Rally for Randy Nelson-Help with the Nelson’s Medical Burden

Hi, my name is Randy Nelson and my mom’s name is Jo Ann Nelson, pictured above, and we live in South Texas near the gulf coast. I am my mother’s primary caregiver. Up until recently mom was the caregiver in the family. She took care of her Sister who died of cancer in 2003, Her parents who both passed away in 2006 and my sister who passed away at only 38 in 2023. In between those she actually had two jobs as a caregiver for a Gulf Bend group home from 2007 to 2010 and also for Dover House from 2012 to 2020. Now it’s her turn to be cared for, but she’s run out of her savings and my attempts to make money have not been successful due to my own conditions and the need to take care of mom.

What happened?

As I stated earlier my sister died in 2023 after a long battle with multiple health issues. Mom was her primary caregiver and as you can imagine took it very hard. She started talking in her sleep and at first I thought it was just grief, but around late January of this year I realized she was starting to bloat pretty bad. The talking in her sleep got worse and she didn’t seem to know where she was. Finally on February 13 I talked her into calling an ambulance and getting checked out. This lead to a three week hospital stay followed by months in a rehab/nursing home as well as three additional hospital visits. She was diagnosed with Afib and CHF as well as diabetes. At one point she had several blood clots. Thankfully the worst is now over. On August 22 they gave her a pacemaker and I finally brought her home on September 17. The problem is not everything was covered by insurance and her stay in the nursing home ate up a huge chunk of her savings. (I honestly think they were trying to make her a permanent resident, but that’s another story).

Meanwhile I’ve been trying to get back up on my feet. I have lower back pain and bad vision, limiting what I can do to earn a living. Originally I planned to get new glasses and find something I could do online to earn a living, unfortunately it’s not going to be that simple. When I went to get glasses I found out I have cataract in both eyes. From what I’ve seen and heard without insurance this can run around $5,000 per eye. I’m hoping it will be less, but I talked to someone who had it done on one eye and even with insurance it cost them $1,200 for one eye. On top of that the eye doctor told me that because I’m only 49, there has to be an underlying cause. They figured diabetes, but I can’t afford to see a doctor, and I’m also aware that diabetic medication can run close to a thousand dollars a month without insurance. I’d like to get myself healthy so that I can support myself and my mom.

What I’m asking for and how I calculated it:

I’ve set the goal at $25,000. This is to cover living expenses as well as medical expenses while I try to get back on my feet.

• Our regular monthly expenses run around $2,500

• Mom gets a little more than $800 a month from SS.

• I’m not currently bringing in anything.

• That leaves a monthly deficit of $1,700.

• I figure it may need another $750 to $1,000 per month for meds and doctor visits to get my possible diabetes in control so I can get the eye surgery.

• Then add in around $10,000 to fix both eyes.

• That comes to a worst case scenario of $26,200 if I can get it all done in 6 months or possibly as high as $42,400.

• I’m hoping to find ways to eliminate or reduce some of these expenses if possible.

• I feel like $25,000 would get me where I need to be without feeling like I’m being greedy.

What I’m going to do with the donations

All donations will be strictly used for my and my mother’s living and medical expenses. Once I’m back on my feet I plan to pay it forward by donating monthly to worthy causes over the next 5 or 10 years or maybe even forever if my finances allow. But I do want to try to pay the entire amount I get forward with interest.

In closing

May the God bless you and watch over you. If He touches your heart to donate to my need Thank You. If you are unable to donate at this time, I would like to ask if you could at least share it on social media, so more people will see it, Thank You. Finally I’d just like to say Thank You for just taking the time to read this post. I pray that this reaches the right people and the Lord blesses me with the amount I need to get my life back on track and continue to take care of my mother.