Support Steve and Nikki Through Medical Hardship

TLDR at bottom.

Hi everyone, so this is a GoFundMe to help out dad.

My dad is an amazing man, who is genuinely one of the most selfless, caring, and optimistic people that I have ever had the privilege of meeting. He also does not know what it means to give up, nor has he ever stopped dreaming of making a difference in as many lives as possible.

These past five years have however hit him hard and kept him from working, placing all of the financial burden on my mother. The latest of the hits occurred this past week when he was scheduled to go in for a colonoscopy to clear him of cancer after five years, and resulted in him having roughly nine inches of his lower intestines removed and a five day stint in the hospital with a colostomy bag. So, to say the day did not go as planned is a bit of an understatement.

To better understand the timeline of how we got to today, here is a quick rundown:

September 10, 2019: Dad goes in to see about getting a nasty hemorrhoid fixed, which turns out to be cancer, thus kicking off rounds and rounds of doctors visits and various surgeries to remove the cancer. During this time he is not able to work.

March 2020: Covid hits, so dad is still recovering. He also can’t work as he is a contractor, and unable to go into people’s homes due to his being immunocompromised.

January 9, 2022: Dad went to the store the day after that nasty ice storm, and although the lot was completely cleared, hit a patch of ice at the curb and went up in the air, coming down on his shoulder on the sidewalk, resulting in the need of a complete shoulder rebuild, and another 7-8 months of recuperation.

October 26, 2022: Dad goes in for an angiogram in which it is discovered that he has a complete blockage in one artery and a 40% blockage in another.

December 16, 2022: Dad goes in for an angioplasty, they are able to open up the artery a little more, inserting a stent, but still needing further attention.

January 15, 2023: More progress and another stent.

February 12, 2023: Doctors are able to insert the final of 3 stents to open his artery, allowing for almost full blood flow and Dad to boast of a 122/68 blood pressure again which he did, does, and to be honest, probably always will.

August 27th, 2024: Dad starts to prepare for his five year colonoscopy to clear his cancer. He goes into the ER at 4:30pm with severe abdominal pain. The ER is moving too slowly, so after 2 hours, he and mom leave for another ER. The other ER is packed, but finally, at 7pm, he is called back. After 3 hours and only a blood test and pain meds, he is discharged. Told to go home and if the pain returns (it never left, just lessened, after four shots of morphine going down from a 10 to a 6 on the unhappy face scale) to take some Tylenol and try to sleep.

August 28th, 2024: At 4:45 am, mom rushes dad back to the ER with major abdominal pain. He is admitted immediately and taken for a CT scan within the hour. Results come back and he is then scheduled for emergency surgery at 9am. During surgery, nine inches of the colon are removed, while his entire digestive tract, as well as abdominal cavity, is scrubbed clean of puss and an e-coli bacterial infection from going septic due to a burst diverticula. Due to the severity of the burst the surgeon needed to insert a stoma necessitating a colostomy bag for a minimum of three months before re-evaluating the restoration of his digestive tract. Per the surgeon, if he were to have come in an hour later he would have died on the operating table.

Dad is now recovering, with an incision that stretches about a third of his abdomen, with the removal of an additional hernia from his belly button. Once it is all said and done, recovery is looking to take eight months to a full year, time in which he is unable to work. Through it all he has been smiling and putting on a brave face, making sure that everyone else is alright, only letting himself actually face what he has gone through when it will not upset someone else. He doesn’t want to worry anyone, nor does he want to take out his frustrations on anyone else.

But, this has been hell for dad, and he is not one to ask for help. Well, that is too bad. He has lived his entire life helping others, from buying entire carts of groceries for the families of our childhood friends so they could eat, to literally taking in almost a dozen other children to live in his home from a month to over two years so they had somewhere safe to live off the streets, asking nothing in return. Actually, that is not true, he has asked for one thing, to turn around and help someone else in turn.

Dad is still himself, excited to meet his seventh grandchild any day now. However, he also is stressing as the financial burden of these past five years has fallen on my mother’s shoulders, who has also had her fair share of medical concerns. With dad out for another eight months to a year, finances are getting even more tight, so it is time to ask for help and let dad take a breather.

That brings us to today. Dad needs help, and there is only so much we can do, so we are asking that you please help ease a little of his burden to let him recover. He has spent his entire life helping others asking nothing but that they turn around and help others. It is time to do the same for him. Thank you and God bless.

~ Shayne, Ryne, Dylan, Keith, Mya, Laura, Kate, Veronica, Nikki, Steve, Rand, Perrin, Raine, Iris, Fiero, and grandbaby girl!

TLDR - Dad had surgery in late August due to a ruptured diverticula and almost died having nine inches of his colon removed. This, coupled with cancer, a major shoulder injury, and three stints in the past five years, has caused major financial hardships on him and mom. He will be out of work for at least 8 to 12 months, so they need help with paying medicals bills, their mortgage, and just bills in general.