Toby Walker's Go Fund Me Page

Hi folks,

First off, I want to thank all my friends and fans who have been so generous with their support. I can't even begin to express how much your caring has done for me mentally and financially. I recently found out that my neurologist will not be able to put off his billing until September when Medicare takes over so until then the costs of visits and tests, as well as a follow-up to my occupational therapist will be charged to me.

My story:

About 3 weeks ago the fingers on my left hand went limp in the middle of my guitar practice session. I couldn't move them at all. It was as if they were paralyzed. After a minute the movements came back but the next day and the day after it happened again and by the end of the week I realized I couldn't play through a single piece of music without a recurrence. Even as I write this, my hand doesn't seem to have the strength it used to have. As a full-time, professional educator, performing and teaching guitarist, you can imagine how devastating this has been for me.

I managed to find an Occupational Therapist online who did the best she could in terms of a diagnosis but we both agreed that seeing a neurologist is what I really need to do. For now, she thinks my radial nerve may be damaged and has given me some exercises to take care of it. For now, the only thing I'm capable of is teaching on a VERY limited basis. I've had to cut back some of my students and the creation of new instructional products, as well as performing right now is out of the question.

As my health insurance ran out last October, I thought Medicare would have taken over by my 65th birthday. Unfortunately, there were all kinds of hangups with Social Security. Basically, they keyed in the wrong information about me and it was only until now has this been straightened out. This means I'm not covered with insurance until Medicare kicks by September.

However, it's imperative that I need to see a neurologist immediately in order to fully understand the full scope of my disability. This involves the visit and a series of tests which I'm told will run into some serious money. Even then, I'm not exactly sure what the neurologist's final diagnosis will be. There's a chance I may be completely out of work for a few months. Hopefully, it won't come to that. Either way, I'll have to cross that bridge in the future.

I've had to give this Go Fund Me thing quite a lot of thought, but for now, it may be a means to keep me going until I have a better idea of where I'm at. Any donation would be incredibly appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and for your friendship.