Help Luckeydoo's Pay the Bills After a Near-Death Exp

Even if you only open this link and read this sentence, thanks. I appreciate you.

I'm starting this GoFundMe on behalf of my parents, who are too hardheaded to ask for help. To be honest, there's even some shame in reaching out for help on me and my brother's behalf-- but it's okay to ask for help when you need it.

Bottom line up front:

My brother and I need extra money to help our parents avoid taking a loan against my mom's retirement account.

Some background:

My mom just got out of a 20-plus-day stay in which she, at one point, flatlined for about 30 seconds. Her doctor has ordered her not to return to work for the next 30 days, at least. If the First Sergeant is reading this, don't panic—she's out of the hospital now and is doing okay.

If you've ever talked to me about my mom's health, you might've heard me say, "She's the world's most confusing chemistry experiment". My mom is almost 55, and she had open heart surgery at age 36. If you can think of a health problem, she probably has it. Hell, if you can think of a medication, she's probably on it. Heart disease, thyroid, diabetes, narcolepsy, high blood pressure, ocular migraines... idk a ton of other stuff(it can be hard to remember it all). But she's one resilient SOB.

Through all that, she still cranks out 60-hour work weeks as a 911 dispatcher who specializes in crisis management. Google "crime rate Apopka, Florida" and you can imagine how insane her job is. Let me know offline if you want to hear some of her stories—they're up there with some of the wildest ones you'll hear from our brothers and sisters in arms.

So, after 19 years of having a synthetic heart valve (it sounds like a ticking time bomb if you stand next to her), her heart is beginning to have some problems again, and the doctors aren't quite sure what to do next. Often, her heart will go into AFIB, meaning it beats out of rhythm, and will be at 135-155 bpm while she's just sitting still for 30mins-3hours at a time. Though her heart has progressively gotten worse, she and my dad (who had major back surgery in November) still got on a plane to come visit me in Italy for the first time back in March.

2 days after they got home, my mom got sick again. She started getting bronchitis, and her heart was going crazy, so she went to work anyways. Towards the end of her shift (6 PM-6 AM), her heart was beating around 170 bpm for 15+ minutes.. much higher than "normal" for her. She was getting nervous. Hilariously, she took a 911 call from a woman who needed an ambulance because "Her heart was beating so fast, like 130bpm". My mom tried not to laugh and finished the call-- immediately after, she called an ambulance for herself. Listen, my mom is going to the hospital, and being there for a while is a seemingly normal situation in the Luckeydoo household.

Whenever she goes to the hospital, they usually try to stop one of the medications to check something, and that throws everything out of wack. Between the 10+ pills that it takes to keep her going, when you mess with one, you mess with the Chemistry experiment that is Erin, and she'll for sure be in the hospital for a few days.

As most of us know, things can go from bad to worse in a beat. She'd been telling my dad that, for the first time, she was really scared. Something didn't feel right. *she was right.

A few hours later, she was sitting in the hospital bed talking to a friend who was visiting and her friend, Robin, asked if she was okay because she noticed that my mom's heart rate went down from ~130 to in the 60s. My mom said "oh you know.. the machine is probably reading it wrong" NOTE: She was wrong.

Yeah, so then it just kept going down and my mom said "oh shit I think I'm gonna pass out" and yeah, well, technically she passed out. Her heart stopped for ~30 seconds. Luckily, the doc was in the room and they got it going again pretty quickly. Funny enough, the first thing my mom said when she came back was "hey, handsome, what're you doing here?" to her 30-something-year-old doc (to be fair, I saw him, he's quite handsome).

She seemed like just the normal version of herself afterwards. Now, after a few days, they got the heart under control and she's out of the hospital.

They still don't know why it happened. They still don't know what's next. More heart surgery? Pacemaker? Ablations? Maybe. There is going to be A LOT of doc appointments over the next month, which is why she's been ordered not to go back to her high-stress job for at least 30 days.

So that's the story. That's where we are.

Here's why we need help:

My dad is 75, retired, on social security with no real retirement account, and still recovering from major back surgery in November.

My brother just started a company, and if you know anything about start-ups... well-- bro is eating a lot of Ramen right now.

As for me, I took the last-minute flight home back in October to be with my dad for almost a month as he had his back surgery. He had some complications with the anesthesia, and my mom and I spent 3 weeks doing 12-hour rotations to be beside him the whole time. After that, my parents really wanted to come see Italy before I PCS'd, but couldn't afford it, so I financed the whole trip. Between the almost a month in Florida and their flight, plus a couple of weeks here in Italy, I mostly cleared out the accounts.

After doing some math and budgeting, I really just need like $1,200ish to add alongside what I'm going to send to make sure they can pay the bills for 2 months (their house is paid off, thank God) and they won't have to pull a loan against my mom's retirement account.

So, if you have the means, we appreciate it. If you don't but you read this far, thanks, too—this was cathartic to write. I'm not posting this anywhere overtly public because my parents are some hardheaded shitheads who like to think they can do everything, but I'll post it in a few places they won't see it. If you have some circles you feel compelled to share it with, please go right ahead.

I love y'all <3

-Luckeydoo