My dear friend Christo is 46 years old and has fallen out of the bad luck tree, getting hit with every branch on the way down.

Whenever I am home in Michigan, I visit with Christo, though often it has been in hospital rooms, as pictured below. He's a hell of a human being and friend, Unfortunately...

Christo suffers from a myriad of health problems including:

ESRD (End-Stage Renal Disease)

He has developed congestive heart failure, causing fluid buildup around his heart and lungs, which is why he is on oxygen to assist his breathing. If he can hold out for 4 more years, his nephrologist says he is a candidate for the new artificial kidney.

Along with that he has double amputations, which are one of the many reasons he has been denied three times for a kidney transplant.

He also has CRPS (complex regional pain syndrome)/RSD (reflex sympathetic dystrophy), a condition that causes extreme pain and swelling in the remainder of both lower limbs due to nerve damage from his amputations.

Among his other co-morbidities, including MS (Multiple sclerosis), which has caused him to lose vision in his right eye. The MS also makes it very difficult for him to button his clothes, hold on to items such as phones, pens, paintbrushes, and pick up coins or other small items.

And to top it off something so painful, it's most commonly known as the "suicide disease" - Trigeminal neuralgia, which is extremely painful on the left side of his face, making it difficult to chew, drink, shave, etc. Unfortunately he's not a candidate to have the corrective surgery for TN because of his issues with chronic blood and bone infections.

Christo goes to dialysis 3 days a week for 4.5 hours a day. He rides a bus to and from, which adds a couple of extra hours to his appointment time because he can't drive without a handicapped-equipped vehicle and doesn't have one. If you know anyone looking to donate such a vehicle please reach out.

If you know Christo, you know what a tremendous personality and talent he is. If you don't know Christo, let me mention some of those talents in many mediums: incredibly realistic special effects makeup, a musician, sculptor, painter with an endless source of movie and music knowledge. He was raised working and performing at Renaissance festivals across the US. He spent over 2 decades working the doors and providing security at countless music venues and festivals in the Detroit area and beyond over the years, all while spending a majority of his life caring for others, working in several different group homes, and building early childhood development classrooms for HATCH across the US.

Although life is really taking it out on him, he does his best to keep a smile on his face and remain optimistic about his future. I'm not sure how, seeing as he has lost a lot of his family over the past few years including his mother 2 years ago, so he doesn't have many close family members who are able to assist him financially, and because of his health issues, he has fallen greatly upon hard times.

With our help, we can keep him above water financially to live out his days comfortably in his home rather than unhoused, as he is very close to that reality now. Please donate anything you can to him to help with his medical and financial debts to keep him afloat.

Angela and I making Christo into a sand dinosaur.

Offering my back walking skills hospital bed edition lol

At Halloween, where his skills and expertise are greatly enjoyed by the many people he's turned into zombies. My favorite was him as zombie Divine, and if you're a fan of special effects makeup and want to see some of the wild creations he's done over the years feel free to message me and I can provide a link with a folder.

Christo's sweet doggos who would also benifit from having him around. They love running around in his backyard.