Hey, my name is Austin.

I have never been one to put my personal business out there for others to know, so bear with me on this.

In the past 3 years, I have been in two separate car accidents. Both were caused by the other person. No one got seriously injured, so I am grateful for that. Although, I have been in severe back and neck pain ever since, and it has caused me to have PTSD. This has put a halt on a lot of areas in my life.

Over that time period, I have been to multiple doctors to try and find out exactly what is causing this pain. It is getting worse every day, and I need to find some relief. I used to be extremely active, going bowling, playing disc golf, or even soccer. Though now, I am in pain just getting out of bed in the morning.

After a long journey, I found a doctor who was willing to dig deeper into what is going on. They did an upper, mid, and lower back MRI; some with contrast and some without. They have also done around 30 different X-rays between all of the visits.

This gave them a better idea of what is causing my pain and how to fix it. They found that I had severe nerve damage throughout my back. Along with their search, they also found a Spinal Cord Syrinx in the thoracic region of my back. This is basically a pocket of fluid that is inside of the spinal cord, which is not supposed to be there. The syrinx is pressing on my spinal cord from the inside, which is causing a lot of my pain and issues.

I have gone through multiple rounds of injections to try and calm the nerves that are inflamed. I have been through physical therapy, chiropractic, massage therapy, dry needling, and even tried yoga. None of this has helped; if anything, it has continued to get worse.

The past 2-3 weeks, the pain has intensified about twice the normal amount. The doctors are concerned that the syrinx is getting larger, or there’s something deeper going on. Therefore, we have continued to work towards coming up with a solution.

For the next steps, I have to undergo an operation on my back. Though, in order to even get started with the operation, I have to come up with $2000. This is just the co-pay that I have to do upfront, and there are multiple steps, with each step costing another $2000.

Normally, I would just work more or get a second job, but that is causing me more pain and making my situation worse. I am currently on a medical LOA due to not being able to make it through an 8-hour shift.

I am a single man who would love to get back to his normal routine in life and even start doing the things I love again. Before the accident, I had ambitions to go to school for cybersecurity, though everything has been put on hold due to the medical debt I’ve been put in.

After paying well over $20k in medical bills already, I am only going into more debt. That is not including the $40k+ that I owe between several different doctors. I do not currently have any family around this area to help with the bills piling up and do not want to put that burden on them. As of right now, I have not received a settlement from either accident, so I have had to foot the bill for all of it.

I have been praying a lot about it and found that it was time to ask for help. I cannot start the operation until I come up with the money for it; therefore, I decided to see if there were any friends who would be willing to lend a helping hand.

I appreciate all of you,