Help Sean recover from paralyzing illness

Hi! My name is Viktoriya and I'm helping raise funds for my dear friends, Sean and Vika. They are a sweet, funny, and hard-working married couple with four small children, two boys and two girls. Vika is a super mom, who is raising their four beautiful children. Sean is a super dad, is in aviation mechanics, and recently celebrated his 40th birthday with his family - as seen in the family photo above.

On Saturday, October 9, Sean started to experience odd symptoms he's never experienced before - pins and needles in his feet. The next day the pain started spreading up towards his legs and to his hands. By Monday he started experiencing terrible muscle cramps. And by Wednesday morning the muscle numbness spread to the point where he had difficulty walking. He was taken into ER two times, and finally by Thursday night he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). Sean has been hospitalized since. His current condition: in a hospital bed, difficulty speaking and swallowing - even liquid food. He cannot close his eyes. His paralysis is accompanied by severe pain. He needs oxygen support and immunoglobulin therapy.
Around October 23, Sean's immunoglobulin treatment was completed, but he was not showing signs of improvement. The illness has been progressing. He's been experiencing high blood pressure, low oxygen, and severe pain that even high doses of painkillers are not enough to help ease the pain or get sleep. The medical staff has been considering to start a rescue plasmapheresis treatment. 

There is hope of recovery. Recovery from this condition can be long - six months to three years. It can get costly fast, as well. The medical costs will go over what Sean's medical insurance covers, and at this time the family is unable to generate income due to this illness. The application process for disability takes up to 6 months. Sean will need care and therapy beyond what medical insurance and/or Social Security covers. Together we can help Sean and Vika, and their family get through this difficult time. Your support will help cover Sean's immunoglobulin therapy as well as the medical and physical treatments he urgently needs.

Let's help Sean get back on his feet and back to his home to his family who miss him dearly. Thank you so much for your support!


News: https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/portland-dad-released-from-hospital-thanksgiving/283-bca75e78-2e91-47d9-9de7-a44aa807d985


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Personal message from Sean, dictated by voice into phone:
"I don’t know how I can describe how hopelessly cut off from my family I feel right now… I have spent days staring at the walls in my hospital room in such pain. Pain like I have never felt before in my life. Pain throughout my entire body that no number of painkillers can even start to help me cope with. The very small amount of comfort that I get is looking at some pictures that my kids have drawn for me to put on the walls of what might as well be my prison cell. I can’t see my little kids! I can’t hug them! I video chat with them as I can… but it is almost too much for me to bare because I can’t hold them. I get to see my wife once a day while my brother-in-law drives around the hospital with my kids so that my wife has just enough break to see me. My wife must take care of me as well as our four kids… and it is so hard for both of us.

The constant pain that I endure is the sensation of my feet and hands being crushed as if they are under a cement truck. Every time I attempt to grip something it feels like I am being electrocuted through my hands and arms. My feet are so swollen that I have zero sensation in them when I shuffle with a walker like an old man. Feels like my lower legs are just ball stumps.

My stomach is knotted up and tied around itself from the painkillers. My stomach is extremely painful. One day I lost the strength one needs to simply empty one’s bladder and I had to endure an unsuccessful catheter that left me bleeding for three days. My back muscles are so hard and tight that they are pulling me over into a ball and they've been this way for over a month with no release.  
The only thing that gives me strength to keep going is the love that everyone brings with their compassion, support, and understanding for our family. Your support means more than I could ever explain. Thank you."

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