Support Brent's Recovery Journey

Hi, guys!

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

I have suffered a medical emergency. Last weekend, whilst test riding a jet ski that I had just repaired for work, I was caught off guard by a wake from another boat and tossed from the craft. My foot hung up in the footwell as I was thrown off, resulting in a severe spiral fracture to my tibia and fibula. This led to a short hospital stay and orthopedic surgery. My leg was repaired with a 345mm rod and 5 screws in my tibia, and a small plate and another 8 screws in my fibula.

As you can imagine, this makes for a painful and uncomfortable recovery period that adds layers of difficulty to caring for my son and household duties. It also leaves me in a pretty tenuous financial situation. I am lucky enough that this accident happened on the clock and qualifies for worker's compensation coverage. I also have some supplemental insurance coverage that may or may not work hand-in-hand with worker's comp. However, as I get the ball rolling on my claims and attempt to budget for the short-term future, it is quickly becoming apparent that there will be a period of zero income for me until those policies catch up in an unknown number of weeks. (At least 2 or 3) When I last seriously injured myself, about a decade ago, I experienced a similar situation. I naively thought that the really good insurance I had at that time would pay promptly. It did not. I had several weeks of pretty dire financial straights before finally recieving compensation. I was back to work and had pretty much recovered, physically and financially, before receiving the first payments.

The biggest difference this time around is that I am not simply responsible for keeping my own head above water. I have my sweet son, Seamus, who is wholly dependent on me. I can handle the pain and, if I were alone, I could tough it out and hope for the best as bills went unpaid, my finances spiraled down the drain and my debt went through the roof.

I basically ruined my credit in the few months after Seamus's mother died, after we had been working diligently to improve our credit scores together. So any credit available to me would come at a predatory interest rate.

It is very hard (mostly embarrassing) for me to ask for this kind of help, but I am attempting to capitalize on any resources available to me to keep us afloat.

No one owes me a thing, but rest assured that any proceeds received will be greatly appreciated and paid forward once I am mobile again.

Thank you all for your consideration and the well wishes that I am already receiving in droves.

(My own words. Not "enhancing" my story with AI!)