Disabled Vet Needs Help!!!
Darren has had rough start to the New Year. On Dec 31st, he woke up with a slight limp. He thought at the time that he'd just "slept funny". But as the week wore on, he started getting a feeling of numbness on his left side - the same as when your foot falls asleep from sitting on it too long. Eventually, that spread from his left calf/ankle all the way up his left arm to the top-left of his head. At no time did he have any real pain except the tightness on the left side of his neck - which turned out to be unrelated to the other symptoms.
On Jan 7, his wife went with him to the Urgent Care Clinic on Stage Rd since he was now on her health insurance. The nurse at the Urgent Care didn't like the sounds of his symptoms and urged them to go to the ER. They went to the ER at Baptist Memphis on Walnut Grove. From there he was quickly admitted for a "suspected stroke". It didn't stay "suspect" for long. While the CAT scans didn't find anything, the follow-up MRI showed a small Ischemic stroke on the right side of his brain stem. They also found that he has hypertension (high blood pressure), High cholesterol (which has gone up and down all his life), and Type-2 diabetes. It's the diabetes that really surprised him - he'd had hints and family history about the other two conditions since his 20s. But he shouldn't have been surprised: he was reviewing his military medical records from 35 years ago and discovered that the hospital computer had marked his glucose as high. He should have been medically retired then but wasn't. He wasn't even told that he had high blood sugar - which is probably a big contributing factor to the strokes he's had (yes, I said strokeS as in plural).
After his 4-day stay in the hospital, he was trying to get back to "normal". He was able to drive; his limp was subsiding; still had all his mental faculty including speech and vision. He was even able to return to Church and Sunday School. He certainly learned a lot more about strokes than he ever wanted to know before. Then on Thursday, Jan 15 - the day after his 60th birthday - he went with his wife to his initial visit with his PCP doctor. The doctor wrote a prescription for refill of the insulin and a different glucose meter.
So immediately from the doctor's office to Walgreen's they went (abt 1030hrs). He was driving - no issue - in fact it was one of his better parking efforts and he's really good at getting parked on the first try. They walked into Walgreen's - his limp had even gotten much less noticeable. As they were walking down the candy aisle, he started feeling dizzy which became severe vertigo as they approached the pharmacy counter. As he sat down at the pharmacy, his vision went "wonky" - his eyes still focused but on different things at the same time and neither where he wanted to look. As with the first stroke, there was no pain, and this time only a bit of numbness in his right hand (which has since dissipated). He still has the slight neuropathy in his left hand as well as the neuropathy in his feet that he has had for years.
His wife drove him to the Baptist ER in Arlington (it was 5 minutes closer than Baptist Memphis) and he couldn't stand, walk and had difficulty speaking - too many thoughts to express at once, he says. His brain had a mind of its own. As that facility doesn't have a CAT scanner or MRI, he was then transported by ambulance to Baptist Memphis (he vomited twice - before getting in the ambo and after getting on the elevator to his newly assigned room at the hospital). By the next day, he was feeling "back to normal" - even without a limp. The CAT scan again showed nothing while the MRI showed a second stroke - smaller and close to the first but on the left side of the brain stem. They kept him five days for observation, refining his meds, but mainly so he could have a TEE procedure done on Monday the 19th. They wanted to eliminate or identify the possibility of a hole in the upper chamber of his heart as a cause for his strokes. He doesn't have a hole in his heart.
After he was discharged on the 19th, they again started to adjust to their new normal. They decided that he's not going to drive for a while - which puts a damper on things economically as he's no longer able to help make ends meet. Everything was fine on the 20th and seemed fine on the 21st - until 1000am ... His wife was having a difficult time doing his blood sugar check - 4 attempts with the lancet - which came up at 252 (it had been less than 130 for the previous few days) ... Then he stood up, had a severe bout of vertigo, collapsing onto the couch ... His vision went wonky again ... sweating profusely ... seizure-like symptoms and trying hard not to vomit. His wife called 911 immediately and by the time the EMTs arrived (about 5-10 minutes) he was already "over it" ... His vision was doubled at distance and that was about all that worsened. Back to the hospital via ambulance - a couple more CAT scans and another day wait for another MRI ... The radiologist thought it looked like a third stroke but the neurologist and his GP decided it was more a "resurgence" of symptoms from the earlier strokes and an expansion of the first stroke. He was discharged Friday, 01/23, and the doctor told his wife if it happens again don't second-guess it - take him to the ER.
The treatment plan is to continue with new levels of medication. For the most part, the meds are doing their job - his blood pressure has come under control down to 116/88 ... from 172/90 ... His glucose is still stabilizing - avg 138 over the last few days. However, he still has numbness on the left-side of his head, numbness in his left-hand, and his vision is still doubled at distances greater than 5-feet. He won't risk driving due to the doubled vision and suddenness with which the strokes occurred.
Before his stroke "events", Darren was already hanging by a thread financially speaking. That thread has been cut. In March, 2021, his security clearance with the US Navy was terminated due to a mental health crisis that occurred in March, 2017. His contract with the Navy as a civilian computer programmer was terminated and he was rendered unemployable as a computer programmer - a field that Darren had worked in since 1985. In April, 2021, he took a job as a "Material Handler/Forklift operator" with a 60% cut in pay. It was the kind of job he'd done in his early 20s. In October, 2023, he was forced to quit that job due to severe pain in his feet, calves and knees - a problem he's had since his time in the military.
Darren has been living a hand-to-mouth existence since then, using his retirement savings. That money has since run out. He submitted his disability claim to the VA in February, 2025, but that claim is still "in process" so he's not receiving any benefits. He has retained an attorney for that process but there's no guarantee or timetable. He needs financial assistance NOW as he doesn't have the money to pay for the lot rent where his mobile home resides.
Darren is asking for three things:
1. Contribute what you can financially;
2. Pray for God's healing touch and protection;
3. Pass his story along to all your friends, family and neighbors.
Thank you, and God bless!