Hi!

I’m creating this gofundme for my older brother, Andy. He’s one of the sweetest, most supportive, caring, and positive people in my life despite facing plenty of adversity in his life and he inspires me every day. This past April, he finally received his Bachelor’s degree after about 8 years of taking classes while also working full time and battling some intense personal issues. He also began working out pretty seriously this summer and it was so inspiring for me to be able to watch him begin focusing on his own personal health and growth and to see him beginning to transform both mentally and physically. 

However, this August, we were working out together when he suddenly had a sharp pain in his leg. The pain persisted, so he had it checked out by a doctor. For about a month, the pain was diagnosed as a severe groin sprain, for which he was resting, icing, and doing some simple exercises for. He was hardly able to walk without crutches and, therefore, wasn’t able to work his full-time machinist job, so he filed for short-term disability. About a month into this after going back to see his doctor because he wasn’t healing, he had an x-ray and then received a call that he needed to come in for an emergency MRI and that he was not to put weight on it until he came in. The MRI showed stage 4 osteonecrosis in his femur; his bone was essentially dead. Suddenly, Andy needed to be in a wheelchair, couldn’t take care of his dog, Yogi, couldn’t do many of his daily activities on his own, and is scheduled for a total hip replacement at the young age of 28. We’ve been doing everything we can to support him through this and, despite the already scary medical bills, we are working our hardest to figure this out. However, due to the misdiagnosis and filing for short term disability, Andy will essentially be out of work for too long to maintain this disability and his job. Therefore, he could lose his job and his short-term disability insurance payments are already almost over. He does have long term disability but that will not cover his rent & medical expenses.  

While my family was preparing to handle this financially as best we could, Andy’s apartment was robbed while he was at home asleep. We are so thankful that no one was hurt during this, but they took his car keys, his wallet (including the rest of his disability cash and his ID’s), his game consoles and games, as well as his roommates wallets and valuables. This news broke our hearts and has really strained all of us. We’re really not sure what else to do beyond reaching out and asking for help. Whether you can afford a small donation to help support Andy and our family in medical bills, or you can simply provide positive thoughts and prayers for our situation, we would really appreciate any of it. We know giving can be difficult in this season, especially with the pandemic really impacting this so much more on top of anything. However, even a prayer or good wish can go a long way.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read Andy’s story and consider this. Happy Holidays!