Hi, all. I set this up for my brother, Josh.If you’ve followed along with me and his story for the last 4.5 years, you remember my brother being admitted to the hospital in April of 2021, which ended up being life-changing for him and his/our family. Josh was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease, GFAP meningoencephalitis. This disease affected his brain and spinal cord, and he is bound to a wheelchair. Josh is a full-time dad and husband. He takes my nephew to all of his sports practices, games, ALL the things. Yes, that means he is driving. Currently, he drives a Dodge Dart, and Jaxton, my 6-year-old nephew, helps Josh in and out of the car by disassembling and reassembling his wheelchair to and from everywhere they go. (Way to go Jaxton! ♥️) Josh is trying to get a wheelchair-accessible vehicle, which you can imagine comes with a pretty hefty price tag. This would be life-changing for him and help him tremendously with all the running around that comes with being a parent. He’s been unstoppable, and his determination is admirable, and I couldn’t be prouder of him. Jaxton is the luckiest kid in the world to have a dad that does all the things he does with and for him despite the limitations he has. Josh is a miracle, literally. It’s a long shot, but I was hoping to help with a down payment for a new vehicle that has a driver-side wheelchair lift. It is a lot to ask, and if you can’t donate, sharing this post or saying a prayer that God will see this through would be appreciated more than you know. 

If you weren’t around from the very beginning, here’s a long story “short”: My brother went into the ER on Saturday April 10th 2021 for an excruciating headache & fever. They did blood work, blood cultures, & a CT. Doctors were thinking meningitis or sepsis. After admitting him, they did a spinal tap. After days of waiting on results, all of them came back negative. After days of being at Medina Hospital, they were pretty much just treating him for alcohol withdrawal & said he was “detoxing.” He was then sent to the ICU to be monitored more closely. They were pumping him full of antibiotics to cover all bases. Fast forward to that same week on Wednesday... He lost all feeling in his arms & legs. They then life flighted him to Cleveland. The doctors then said he had swelling on his brain & spinal cord. (Medina missed this!) They said alcohol had nothing to do with what was going on with him. They then did another spinal on him. He then lost his hearing & still cannot hear much. He lost movement in his left eye. He had trouble breathing so they had to put a breathing tube in & had been unresponsive. Josh was in a coma for close to a month & had coded multiple times. He fought & fought hard & by the end of August, he was home. Josh was diagnosed with a very rare autoimmune disease & is still battling lots of medical issues still today. 

I am just trying to lessen the burden for him. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading.