Help Keep Bruce and Crystal Afloat

As some folks may know, our lives have been anything but lucky these last few months. What began with a totaled car  in November, and depletion of savings to get a new one, has now escalated to a full on crisis.

The day after Christmas, my wife Crystal Anne went to urgent care for abdominal pains. Diagnosis - "Stomach Flu".  Fast forward a few weeks, with conditions only worsening, on January 25th, she was seen by an endocrinologist. The next day, a Saturday morning, we get  the call to rush her to the ER. It's at that point, after a bit of testing, that she has to be admitted. Crystal Anne is a trooper though, even though she was in the hospital nearly a week. The Diagnosis is Chronic Pancreatitis, with an accompanying large pseudo cyst, that they have scheduled to drain.  Initially, diagnosis was that she would be out of work about a week. Her pain levels were not manageable though. Days and weeks start to go by, and my wife has not found any relief for her condition. 3 weeks after the admission, the cyst has grown, and they schedule an endoscopic procedure to drain it. 

Doctors say she can return to work now right after. That was a joke. After a pain management doctor had to become involved, we finally see a light at the end of the tunnel, and she returns to work, but with limited ability. That was mid March.  1 Week later, she was to have a procedure done where they inject an anesthetic into the nerves around her Pancreas, so that the pain is lessened for 3-4 months, and with new diets and medications, the Pancreas can heal.

That did not go as planned, because the Cyst was back and bigger, and blocking access to where they needed to go. It was Drained, and they begin a new consultation for an alternative method. This new method, really wasn't explained to us very well, but we're told this will do the job.

April 1st, we're @ the hospital for this procedure. We were told by one Doctor it would be where the put a small tube into her abdomen  to set up a drainage duct into her stomach to keep the fluid from the cysts down, and since they were going in from a different angle, they could inject the aforementioned anesthesia without issue.

Except when they went in, they found the Cyst back, biggest its ever been,(it was drained 9 days prior) and another large one right next to it that has come out of no where. Other decisions had to be made. Potentially life changing ones.  We have to do whats best for my Crystal's health. 

Crystal now has a Catheter installed in her abdomen to drain the Cysts. Her Pancreas has gone through so much stress, this will be the only way to keep the Cysts drained semi-long term and her pancreas to heal.

With all that,   my wife has been ordered bed rest, and will be out of work for 6-10 weeks.

We will not be eligible for long term disability, and short term disability will  kick in (again) in 2 weeks, but that pay check literally goes directly back to her company (and some we have to kick in) to cover our insurances while she is on leave.

With Medical bills stacking up,  us surviving on only 1 income( which is getting a hit because of time off needed to get her to doctors) , I feel I have to bite my tongue and ask our friends and family for help at this time if we are going to stay afloat and not have our credit ruined by sinking ourselves into more debt then we already have accrued as a result of these trying times.

Any help is appreciated. If you don't want to use this platform, you can reach out to me directly if you'd like. I have no choice but to be humble at this time if we're going to make it through this.