Short story for those who want to know but don’t have the time to read my novel!

My brother, Jake was born with dwarfism and just had to have a very dangerous life saving surgery where he almost lost his ability to walk forever. We are having to move apartments to a ground level for wheelchair access which will cost $4,000 alone before the next month of bills that I also have to find a way to handle while we are 11 hours away from our home in Arden, NC and out of work! Any and all help would be appreciated beyond measure while we start the road to recovery for my amazing brother. We truly can’t tell you how much this means for us!

Meat and potatoes version -

Hi, My name is Sarah Lisenby. Two weeks ago my brother and I were living a normal enough life! Working hard to create a life for ourselves, we’ve been through a lot but have always managed to get through it together! Jake was born with a dwarfism called Achondroplasia, one of the most common types like you may have seen in shows like “Little people big world!”. This type of dwarfism carries very scary health risks, that just became our worst nightmare. A little over two weeks ago, my brother woke up in horrible pain in his back and very quickly started losing his ability to walk, we have no idea what caused it. The ER, nor any doctors or specialists could give us any answers or solutions. I called every Doctor and specialist from Duke to Hopkins, everyone you can imagine in a 5 hour radius of our home in Arden, NC. If you ever frequent the Wal-Mart there, you’ll know Jake! He runs the front registers and self-checkout, always with that big grin on his face.

After two days of calling everyone I could find and only finding pediatric doctors that had any knowledge of dwarfism, I got desperate and reached out to a fellow little person in a complete panic, not knowing what to do to help my little brother who at this point was screaming in agony all day. She managed to get me in touch with not only the best team, but the best surgeon possible to help my brother. It became very clear very fast that my brother was in serious trouble. The doctor cancelled all of his surgeries for the next day, and I packed up as much of his stuff as I could and a little of mine within the hour to drive to Florida. Jake had to crawl from my bedroom, up a flight of stairs, and into my car while crying in agony the entire time. It was an awful 11 hour drive to Florida where I only stopped twice for gas, Jake was in pain the whole time. We immediately got to the doctor 2 hours later and within 24 hours he cancelled all of his surgeries and had him in the OR. He said that Jake was within mere hours of losing his legs forever as well as potentially his life. Several herniated discs had lodged into his spinal column, severing it, as well as his nervous system. He was being electrocuted like a fork in a light socket by his own body. The surgery was very dangerous and the doctor worked fiercely to save my brother and his ability to walk, while I had to make some incredibly hard decisions in the middle of it. My brother has finally taken his first steps, yet the road ahead is still very long and trivial. We have to be here in Florida for at least another month and I am now having to move our apartment to a ground level since he won’t be able to tackle a massive flight of stairs in a wheelchair, while still being in another state. That alone is costing $4,000 and I still have an entire months worth of bills after that to take care of and am kinda starting to freak out. ANY and all help would be so incredibly appreciated beyond words can explain! I love my brother more than life itself and will do whatever I have to, get as many jobs as I have to, to help him. Thank you for any support that you would be able to give to help us be able to stay in Florida for the help that he needs and so that we can still have this new home for him to return to. All the while we are still learning how to walk again, so hopefully one day my brother can run.