My name is Morgan and my husband is Michael Goldman. Michael suffered a stroke late night on Sunday, February 16th, and we were able to get him care as soon as possible at Kaiser on Sunset - out of network. Since then, we've been told he has a "hole" in his heart, a connective tissue disorder that affects his aorta, and a slew of tests and surgeries are to come.

While it's been a blessing to have him still be here with us and to see him getting better each day, we have reality to face. Out of Network charges for four days in the hospital will be high. Thankfully, we're at Cedars-Sinai for his heart follow ups and the surgery will be there, In Network, but we will maximize our Out of Pocket expenses with these procedures.

We also have a future to consider and a bunch of questions around it. We don't know if Michael will ever be able to return to chiropractic care! He's treated thousands of patients and created friendly bonds, given them a safe environment and a funny person to be around during care. This isn't something he can separate himself from easily - forget the education and student loans - it's what he knows to do. That may all be ending, but we still are without answers and are unable to plan ahead. In the meantime, he's not working and the drop in income will make paying the medical bills all the harder.

We don't ask for help lightly. We have a laundry list of things to do - health-wise, school-wise, and financial-wise. I have taken time away from school to focus on his care. We both struggle with memories - in our own home! - of the night it happened. We can replay the miserable event over and over - the space where he fell, the fear of not being able to help him move, the Fire Department carrying him out as his head was tilted to the side, his eyes not able to focus or concentrate on his surroundings, giving everyone who asked a comprehensive view of his medical history (let's not forget the exploding appendix and open-heart surgery that's all happened in the space of four years), or even that the hospital has you sign the financial aspect as he's being wheeled away to surgery to save his life (60-80% survival rate to boot). We're both destined for some serious therapy when we get this all situated out.

Funds will be used towards medical expenses. We do not have all claims yet filed by Kaiser (such as for the hospital stay), but we anticipate that to be at least $30,000 and we will incur an additional $13,000 on the emergency room, clot removal, echocardiograms, genetic test for connective tissue disorder, and heart surgery. Any remaining funds will go toward physical therapy and neurology to assess ability to fully recover from initial stroke damage.