Help Keep Mike and his Family Together and Healthy

[SEE UPDATE BELOW]

Hello friends and hello to the friends of Mike Buzzy, for those of you who already know him.

If you do know Mike, then you know that he is a smart, happy, beautiful ray of sunshine on a cloudy day. He's always upbeat and full of energy from the time he awakes until the time he retires, without stopping for a moment in between.

Mike is a personal trainer at a local gym as well as a semi-professional model with a good sized following. Many (if not most) of his fans come and visit with Mike simply to hang out, chat, and to hear his positive takes on topics people choose to  share with him. His personal help and guidance at the gym make him very popular there, too. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has prevented the gym from doing business and Mike has not been able to collect any wages from his job as a personal trainer.

Mike was born and raised in Romania where he still resides. He loves to travel when he can (not often enough for him) and he dreams of the day when he can come to the US and see the cities and towns he's heard so much about. He wants to spend a few days here so he can see New York, Miami, Chicago, Hollywood, and San Francisco. It's hard to imagine how much area is covered between these cities so we're hoping he will plan on making more than one visit, or decide to stay for a much longer period. He'll be fine as far as language is concerned because, in addition to his native Romanian, he is also fluent in English and Spanish.

Friends of Mike's know that he helps everyone he can. He doesn't have a lot of money but he will use every last penny to help out a friend in need. Whether it's a single mom whose kids have become ill, or any one of his other friends when they are in need. Mike is always there to do what he can and he'll worry about being broke later.


Lately, Mike has taken on a much bigger task, but it's a task borne of great love. You see, while Mike feels a deep kinship and love for all of his friends, there is nothing, to him, that is more binding than the love of family - mother, father, and a younger brother who looks like he could be Mike's twin. Mike's parents have been forced to retire and have very little means for survival. Mike's mother became ill with cancer a few years ago. Mike somehow managed to scrape together enough money to get her the radiation treatments she needed and, after some lengthy hospital stays, she has made as full a recovery as a cancer patient can make. Thankfully, she is cancer-free at this moment.

More recently, Mike's dad has become ill. He has been taking daily medication that Mike purchases for him, as well as monthly dialysis treatments, over the past year now. A few week's ago, Mike and his family noticed that his dad seemed to be hiding some pain - something he has done stoically in the past. Only this time, his dad wasn't hiding it very well. A great deal of persistence finally resulted in his admitting that he had a lot of pain and arrangements were made to drive him the 280km (174mi) to a hospital that is relatively close to Mike's home.

The doctors there performed a lot of imaging tests on his kidney, knowing that this was a problem area for Mike's dad - as well as the central location for the excruciating pain he was experiencing.

The tests indicated that the kidney was blocked by blood clots at the entrance to the ureter. This was preventing urine from exiting the kidney and entering into the bladder, which is designed to expand like a balloon in order to store urine until it can be excreted. Unfortunately, kidneys don't expand like balloons - or anything else for that matter. So the pressure from the expanding volume of urine inside the kidney was forcing the kidney structures and tissues to literally stretch. A condition that causes pain. So much so that that this source of pain is considered to be one of the 7 most painful pains the human body can experience.

The doctors' best recommendation was to surgically install stents and tubing that will allow urine to flow directly from the kidney, through the bladder, and directly to the urethra for excretion. The doctors say he should experience instant relief (once he recovers from the anesthesia), and the procedure is being done at this moment. There's no reason it shouldn't be a complete success.

Except for one thing. You see, when Mike heard that this would fix his dad, he didn't stop to worry about where he would get the 3000 Euros (~$3500) needed to pay for it all. He only cared about getting his beloved father out of the torment of constant pain and on the road to recovery and renewed happiness.

Now that things are progressing, Mike and his brother have had some time to think about how they can scrape the money together to pay for his father's surgery. His brother thought about taking out a high-interest loan. With his wedding coming up, the loan will certainly cause some problems.

We, Mike's friends, are hoping we can raise funds to cover the $3500 hospital bill to allow Mike's dad to return home, pain free, where he can get on with the task of basking in the glow of family love.

I have never met Mike's father but I know how much he means to Mike. And all of Mike's closest friends know how much Mike means to them. And the circle closes. If we can raise enough to help Mike and his family pay for these medical expenses, then we can all be a part of helping Mike get back to the happy, upbeat, funny, smart, loving young man that he is. Wouldn't it be nice to have a little stake in that?

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Any amount of help you can give goes very far in making this dream a reality.

-Friends of Mike

UPDATE
I'm happy to report that Mike's dad underwent the surgery and that it was a success. Mike's dad is feeling much much better but he's still adjusting to the sensation of little pieces of metal stretching areas we don't even want to think about. This discomfort will soon pass.

Mike's dad will be released either tomorrow (Friday, 7/24) or Monday (7/27). That's when the hospital will present Mike with a bill, but he's pretty sure he can arrange for a 5-day grace period. Five days is also about the same amount of time it takes for GoFundMe to make a portion of the donated funds available.

So . . . if you were thinking about making a donation, or perhaps a second donation, then this is the time to do it. Mike was completely overwhelmed when he learned of the GFM campaign. He always knew he had a lot of great friends, but he was taken aback at how generous they could be.

I personally thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I also want to thank Gary Marshall for all the help he has contributed to this campaign effort. You have all played a big part in showing Mike just how much his friends care about him and he will remain forever touched by this gesture.

-Brewer