Brain Surgery Expense for Tim Denny
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We're so grateful for your love and support. We ask that y'all continue to share our story, in hopes that it will encourage and help others. Any additional dollars raised will allow us to keep our health insurance in the coming months. xoxoxo becky
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As many of you know, Tim had life saving brain surgery in May. What you might not know, however, is that brain surgery was the icing on the cake of eight years of devastating changes that have left us in dire need. We urgently need your financial help.
There. I said it. We need help and it’s hard to ask. But you know what? A big spiritual lesson we have learned is that it is as important to ask for help as it is to give it. God has shown us that only through our own humility are we then able to help others.
A lifetime of hypertension of cerebral spinal fluid has caused erosion of the base of his skull so severe that it created a hole through which the brain prolapsed. A lengthy surgery to repair the brain lining and rebuild the skull revealed that the herniation was larger, deeper and older than expected. Complications prevented the team from performing the intended second surgery 4 days later for a permanent shunt, necessary because the other side of his skull is also eroding.
Tim woke up in ICU more articulate and himself than I’ve seen him in several years! We realized then how seriously his health has been affected and what a miracle it is that he is alive. We are so incredibly grateful to the doctors and staff at UAB, and all of our family and friends for your love and support.
We need a lot of help. We have staggering medical expenses in collections. We are behind 2 months on health insurance payments so we can’t get all of the necessary medications filled. We’ve had to cancel the follow-up MRI twice. Close follow up is critical to determine if and when a permanent shunt is needed. Another family member requires immediate and costly healthcare that will not be covered by insurance. We’ve had to postpone this matter due to finances for so long that it has now become urgent and poses serious health concerns.
So what happened? How did we get here?
The last eight years have been the worst (and the best) of our lives. The economy collapsed. We spent 2 years closing down my wholesale company. We filed personal bankruptcy due to business debts. Soon after, Tim’s precious father came to live with us for the last 3 years of his life. I was his primary caretaker through progressive dementia and Parkinson’s disease, which prevented me from rebuilding my design business. Meanwhile, Tim’s business, Davis Denny Advertising, began to suffer from the economic downturn and the partners took drastic cuts in pay in order to keep their valuable, long term employees working.
The loss of income, lack of credit, college tuition and expense of caring for an elderly parent depleted our life savings. When Davis Denny closed in February, 2014, we had nothing to fall back on. We couldn’t cover our basic living expenses, much less our mortgage payments. Tim, so incredibly qualified and experienced, could not find a job and we discovered with horror that ageism is real. We lived day to day, negotiating with utility companies, the mortgage company and others, selling whatever possessions of value we had.
Digs Design, the product design business that Zade and I own, could not get on it’s feet without space or operating capital. We were trapped in survival mode, only able to buy supplies for the towels we hand make when we sold a piece of furniture. Then make and sell and try to pay a power bill with enough left over to buy a few more supplies. But we were finding a community of fellow makers, friends, collaborators and mentors.
In 2015, Tim and I both became involved with Bamawise, a start up grocery distributor of Alabama specialty foods owned by Jeff Gentry. Our combined experience in marketing, branding, manufacturing and wholesale were needed to support Jeff’s vision and business model to help local producers gain access to store shelves statewide and beyond.
But new ventures take time and money to grow and our situation was critical. Our house had been on the market for a year and we still couldn’t make regular payments. In November, the primary lender initiated foreclosure. The secondary lender (“the bank”), with whom we had a personal relationship, agreed to take deed in lieu—they would pay off the primary, lesser amount, we would hand over the deed, walk away and avoid foreclosure.
On November 20, Tim had a simple tube put in his ear because it was always stopped up and was affecting his hearing. From that moment on, clear fluid began draining from the ear. The ENT said it was allergies. Several infections occurred and were treated with antibiotics and ear drops. Persistent questions about the clear fluid went unanswered. Tim’s overall health rapidly declined and severe headaches were getting worse on a daily basis.
In January we received a notice that our house would be sold on the courthouse steps in 3 weeks. The bank said, send us the notice, we will arrange the pay off, it’s all in the works. We received several other verbal confirmations. On Feb. 11, a stranger rang our doorbell on his way to the courthouse sale. My urgent call to our banker was not returned until an hour after our house was auctioned off. What did he say? “Oh, we changed our mind. We decided to let it foreclose first and redeem it later.”
We had nowhere to go, no money, no credit. And Tim was seriously ill. We had to move out of the house by March 23rd. Miraculously we were able rent an apartment. It all becomes a blur for me at that point. A CT scan was finally done, but misdiagnosed the problem as mastoiditis. A second opinion immediately identified the rare brain herniation and we were sent to UAB.
Through all the bad, it’s all the good stuff that stands out. Tim became active in the prison ministry Kairos, spending time listening to inmates in some of the harshest prisons in the state of Alabama. Our daughter Ella married Ben Tzinberg, blessing us with new traditions, extended family and dear friendships. Tim and I know without a doubt that our hearts are firmly committed to our community, our local economy and the needs of small businesses. So much goodness in it all, in each and every day.
Thank y’all for reading this. Please take a moment to share this on Facebook or by email, any help you are able to offer is deeply and sincerely appreciated. Our situation is urgent, and with your help, we can put this behind us and get busy helping others.
**PLEASE SEE MOST RECENT UPDATES**
As many of you know, Tim had life saving brain surgery in May. What you might not know, however, is that brain surgery was the icing on the cake of eight years of devastating changes that have left us in dire need. We urgently need your financial help.
There. I said it. We need help and it’s hard to ask. But you know what? A big spiritual lesson we have learned is that it is as important to ask for help as it is to give it. God has shown us that only through our own humility are we then able to help others.
A lifetime of hypertension of cerebral spinal fluid has caused erosion of the base of his skull so severe that it created a hole through which the brain prolapsed. A lengthy surgery to repair the brain lining and rebuild the skull revealed that the herniation was larger, deeper and older than expected. Complications prevented the team from performing the intended second surgery 4 days later for a permanent shunt, necessary because the other side of his skull is also eroding.
Tim woke up in ICU more articulate and himself than I’ve seen him in several years! We realized then how seriously his health has been affected and what a miracle it is that he is alive. We are so incredibly grateful to the doctors and staff at UAB, and all of our family and friends for your love and support.
We need a lot of help. We have staggering medical expenses in collections. We are behind 2 months on health insurance payments so we can’t get all of the necessary medications filled. We’ve had to cancel the follow-up MRI twice. Close follow up is critical to determine if and when a permanent shunt is needed. Another family member requires immediate and costly healthcare that will not be covered by insurance. We’ve had to postpone this matter due to finances for so long that it has now become urgent and poses serious health concerns.
So what happened? How did we get here?
The last eight years have been the worst (and the best) of our lives. The economy collapsed. We spent 2 years closing down my wholesale company. We filed personal bankruptcy due to business debts. Soon after, Tim’s precious father came to live with us for the last 3 years of his life. I was his primary caretaker through progressive dementia and Parkinson’s disease, which prevented me from rebuilding my design business. Meanwhile, Tim’s business, Davis Denny Advertising, began to suffer from the economic downturn and the partners took drastic cuts in pay in order to keep their valuable, long term employees working.
The loss of income, lack of credit, college tuition and expense of caring for an elderly parent depleted our life savings. When Davis Denny closed in February, 2014, we had nothing to fall back on. We couldn’t cover our basic living expenses, much less our mortgage payments. Tim, so incredibly qualified and experienced, could not find a job and we discovered with horror that ageism is real. We lived day to day, negotiating with utility companies, the mortgage company and others, selling whatever possessions of value we had.
Digs Design, the product design business that Zade and I own, could not get on it’s feet without space or operating capital. We were trapped in survival mode, only able to buy supplies for the towels we hand make when we sold a piece of furniture. Then make and sell and try to pay a power bill with enough left over to buy a few more supplies. But we were finding a community of fellow makers, friends, collaborators and mentors.
In 2015, Tim and I both became involved with Bamawise, a start up grocery distributor of Alabama specialty foods owned by Jeff Gentry. Our combined experience in marketing, branding, manufacturing and wholesale were needed to support Jeff’s vision and business model to help local producers gain access to store shelves statewide and beyond.
But new ventures take time and money to grow and our situation was critical. Our house had been on the market for a year and we still couldn’t make regular payments. In November, the primary lender initiated foreclosure. The secondary lender (“the bank”), with whom we had a personal relationship, agreed to take deed in lieu—they would pay off the primary, lesser amount, we would hand over the deed, walk away and avoid foreclosure.
On November 20, Tim had a simple tube put in his ear because it was always stopped up and was affecting his hearing. From that moment on, clear fluid began draining from the ear. The ENT said it was allergies. Several infections occurred and were treated with antibiotics and ear drops. Persistent questions about the clear fluid went unanswered. Tim’s overall health rapidly declined and severe headaches were getting worse on a daily basis.
In January we received a notice that our house would be sold on the courthouse steps in 3 weeks. The bank said, send us the notice, we will arrange the pay off, it’s all in the works. We received several other verbal confirmations. On Feb. 11, a stranger rang our doorbell on his way to the courthouse sale. My urgent call to our banker was not returned until an hour after our house was auctioned off. What did he say? “Oh, we changed our mind. We decided to let it foreclose first and redeem it later.”
We had nowhere to go, no money, no credit. And Tim was seriously ill. We had to move out of the house by March 23rd. Miraculously we were able rent an apartment. It all becomes a blur for me at that point. A CT scan was finally done, but misdiagnosed the problem as mastoiditis. A second opinion immediately identified the rare brain herniation and we were sent to UAB.
Through all the bad, it’s all the good stuff that stands out. Tim became active in the prison ministry Kairos, spending time listening to inmates in some of the harshest prisons in the state of Alabama. Our daughter Ella married Ben Tzinberg, blessing us with new traditions, extended family and dear friendships. Tim and I know without a doubt that our hearts are firmly committed to our community, our local economy and the needs of small businesses. So much goodness in it all, in each and every day.
Thank y’all for reading this. Please take a moment to share this on Facebook or by email, any help you are able to offer is deeply and sincerely appreciated. Our situation is urgent, and with your help, we can put this behind us and get busy helping others.
Organizer
Becky Denny
Organizer
Birmingham, AL
