of God, he was added to the transplant list on March 15th. Within 8 hours of being on the list, two matching livers became available. He was sent into surgery on March 16th for a full liver transplant. The surgery took approximately 9 hours and then he was monitored in the TICU at Froedtert Hospital. The next day, he had some internal bleeding and required another surgery. A few days later, he went to the transplant recovery unit of the hospital and made great progress. He was released from the hospital a week after his transplant with a large scar and a new routine. He will have a lifetime of anti-rejection meds for his new liver and a lot of follow-up doctors’ appointments. Unfortunately, Joe has not been able to work much this year-to-date due to his medical issues and will likely be unable to work for 4-5 months.

Both Mindy and Joe are embarking on long roads to recovery after significant medical diagnoses. Mindy works part-time when she can, but last Friday (4/7) was her last day for now. She is taking some time off now for her upcoming masectomy, plans to work during radiation, then will need more time off during reconstruction, then will go back to work after that recovery. Although Joe’s union job provides short-term disability insurance income that includes keeping their health insurance policy active (which is a God send), it is significantly less than his working wages. They have to keep a roof over their heads, keep the power on, and they have four mouths to feed. Thankfully Joe does have great health insurance through the union, but with Mindy’s cancer treatment carrying over from last year and both of their medical issues this year, the out-of-pocket costs are adding up.

Joe and Mindy thank everyone who has offered prayers, support, and help so far. They are truly grateful.

First, we ask for continued prayers and well wishes. Pray that Joe’s body continues to accept the liver and he has a full recovery. Pray that Mindy’s mastectomy and radiation destroy the breast cancer and that she has a full recovery from the reconstructive surgery. Pray for their girls to be strong as their parents recover and for emotional healing from these traumatic events affecting their parents.

Second, we have started this GoFundMe for those who want to help relieve some of the financial burden for Joe and Mindy.

We’ll share future Joe and Mindy updates here. Thank you!