Stop the pain for Josiah

Team fundraiser

Josiah Brickster and Jonathan Dulaney are organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

Pirate, Packer Backer, Crossmen, Tarheel Son/Sun, Magic Player, Dungeon & Dragoneer, Lego Creator, Cook, Gamer and Photographer in need of help.

So, this is the spinal cord stimulator in my back. It tricks my brain into not feeling extreme pain. This pain is centered around my groin area and severely limits my quality of life. After it was implanted, it took a while, but it took most of my chronic pain away. I have spent many nights in the emergency room over the years because of this pain. If you have had the unfortunate experience of having a kidney stone, I feel it is on par with that. After some time, with the spinal cord stimulator, my quality of life vastly improved (YAY!!!) but then came the bus. Yes a bus.

In Jan of 2019, I got run off of the road by a city bus in, NC

It may not look like much, but this changed my life forever.

The damage and cost to repair the car was $3,000-$4,000. I don't really remember because the city admitted fault and paid for it to be fixed right away.

Honestly, even to me, it doesn't look like much. It doesn't. But have you ever seen a NASCAR race? Ever see how a little rubbing will run them off course? Well, that's kinda what happened.

The impact and the off-roading has been blacked out. I hear this is common to trauma. Now here is the rub (funny joke?). The off-roading did something to my back. The jumping and moving of the car created a new chronic issue that they have not been able to address.

I have not been able to work. My photography business has closed now and even working part-time is an issue.

While waiting for the lawsuit, the savings have run dry while the medical treatments & medicine are becoming a permanent fixture.

To keep it blunt, life kinda stinks. But I want to keep on keeping on. And here we are.

We are now at a point to make a decision. Replace just the battery or replace the whole unit to allow us to have some MRIs made of my back and try and address the pain.

So simply stating...

I was in a lot of pain and then got an implant.
It totally worked, and I got tons better.
I was run off the road by a bus, and new pain happened in my back.
Now I need a NEW stimulator, so I can have MRIs done.
I am in chronic pain. It feels like someone is continuously kicking me in the groin and stabbing me in the back. All of this while I am taking the maximum limit of Vicodin that my body can handle without the need of another Go Fund Me for a new liver.
This surgery needs to happen ASAP.

1. I don’t have insurance

2. It wouldn’t matter for this procedure. ( to replace my implant goes against the guidelines for implants. Insurance guarantees ONE type of implant) this is a new one that will allow the doctors to work on the issues from the accident. Since the accident, I have not been able to work in a full-time capacity, and my part-time work is also limited because of the pain and amount of meds I’m on.

3. We have done everything we can to try and work on why I’m in pain. Of course, the city (the same city that runs the buses that ran me off the road) seems to think I shouldn’t be in pain.

Well, I am, and it inhibits what I can do. Limitations are lifting the weight of about a gallon of milk or two, sitting and standing for short periods of time, assistance with special seating, and assistance with parking and a cane.

4. I’m looking at a 3-4 month recovery from the surgery. They will be cutting my back open, removing the metal wires that have taken years to fuse and implanting a new MRI friendly unit with new plastic wires that will need to take time to fuse.

So here we are. Time to replace the unit that was keeping me going.

Now we get to the fun part. The cost. We are looking at $33,000-$35,000, and that’s with the self-pay cost. After that, anything collected will go towards bills and for recovery.

So before the recent accident, I was a photographer. I worked with families, pets , and specialized in working in child care centers.

When I was growing up, I knew I loved music and performing. I joined the marching band and eventually marched with Drum Corps international.

I played cymbals at Parkland High School

I was in the pit with Tar Heel Sun 1997-2000

(Specializing in drum rack and bird noises)

Aged out with Crossmen in 2000 on cymbals

Marched cymbals for East Carolina University

I was in the Progressive Percussion Ensemble for WGI

Then from 2002-2004, I also toured with YEA/Crossmen and fed a lot of people out of a semi-truck converted into a food truck. I did it before it was cool.

This is me in what became another love of my life… cooking. I was born a yenta, what can I say?

If you want to know a little bit more about me, I followed what I learned cooking from DCI and started working for a Private camp called Camp Dogwood in VA.

I worked from 2005-2007. and it was a blast. The staff to camper ratio was low and we got to have a lot of fun in the kitchen. It was usually just two of us, and we got to teach them about fun lunches and serious dinners.