Help for my brother and his wife as he recovers

Hi, my name is Jolene Grajczyk. My brother Tim Grajczyk is self-employed. He has had a small appliance repair business (T&P Appliance) for over 40 years in the South Austin/Manchaca area. On December 16th, my brother Tim was working on a wall oven, and the stool he was standing on broke, causing him to fall, breaking his left hand (he is left-handed) and injuring his shoulder. He was not going to be able to work for a few weeks; this wasn’t going to be a huge challenge as he planned to take a couple of weeks off for Christmas and New Year’s. Following the accident, he had been having pain in the middle of the right side of his back. He thought he bruised muscles due to the fall, so he did not pursue any medical interventions at that time. This pain gradually became worse, and on January 3, he woke up struggling to breathe. His wife Veronica took him to the emergency room, and he was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. Once he was admitted to the hospital, they immediately placed him on oxygen and IV antibiotics. Additionally, they began running numerous tests as the anti-biotics were not clearing the infection as quickly as they should have. During his 10-day hospital stay, they had to remove 1 liter of liquid from his right lung, run several diagnostic CT scans and performed a bronchoscopy to determine the next course of treatment. The outcome was that he had experienced a contusion on his lung because of the work accident, which resulted in severe pneumonia. He is truly lucky to be alive. He was discharged from the hospital on January 13, at which time he was still on antibiotics and breathing treatments. On January 17, he had another CT scan, and the contusion on his lung was shrinking. Following his stay in the hospital, he was referred to an Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist (ENT), as he also had a small lump at the base of his tongue. On February 7, he met with the ENT and had a biopsy done on the small lump. On February 15, he received the news that he had throat cancer and would have to have surgery to remove the lump, tonsils, and numerous lymph nodes from his neck. Again, multiple diagnostic tests were performed in preparation for his surgery on March 2. On Monday, March 7, my brother received the news that there were no other indications of cancer in the lymph nodes or the surrounding tissue. Praise Jesus! All the prayers definitely worked!

Needless to say, the medical bills are accumulating, and not being able to run their small business has significantly impacted their finances immensely. Even with insurance, the cost of the multiple diagnostic tests, 10 days in the hospital, surgery to remove the cancer and another pending surgery for a hernia that also occurred with the fall in December has become overwhelming. They are swimming in debt, just trying to keep their heads above water. When you are self-employed and you get knocked out of the game, your savings goes quickly. We are now going into 4 months of him not being able to work. He is slowly getting back to taking calls, but being incapacitated for so long has left him extremely weak and underweight; he lost 35 lbs.

Anyone who knows my brother knows that he is the kind of person that will help anyone in need. He is in need, and I’m hoping that through this GoFundMe, they can at least take some of the financial concerns off the table as they focus on getting him well and back to work full-time. Please share this link with your family and friends. Any help is greatly appreciated.

I really appreciate any help you can provide.

Jolene