Hey, my name is Nathan J. Peterson Jr. Some of you may know me, others may not, but here's my story.

I moved to North Carolina on September 20th from Illinois, where I'd lived for the last 30 years of my life. Over the last 5 or so years, I've gone through some big life-changing events that led me to need a fresh start. Once getting to North Carolina, some close friends of mine got me a job with a plastic molding factory. Just two weeks into that job, I had a severe cramp which ended up leading me to pass out and fall to the floor, having a major seizure, and biting my tongue nearly in half long ways. This led me to be let go by the factory as you cannot work near heavy machinery once having had a documented seizure.

Then on January 31st, after about 2 weeks of struggle following what I thought was a heart attack, I was rushed to Winston-Salem Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina for a life-saving emergency open-heart surgery. It turns out I have a condition called aortic dissection. What that means is that my aortic artery was coming apart from inside of my heart all the way up into my head, and then back down all the way to my waist. Then on February 12th, I had to have a second open-heart surgery to drain fluid away from my heart and lungs that was causing me to hallucinate, and would have killed me too. This has all left me unable to work for the foreseeable future.

I have filed for SS disability, but that takes a long time and is not guaranteed by any stretch. So right now I'm swallowing my pride and asking for help. Any little thing can help, and if you can't help, even sharing this story would be helpful. God has seen fit to keep me on this Earth, but now I need some help to keep me able to keep living. God bless you all, and thank you in advance!