Micko's 50th - a nice surprise

I’m here to humbly ask for you help.

As you probably know, the last year has been an incredibly rough ride for us. 11 months ago life was going by quite normally, besides the pandemic, until Micko came home with the news his heart was on its last legs and he’d need urgent open heart surgery.

It was such a shock! Micko has always been very fit and healthy. And he was asymptotic. Without this urgent surgery one day, at any moment (the cardiologist told us in no uncertain terms), Micko would likely head off to work and not return.

He wasn’t to work until after the surgery. It was too high risk. We were meant to be going to Victoria to see my family and have a fun holiday in the snow in the July school holidays (our first family holiday since 2018) but our calendars needed to be completely wiped as we were told the surgery would happen very quickly and at a few days notice.

So we waited. And waited. I was a mess. If I did sleep, I’d wake in regular intervals throughout the night to check that Micko’s heart was still beating.

There are so many utterly unbelievable twists and turns in this story… but I won’t go into all the details as I do want to get to the point! So let’s just say after a roller coaster three months, we organised our border passes and I drove Micko to the back entrance of the hospital, where I had to wave goodbye without getting out of the car and drive straight back across the closed border.

A weeks later I made the return trip, and sat in the car for hours until he appeared, in a wheelchair, and again, I had to wait in the car until he managed to hobble over to me and we hightailed it home again.

The recovery was not without stress (those first 2 weeks are quite a ride) and due to covid we had to do it all alone, but he recovered quickly and was back at work within a couple of months.

Fast forward 8 months and Micko is in the best shape of his life. Back at his disability support job and loving life. We’ve had to lay pretty low thanks to Covid but starting to get our lives back.

Tomorrow, Micko turns 50! And it’s nothing short of a miracle and medical science that he is here to celebrate that!

Initially, our plan was to have a big party, but we aren’t in a position to be able to do that. The last year of Micko being out of work, and me putting my business into maintenance mode has really fucked us.

I thought that once Micko was safe and well that life, and business, would go back to normal. But I didn’t anticipate the ongoing effects of this on my capacity. My finances were buoyant through most of this (thanks to daily human design sessions and a NSW business grant that helped to float us for a month or two) and I knew I had enough to get us through the summer holidays until school went back.

I then went about launching my podcasters mastermind, but it didn’t fly. Then I got a massive sinus infection that knocked me about for a couple of weeks, then we had two back to back floods (thankfully we were high and dry, unlike many people we love) which threw everyone up here’s life into chaos.

During Feb and March I spent a lot of time looking for a job. Had a couple of interviews but nothing really came of it.

As a result of all of this, financially we have been going through a rough patch. I’ve not been able to pay myself for a couple of months (this has not happened since I closed my coworking space nearly a decade ago). On top of Micko being out of work for months and months, we weren’t in a position to float me while I found my feet. It’s been hard but we’ve managed.

Anyways, I’m beginning to turn things around. And I’m finally feeling like I’m coming back. There’s some great stuff on the horizon and the work is starting to trickle in again. But it’s sadly not in time for Micko’s birthday.

I’d really wanted to make this birthday special…. Because of all his 49 birthdays this far, none have held the same meaning as this. We don’t want anything fancy, but I Mabel desperately would like to buy him a skateboard. And I’d like to be able to take him out somewhere nice for dinner. Or take him away somewhere for the night.

I’m crying. I never thought I’d be in this position… where I’m kind of begging for money. It’s humbling, to say the least. Maybe even a little humiliating. Especially when I think about my friends who’ve lost everything recently.

We are going to be fine. More than fine. Micko is healthy. My work will be pumping again soon enough, but not soon enough to make this birthday for Micko a lovely surprise.

We don’t need a stack of money. And we know times are tough for many. If you can throw a $5 or $10 we’d be so grateful.