help my Dad with brain surgery expenses

****Please help my parents with unexpected required medical appointments and travel expenses over the next 7 months****

My parents have been so grateful for all of the outreach of support to them while my Dad is having his DBS (Deep Brain Stimulation) surgeries. His initial surgery was great, he is doing well! He has 3 large incisions on his head where the leads were placed, and a 4-5 inch incision on his chest where the programming device is placed. He is not allowed to push, pull, kick, or bend over for the unknown future and he is on a constant watch for brain bleeds and stroke symptoms. He is walking with his walker pretty good, he still is a bit loopy with everything BUT he actually wanted some ice cream last night so that he must be improving. He is in great spirits but has quite a headache if you can imagine that. He has had multiple MRI’s and CT scans to confirm everything is perfectly placed, one of his MRI’s included 7600 images of his brain alone - Mom was able to obtain the scans as she keeps a record of all of his visits, his tests, dr notes, surgeries, medications, allergies, physician names, therapists names, everything you can think of she has organized for the best care for him.

My parents chose the Abbott device due to the availability to program the device remotely, however my Dad’s condition has declined to the point that the Neurosurgeon and Neurologists do not feel comfortable doing a video appointment for the programming and tweaking. He will need to have cognitive and psychological testing at each appointment. He is now seeing a Speech Pathologist 4 days a week as he has a hard time with his speech as well as eating and drinking because he chokes on a lot of things, so she will be there to evaluate him during programming as well. This information was just given to them on Friday afternoon.

My Dad still has not been approved for SSDI - the state of TX can take up to 440 days on average for approvals OR denials. My Mom does not make much at her job; but she is able to carry the health insurance for the family, works remotely, and they are wonderful with working with her on days she needs to be off or if Dad needs extra help so it is a benefit. She is on FMLA, but she has now exhausted her PTO so any days she takes off she does not get paid for.

We have now learned that my Dad and Mom have to go to Houston for the following appointments for the device to be successful, and it has built a huge burden on their shoulders on top of everything else.

Nov 7 - Post Op Appt

Nov 22 Initial Programming - this is a 5 hour appt that Dad will need to be off of all medications for 12 hours before.

The following appointments have already been scheduled to “tweak” the device:

Dec 17th

January 21st

January 30th

Feb 24th

March 17th

April 15th

May 5th

May 30th

With all of the new changes, my parents need more help. My mom will need to miss at least 3 days for her work every trip, hotel stays, all of the travel expenses, the medical costs they have to pay out of pocket, keeping up on the expenses of their home, car, and utilities. I still have 3 siblings at home as well. On top of all of this -the insurance my Mom has through work has told them they have received the maximum yearly home health visits that are covered (60) he was receiving Nursing care, Physical Therapy, Occupational therapy - they now have to pay out-of-pocket for these visits or risk him declining even more.

We understand if you can not donate - but please share, share, share. I can’t wait to see how my Dad changes with this surgery!!