Assistance while recovering from heart failure

I've been told by quite a few friends that I should do this because I'm facing a financial crisis, but I felt a certain moral uneasiness about potentially using any of my friends from my touring days to capitalize on their or their bands successes.

I decided to do it myself, even though I'm not the guy to ask for help, I'm a doer, not a taker. But the stresses of being out of work for the next six months have started to weigh on me. If there's one thing I should try and be without (besides sodium) is stress. So here's my story if you haven't been able to keep up.

On Thursday the 30th of November morning I woke up about 3:00 in the morning after being sick for a few days and could not breathe. A most frantic combination of anxiety and accelerated breathing that was not providing me oxygen.

I SOMEHOW, lasted until I could drop my kid at school, and drove slowly and surely to the ER. I parked in the ER garage and walked around the building to the intake desk. As soon as I got in the lobby, I all but collapsed on the desk with my ID in one hand and said, in broken sentences and odd coherence " I'm really sorry but I have a history of AFib and I cannot breathe."

Within 3 minutes I was wrist-banded and brought into triage where they very quickly found I needed to be admitted.

I had a 180 BPM heartrate and 105 fever

My AFib was out of control and I was also in kidney failure, and they found lower lobe pneumonia. Once certain meds started being administered, it started series of anxiety responses that made me feel like I could not stay in this world anymore. Staff held my hand and tried to help me control my breathing but it seemed impossible.

A few very difficult days later and we were on the track to mostly fixing my ailments. My kidneys fully recovered, but my heart is only 10-15% effective. Considering a normal heart is usually around 50-65% and heart failure starts at 40%, I wasn't even in the ballpark. The lack of blood flow was destroying my kidneys as a secondary effect.

It's been very difficult, a lot of physical swings, and some mental darkness I can't really explain. I'm not the type of person to lie down, I've gotta move, be active and be capable, and for two weeks I was not.

So basically, I was a delicate case.

I was sitting on 3 full time IV meds. Two were controlling the pumping frequency of the heart, the third one was the lifesaver. They administered this one with a PICC line which enters at your bicep, through your artery and directly to your heart.

It chemically forces the heart to beat.

This is what they use when you hit the ER and your hearts not pumping.

Saved me, and gave my body time to start recovering.

So the next two days were like "OK, we stabilized him, but this very specific medication is not available outside a hospital." So, doctors looked at the info we had and made some decisions to get me off IV and onto some specific oral meds.

So around day 5 we ditched the IV drips and started oral meds, then I stayed on observation until they were CERTAIN it's going to work correctly.

Right now my heart is enlarged.

Rfib+ and RVR (rapid ventricular response).

So not only does it not beat at a perfect rhythm, one or more of the valves is also fluttering and causing a backflow eddying of blood in one or more chambers.

After a few days of observation it was determined I could go home.

I've now been home a week and the doctor says all of my charts are great and the medications are seemingly working as intended, they added one more heart failure medication to get me on the full spectrum and we are going to continue like that for the next 3 months with monthly visits to track progress.

At the end of three months they will do a thorough assessment and decide if an ICD (implanted cardioversion defibrillator) is necessary.

We MAY be able to avoid any sort of implanted device or transplants completely with the medication protocol on hand if my heart injection fraction (efficiency) increases. Currently 10-15%

If no significant change we will pursue the ICD immediately.

The ICD is implanted and electrical leads hooked up to the bad side of the heart and if my heart starts to go out of rhythm or race or basically do anything that's not supposed to it will send automatic pulses to put it right back on track.

It's a constant misfire monitoring and corrective system.

If after six months that doesn't prove effective, the reality of a heart transplant is not off the table.

Amongst all this one of the hardest things is my inability to work or make money for the next 6 months minimum, but I'm possibly cleared for an entire year. It's gonna be a hard stretch, but I'm so glad to be alive, it's worth the struggle.

In order to be fully transparent, i have been approved for disability, but their payout amount is nowhere near what I was making at my full-time job. The money that I'm trying to raise here is to offset what will not be provided while I'm on disability.

I'm not trying to get rich. I'm just trying to get by and continue to provide for myself and my son who has been absolutely amazing during this process. Even though I know he's worried, he's been my number one fan.

So I've thrown all my qualms to the side because I've been told over and over again that it's okay to do this.

Nobody is obligated to give anything, but what you can give will be properly used for bills, mortgage, food, and other associated expenses. Let me be clear, in no way do i expect to gather $20,000 through this fundraiser. I just sat the goal high so it wouldn't max out. Although, if this does run on long enough it would all be needed but I am staying positive that I can get this remedied as soon as possible.

Also accepted would be cards or notes of encouragement and positivity. You can message me for my address anytime.

EVEN A SHARE WOULD GO FAR!!!

Thank you friends, and please check your heart health because the unknown outcomes of this event royally sucks and if caught early enough can easily be avoided.