Urgent Aid for Randall's Health, Financial & Burial Expenses

Most of the people that are reading this have known Randall’s story, but please bear with us as things changed with his health very rapidly and we have some unexpected and devastating news. Also I’m sorry for how long it is, my brain is just running on fumes and I’m trying to fit everything in so everyone has all of the information.

Randall was diagnosed with End Stage Renal Disease at the end of 2010. We were told he would need a kidney transplant within 5 years. He beat the odds with medication and diet and was doing fairly well while continuing to work until July 2023. We decided to move to a closer kidney specialist in April 2023 and by July 2023 he was told he needed to urgently begin dialysis. The first surgery to place his peritoneal catheter was in July and it wouldn’t work. He was sent back to the same surgeon here in Cookeville and the surgery was again a failure. At that point Randall’s dialysis center decided to send him to a surgeon in Nashville and the third catheter placement worked. Between the surgeries and the home dialysis training for his peritoneal dialysis he was out of work about 4 months. Of course that drained every bit of savings we had. At the beginning of this year he was officially put onto the transplant list. We thought we were on our way to him going back to a "normal" life.

After being off work for 4 months during the training and 3 catheter placement surgeries, Randall went back to work continuing to do his dialysis every night while he slept. 

Randall is a worker, always has been. He started driving a truck at 18 hauling livestock for Mike Jolley in Sparta (Doyle). He’s hauled mail, fuel, tankers of cement, flatbeds, etc. He was determined to work until the day he got the call saying they had a new kidney for him. Unfortunately things didn’t work out that way. On May 2nd he was suddenly and unexpectedly let go from the job he loved at TKM. On the 4th I told him he didn’t look well and he agreed that he should see his primary care physician. We went in to his appt on May 8th and as soon as his dr saw him he told us Randall was jaundice and in liver failure. His dr immediately got him set up with a palliative/hospice company.

 

I went immediately to getting disability started because when he lost his job, that also ended our medical insurance. When I contacted them I was told it would be a minimum of 230 days before they would even be able to begin to process his application because the current administration has fired so many of the social security employees. I told her we don’t have that much time to wait. I’m working every hour I possibly can and sometimes am getting home after 11pm at night just to try to keep the lights on, buy groceries, his medications and treatment supplies and pay the house payment, car insurance and bills, etc. It’s still not even close to enough to cover 1/4 of what we need. When I asked the disability worker what we were supposed to do for those 230 days she told me to start a GoFundMe. 

I started wondering how I would pay for a funeral service when the time came especially when we can’t afford basic living necessities to keep him fed and pay for his medications. We were told about different programs to reach out to, but we either don’t qualify or the programs are out of funds. We were told by Randall's social security worker, a nurse, and a counselor at dialysis to set up a GoFundMe because there are no other options. Randall is a very proud person and like I said he’s always worked so he has a hard time with asking for help. This is not what we expected. We expected to hopefully soon get the call that he was getting a new kidney and a new life. We never expected he could get so sick so fast without the chance to get his kidney and his new life afterward. 

For those that have donated there just aren’t enough ways or words for us to thank you. Also we appreciate every person that has shared this GoFundMe because any and every amount donated helps take care of Randall at what has become the end of his life, including the funeral and burial services.

If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me through the contact button on here under Organizer.