Michael's Medical and Travel Expenses

For the last two years, Michael has been fighting medical problems without knowing what the cause was. On August 29th, things changed from his usual symptoms when he woke up with severe pain in his back/abdomen and his heart rate going dangerously high. We went to Tazewell Hospital where he was treated for dehydration and told to follow up with our primary.

August 30th, Michael woke up sick, in severe pain, a low heart rate and gray in the face. We immediately knew something was wrong and I just felt led to take him somewhere that had resources and knowledge beyond what our area had to offer. With reassurance from a friend and hopeful for someone that would listen, we came to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s ED.

Testing and monitoring revealed that Michael’s kidney function was declining and had already dropped in comparison with his levels at TCH. With levels continuing to drop, and more data being found in his heart, they admitted Michael and assigned him an internal medicine team. They are working to improve kidney and heart function, and he has a great team of doctors and cardiologists working on his case for the answers he deserves.

This has been such a long road of being medically gaslighted by hospitals in our area when these events have happened in the past. We are so grateful we came to Wake when we did and for the doctors that listened, working diligently to get Michael back on a road to health. We are still waiting for answers with changes happening every day.

As of right now, we are not sure how long our stay is going to be (we feel like we will be here through the week.) We are going on week 3 of Michael being unable to work, and he is the sole income of our family. This isn’t something we would usually do, but with travel expenses for Christen, medical expenses, and a return to work not currently in sight we feel that it’s time to ask for help.

If you feel led, we would appreciate any donations. If you can’t donate send us prayers and positive thoughts, put us on your church prayer lists, or just simply share.

We believe that God brought us here and that he will reveal the root cause of these problems and get Michael on a path to healing. We also want to extend a thank you to our family doctor and nurse at the Bland Clinic for listening and being so diligent in making sure things were transferred quickly to Wake.

Thank you for helping our little family. – Michael & Christen