Raise your voice for Dave
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Hi. My name is Joe Nickell. I’m here to ask you to help my friend David Boone. Right now Dave is in Arizona, getting the care he needs to recover from profound side effects of a drug that was prescribed for him by his doctor. The clinic where he is staying is not paid for by his health insurance, so Dave needs his friends to help him.
We can and must do this, because Dave has helped us. Please share this campaign with your friends, and please give what you can.
BACKGROUND:
I still remember the first time I saw Dave Boone sing a song. Probably many of us remember that experience. Different night, different place — maybe a big theatre, maybe a coffeehouse. Whatever the context, we’re bound together by the power of that experience. Dave has a great voice, but it is far more than that: He has a presence in the moment, an openness and vulnerability and conviction. It makes us all feel a little more open, vulnerable, willing to declare what we believe.
If you’ve met Dave, you know that it’s not an act. He’s just that way. It’s a gift that he has used for much good over the years, singing at fundraisers for shelters and youth empowerment organizations and all manner of social causes. I wrote about music for nine years at the Missoulian newspaper, and never did I meet a local musician with such ardent and loyal fans. What was interesting was that, when I talked with those folks about Dave, we never talked much about songs. We talked about community, and dreams.
Dave hasn’t performed much lately, or done much of anything honestly — except try to make it from day to day.
In October 2013, Dave’s doctor prescribed him Klonopin, a benzodiazepine, to help him sleep. Dave trusted his doctor, and the prescription seemed to help. About a year later, Dave’s doctor decided Dave didn’t need the medication anymore and tapered him off in a matter of just 12 days.
This sent Dave into a horrible withdrawal that landed him in the emergency room on November 1, 2014. You can read about benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome on Wikipedia . The short of it: The effects can be profound and long-term. Dave, unfortunately, suffered many of them.
Dave spent three weeks in the hospital at the end of 2014, during which he was switched to a different benzodiazepine that doctors hoped could be tapered more slowly and with fewer withdrawal effects. Nevertheless, since taking his last dose on January 15 of this year Dave has been in a debilitating withdrawal with no ability to work or participate in his normal life.
Dave and his wife, Steph (whom many of us know as an awesomely community minded soul in her own right), have researched and tried a range of treatments — Western, Eastern and other alternative approaches — to no avail. They ultimately felt they had no other option but to seek intensive inpatient treatment, which led them to a clinic in Arizona that specializes in benzo withdrawal. The clinic takes a primarily natural approach, which is in keeping with Dave’s long-held values (as his friends know, Dave doesn’t even drink alcohol or regularly consume caffeine).
Thanks to the generosity of the clinic and others, Dave’s most urgent need is relatively small — $9,000. This will assure that he can come home without worrying about the burden that this expense has put on his family and his future. Dave has not been able to work in the past nine months, so his family is already feeling the impacts of lost income, insurance deductibles, non-covered treatments and such.
If we can raise more than $9,000, all the better — it will go to good people who have done plenty for the rest of us over the years and who could really do with some good news and breathing room.
We can do this.
Please, help our friend with your donation and share this campaign on Facebook, Twitter, at your office and among your friends to assure that the campaign goals are met.
Sincerely,
Joe Nickell
Missoula, Mont.
We can and must do this, because Dave has helped us. Please share this campaign with your friends, and please give what you can.
BACKGROUND:
I still remember the first time I saw Dave Boone sing a song. Probably many of us remember that experience. Different night, different place — maybe a big theatre, maybe a coffeehouse. Whatever the context, we’re bound together by the power of that experience. Dave has a great voice, but it is far more than that: He has a presence in the moment, an openness and vulnerability and conviction. It makes us all feel a little more open, vulnerable, willing to declare what we believe.
If you’ve met Dave, you know that it’s not an act. He’s just that way. It’s a gift that he has used for much good over the years, singing at fundraisers for shelters and youth empowerment organizations and all manner of social causes. I wrote about music for nine years at the Missoulian newspaper, and never did I meet a local musician with such ardent and loyal fans. What was interesting was that, when I talked with those folks about Dave, we never talked much about songs. We talked about community, and dreams.
Dave hasn’t performed much lately, or done much of anything honestly — except try to make it from day to day.
In October 2013, Dave’s doctor prescribed him Klonopin, a benzodiazepine, to help him sleep. Dave trusted his doctor, and the prescription seemed to help. About a year later, Dave’s doctor decided Dave didn’t need the medication anymore and tapered him off in a matter of just 12 days.
This sent Dave into a horrible withdrawal that landed him in the emergency room on November 1, 2014. You can read about benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome on Wikipedia . The short of it: The effects can be profound and long-term. Dave, unfortunately, suffered many of them.
Dave spent three weeks in the hospital at the end of 2014, during which he was switched to a different benzodiazepine that doctors hoped could be tapered more slowly and with fewer withdrawal effects. Nevertheless, since taking his last dose on January 15 of this year Dave has been in a debilitating withdrawal with no ability to work or participate in his normal life.
Dave and his wife, Steph (whom many of us know as an awesomely community minded soul in her own right), have researched and tried a range of treatments — Western, Eastern and other alternative approaches — to no avail. They ultimately felt they had no other option but to seek intensive inpatient treatment, which led them to a clinic in Arizona that specializes in benzo withdrawal. The clinic takes a primarily natural approach, which is in keeping with Dave’s long-held values (as his friends know, Dave doesn’t even drink alcohol or regularly consume caffeine).
Thanks to the generosity of the clinic and others, Dave’s most urgent need is relatively small — $9,000. This will assure that he can come home without worrying about the burden that this expense has put on his family and his future. Dave has not been able to work in the past nine months, so his family is already feeling the impacts of lost income, insurance deductibles, non-covered treatments and such.
If we can raise more than $9,000, all the better — it will go to good people who have done plenty for the rest of us over the years and who could really do with some good news and breathing room.
We can do this.
Please, help our friend with your donation and share this campaign on Facebook, Twitter, at your office and among your friends to assure that the campaign goals are met.
Sincerely,
Joe Nickell
Missoula, Mont.
Organizer and beneficiary
Joe Nickell
Organizer
Missoula, MT
Stephanie Boone
Beneficiary
