SCOT'S SURGERY - $ for Physical Therapy Gym Clothes, Sneaks

 What follows is

 my initial GoFundMe story.

 My name is John Scotland Rasor. I go by Scot, the first part of my middle name. A little bit about me. I have a BA and also received my MBA from the University of Rochester. After I finished my MBA I started a construction business in Rochester NY. In 2014, at the age of 50, I was told that I needed to have both hips replaced. I was also cautioned to wait as long as possible because the prosthetic joints were expected to last for 15 years. The longer you wait the less chance of wearing out the artificial joint. Ironically, that's no longer an issue with the new materials used in the wear areas (ball and socket) of the implants.

Now for my current situation: I relocated to the Philadelphia area from Rochester NY in late 2018 and started my construction business here again. It was difficult starting over, but I stuck with it. In February of 2019 Maddie, my golden retriever, was diagnosed with megaesophagus. In this condition the esophagus stops working. The food the dog swallows is not pushed into the stomach by peristalsis. There is no treatment for this. Maddie was fed her daily food allotment in 5 separate meals and each meal was mixed with water in a blender into a slurry. She had to eat in a special chair that kept her vertical so the food would flow into the stomach by gravity, staying in the chair for 20-30 minutes after each feeding to make sure that all the food was in her stomach. The entire feeding process takes about 45 minutes to an hour. If food is left in the esophagus it could be aspirated into the lungs causing pneumonia (that's how I found out she had the condition). After 9 months of feeding her this way I had gone through my savings and had to make the difficult choice to find Maddie home that could give her the care she needed. During the next few months of doing whatever construction projects I could get, mostly just handyman jobs, business began to pickup. I received an email from Maddie's new owner in mod February of 2020 telling me that she has died in her sleep the night before. I remember thinking that all the bad things that could happen to me had happened and that life was only going to get better from that point forward. Unfortunately I was wrong and the pandemic hit the next month. As we all did, I dealt with the pandemic as best as I could, including borrowing money from my father, now 91 and living in an assisted living facility, to get by. Once the pandemic restrictions were lifted I started my construction business once again. By this time my financial situation was terrible, but I was able to repay the money I borrowed over the next year and kept trying to make my business work out. Unfortunately, over a 3 week period in November of 2022 the issue with my hips worsened significantly leaving me barely able to walk or stand for more than 15 minutes. Maybe I was too optimistic or to proud and made a bad decision, but I did not want to go on disability. I felt I could make it through until I could afford hip replacement surgery by driving for Uber. I borrowed money from my father again to pay my bills while waiting to be approved to drive for Uber and an additional money for a down payment on a Ford Escape. I started as an Uber driver in December of last year. I was not making enough to repay the money I borrowed, pay my bills and maintain a place to live. In order to reduce my expenses and make it through this situation I began living in my car. Doing that allowed me to repay the money I borrowed. At this time I discovered that the car dealership did not pay the sales tax on the vehicle I bought and had to pay $1,300 in order to get the title and registration. Because of this unexpected expense I ended up getting behind in my car payments. To compound this already bad situation I developed severe edema in both my legs from driving all day and sleeping in a sitting position. To deal with the fluid buildup I needed stop driving every few hours and elevate my legs for 45-60 minutes. This impacted my earnings and negatively impacted my overall health. My car was repossessed on Wednesday night by the bank leaving me with no way to make money and no place to stay at night.

There comes a point where it makes sense to ask for help. I probably should have done it months ago, but I believed I could get through this myself. It's a series of bad events and bad timing on my part. 

Use of Funds:

I'm trying to raise enough money to pay my expenses during the next couple of weeks. This includes past due and upcoming bills, buy food, pay a past due Dr bill, make the deposit on a rental car to drive for Uber and pay for Uber fares while I get the car rental situation taken care of.  That is the option that lets me ask for the least amount of financial assistance. I've been told that it would be a better move to ask for more financial help and go ahead and have my hip surgery. That would be the ideal way to fix the situation I face, but I'm not comfortable with asking for any more than I need to get through this myself. If I receive feedback from the people that donate to my GoFundMe saying I should go ahead with the surgery and ask for more I'll do that. For now I hope to receive enough to get back on my feet and receive as little help as needed. My hope is that I'll be able to earn enough money to afford to take off a few weeks from working in order to have the hip replacement surgery. After which I will apply for jobs as a construction project manager using my 20 years experience in that position.

Thank you for reading this. This is a difficult thing for me to do, but I have no other options at this time. Any advice on my situation would be greatly appreciated. I'm struggling to keep a positive outlook and to keep hope for tomorrow. The advice and input of other people would be an enormous help, I'm simply at the end of what I can do without the help from others.