Support Gary Garske's Healing Journey

Happy Thanksgiving! This holiday is a little different for our family this year, but one thing we are not in short supply of is gratitude. Thankful that our G.G. is still here with us, thankful for great medical teams, for our family who has fought this together, for the love and support of our friends and family, and thankful for this platform and its potential to get us through the coming holidays and onslaught of bills and income deficit that is to come.

On Tuesday afternoon, November 12th, Gary Garske was out on the road making a delivery up in Minnesota when he underwent an emergency appendectomy after feeling ill for the majority of Monday and Tuesday that week. When surgeons made entrance, they found a completely disintegrating appendix, damaged kidney, and perforated bowel plus a lot of septic leakage within the abdominal cavity. A routine 20-minute surgery became 3 1/2 grueling hours trying to clean up what they could and give Gary the best chance at healing. We spent a week in the hospital, 6 1/2 hours from home, in Tomah, Wisconsin battling plummeting vitals and a brutal infection. With white counts still high and the infection still rampant, Tomah was able to establish a relationship with our local hospitals and get him home with his girls on Tuesday, November 19th. By Thursday, he was back in the hospital for another 5-day stint, having an additional drain placed in his abdomen and further IV antibiotics. We got him home in time for the Thanksgiving holiday but there is still a long road ahead of him.

As a truck driver, there is no sick leave or temporary disability to keep up the mortgage and bills while he is down. If the trucks not moving, the money's not either. $2700 a month for his share of utility bills and mortgage (we are already into month 2), getting a start on thousands of dollars of medical bills, and a couple things for the girls' Christmas is our goal for Gary's fundraiser to get us through until he can get back to work.

Top: our trucker, Bottom: out girls who have been so amazing through all of this!

Gary has missed 3 full weeks of work already ($1500+ a week lost) and is looking at 5 to 7 more, through the holiday season and into the first of the year. We don't even see the surgeon for a follow-up to check his drain and numbers until Christmas eve. Between lost wages and an insane number of surgical, admittance, and emergency medical bills, this has put a very big hurdle in front of our family on top of working to get him healed and keeping our girls' spirits alive for the holiday season. Not being able to support his family and putting this struggle onto us has been devastating to Gary, as is the need to ask for help. However, numerous family and friends have encouraged him to make a GoFundMe and swallow his pride. I work three jobs and am now playing full-time nurse, but with him being our main provider, this still will not be enough to keep us afloat. Our mortgage and the girls' Christmas will be the first to suffer, both of which are devastating. We know that everyone is short during the holidays and that many are struggling as well. Any amount, even the smallest, prayers, and well wishes are always enough.

Celebrating here with a bite of banana pudding for Thanksgiving. Trying to get some energy and tone back. He's lost so much weight and strength. If you would like to offer financial support to Gary but are not comfortable using the GoFundMe platform, we do have CashApp, Zelle, and Venmo.

CashApp: $kmg0712 (7657488316)

Zelle: 3175293189

Venmo: @ckelliswrites (7657488316)