Help support the DeVaughn family during a difficult time

Hello everyone. I’m Lisa and my husband is Josh. Josh and I have had to navigate through some pretty tough times in the past, but recently, we’ve faced hardest struggle we’ve ever had to deal with.

Here’s a quick summary. Josh hasn’t been able to work this year. He is facing a pretty major surgery that will have him down for quite some time. I am waiting to see a neurosurgeon about what’s going on with me and what my treatment options are. The expenses are building and my income is just not enough to support us. Keep reading for more details. It was long so I tried to explain briefly first.

Josh has not been able to work since the beginning of the year due to medical reasons. He’s been in an immense amount of pain. The neurosurgeon confirmed our worst fear. He will have to have another back surgery to get another fusion. He broke his back 20 years ago and had the first fusion then. This time, however, they have to remove the old fusion, since the hardware is no longer compatible, and replace the fusion that is there with new hardware. Then they will have to fuse the area right above the original. His discs have deteriorated and some are gone. He has quite a long road ahead.

Josh grew up in a hard working household. He has worked since he was just a little kid, operating tractors well before he was allowed to actually drive. Working in hay fields, building fence, taking care of animals. He has not had an easy life. He has pushed through pain many times to take care of our family and stay working.

Josh’s current employer will not fire him due to him being off for medical reasons. For that reason, he can’t draw unemployment. He has sold about everything he could to help make ends meet.

We have been living off of my income and our savings. Our savings is disappearing quickly.

I work for a local health department. I don’t make a lot of money, but I like what I do and it’s an important job. I am a Sanitarian, or health inspector.

I have also had some back/neck problems for a lot of my life. Our situation was made much more inconvenient when I too started having major pain from my neck and back.

I’ve had an MRI and I’m waiting to see the neurosurgeon as well. I’m not sure what the treatment plan will be, but from my test it looks like some of my discs are deteriorating. I also have bulging discs in my neck and lower back as well as a herniated disc in my lower back. The pain is from the discs pinching nerves. They also told me I have narrowing of the spinal canal.

For this to be happening to both of us at the same time is making life much more difficult. One of the biggest causes of stress is just keeping up with our bills. With only my income, it’s just not working.

It’s not easy for us to ask for help. We never thought we would be in this position, but here we are. We’ve worked so hard for the things we have. If you would like to help us out, we will greatly appreciate it. Between medical expenses, normal bills, gas and groceries, it’s getting a little tight. Every little bit helps.