Cody’s recovery

Anyone who has had a medical condition that requires surgery and medical leave from work knows how devastating it can be. Stress and pressure on you and your family and all the other dreadful thoughts and unshakable feelings that go with it. That said, Cody Wyoming has endured two surgical procedures in the last 4 months and spent much of that time on medical leave from his job recovering and also unable to perform. Some of you might remember the statement I made about his situation last week in a Facebook post. I’m including that wordage because it explains a lot. The important stuff to know is he’s been dealing with Ulcerative Colitis since he was 18. When he was 30 he developed an intolerance to the drugs he had been taking to treat it. At that point, unable to work, he moved back into his parents while they searched for a medication to treat it, to no avail. So they scheduled a procedure. 

The procedure is called a J-pouch. They removed his entire large intestine, and formed a portion of small intestine into a small pouch. He’d had some minor flareups of the condition but lived mostly problem free for the last 17 years.

Sparing the details of the current situation suffice it to say there are major complications in the lowest area of the original procedure that again have rendered him unable to function. This latest situation has been building rapidly for the last year and a half with doctors at his side. The first surgery in July didn’t go so well. They had to do an emergency procedure last week to try something different and, though it’s still early to tell for sure, Cody feels this one will help.

So at this point he’s lost 3 months of work, he’s not cleared to return to work until November, so with no money coming in the bills are stacking up. Cody has insurance but even with that and some much appreciated assistance from the Midwest Music Foundation he has already spent over $2000 out of pocket and his current medical bills alone after insurance, are  around $5000 and rising with at least two more procedures to undergo before its done. 




Please help if you can.

“For the last six years I’ve been in a creative partnership that has been one of the top most rewarding experiences of my life. I’ve also fallen deeply in love with the six core members of the Philistines and many others closely connected to them. This is my beloved community within my beloved community.

There’s one person within all of that I feel most deeply connected and incalculably indebted to and that’s Cody Wyoming. I can’t possibly go into the vast reasoning for my deep love for this human here but that statement is crucial for anyone to begin to understand how hard it’s been watching this beautiful and wildly talented friend SUFFER over the last couple of years. And perform art, LOUD art, HAPPILY, on stage through agonizing migraines and pain inside his body that would render most of us bed ridden indefinitely.

He had surgery early in the summer and made a valiant attempt to get recovered and continue performing with two bands AND try to go back to work at full time job. 

The recovery has taken a turn, again. To the point where he’s unable to perform or work his job to pay mounting medical bills. 

We, The Philistines (Cody especially) HATE to cancel shows. And as many in the arts community know, good paying gigs and sometimes gigs that pay at all are rare. Some we had to cancel are those type. The type that pay for studio time and putting out product. 

Watching this man and his family suffer over his ailments breaks apart my heart in one of the most agonizing, multifaceted ways I’ve known. 

The man doesn’t deserve this. And the world needs what inside that mind and that heart.

So anyway, to the people that may have been planning to come to our shows and the other bands on the bills, we will miss you. Please take a moment every now and again throughout your days and send out some good vibes to Cody and Kimmie. They need it.”