Please help Army Veteran & family save home
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Hello, we are the Armstead Family. My name is Amy Armstead & I'm starting this go fund me with my husband Mike. We are asking for any help or support you can give our family to help us recover from our financial & medical hardships and save our home so we will not become homeless.
We are a retired military family of four who have fallen on extremely hard times due to chronic illness, various health issues & the pandemic. I've been ill most of this year & part of last year with kidney, ovarian, uterine, stomach, bowel, rectal and other issues. Mike has also been in very poor health due to all of his many medical & health issues.
For those who don't know our story, Mike was medically retired from the Army in early 2016 after 2 back surgeries & a spinal fusion. He was given a VA disability rating of 70% for his back & chronic ptsd & 30 days to transition back into civilian life. He was retired with many untreated injuries & conditions from his many years of service & multiple deployments, so what we thought would be a quick & easy transition was the hardest of our lives.
In mid 2016 he had several medical procedures & a left shoulder surgery. In 2017 he had knee replacement surgery & while recovering, he developed an abscess tooth which led to him being life flighted in Jan 2018 to a hospital 80 miles away. He had a rare infection called Ludwig Angina & after 3 more surgeries, he was in a coma for almost 10 days fighting for his life. During this time they found several other issues including the severity of his high blood pressure so they started him on an additional heavy medicine regiment that he will be on for the rest of his life.
In early 2018 the VA rated him at 100% disabled. I became his full time caregiver through everything & started my own ecommerce store online as my main income. In March 2018 we used our entire savings & bought our first home.
Late 2018 Mike had an unsuccesful right shoulder surgery & one month later our 18 yr old son Kristian had a spontaneous lung collapse and had to have emergency lung surgery. Kristian spent almost a month recovering at the Heart & Vascular Institute about 25 miles from our town. One month later due to VA error they lowered Mikes 100% disability rating as well as almost half of his pay & he has been fighting for an increase since.
In early 2019 Mike had a botched 2nd right shoulder surgery where the Dr severed a nerve. He now has denervation, severe muscle atrophy & no use of his right arm from the shoulder to elbow. After extensive therapy they told him nothing else can be done for him. He is still fighting for his increase & the Veteran Affairs has completely failed him.
In late 2019 I started feeling very off & was sick for several weeks but got better. I became very ill again in early 2020 & was ill for months with what we now think was Covid. I slowly recovered but never fully felt back to normal. The pandemic followed & so did our financial hardship. I completely lost my main source of income & soon we started falling behind on mortgage & basically everything.
In Dec.2020 Mike became very ill again and was hospitalized where he had another surgery and was treated for ulcerative colitis. In March of 2021 I became very ill again & was taken to the ER where they discovered several issues. I followed up immediately with my new doctor for answers & treatment. I went through months of tests, scans, ultrasounds, appointments, being heavily medicated, in constant pain barely being able to function physically & mentally. Our daughter Kayla & son Kristian both worked full time while in school to help us out but our debt continued to grow & we kept falling more & more behind.
In September of 2021 I was told my Dr could no longer treat me & I would have to seek treatment from specialists. I was pretty defeated & stopped taking most of my pain meds & stopped seeking further treatment so I could function & try to continue contributing financially. We can't afford anymore copays or medical bills on top of everything else. It literally got to the point of me choosing food and gas over copays.
My health however is progressively getting worse. I'm always in pain & nauseous. I suffer from obstructed bowels, reoccurring infections, boils, skin lesions, loss of appetite and I've lost almost 30 lbs since Sept. Mikes health has also gotten worse this year & he's suffered many random falls & blackouts. Physically & mentally we have reached our limits and we've exhausted all other options.
We have a very short amount of time to pay what we are behind on mortgage, we've maxed out all of our resources, all of our bills are past due & we barely have money for food & gas. We've sold most of our valuables, sold our 2nd car & done everything we could to recover from this but our situation keeps getting worse. We've tried so hard to do it ourselves & not ask for help because we don't want to burden others but we know we need help. We are so afraid & have no where else to turn. We also know we are suppose to live by Faith & not fear. So on that faith we are finally asking for help.
Our family has been through so much in the recent years & we just can't get through this one alone. Please help us save our home & save our family from further despair. All donations will go to our past due mortgage to save our home & help our family recover from our hardship. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for any donations & support you can give. We'd also like to ask for prayers please. We are testaments of the power of prayer & believe in miracles.
Thank you,
- The Armsteads
We are a retired military family of four who have fallen on extremely hard times due to chronic illness, various health issues & the pandemic. I've been ill most of this year & part of last year with kidney, ovarian, uterine, stomach, bowel, rectal and other issues. Mike has also been in very poor health due to all of his many medical & health issues.
For those who don't know our story, Mike was medically retired from the Army in early 2016 after 2 back surgeries & a spinal fusion. He was given a VA disability rating of 70% for his back & chronic ptsd & 30 days to transition back into civilian life. He was retired with many untreated injuries & conditions from his many years of service & multiple deployments, so what we thought would be a quick & easy transition was the hardest of our lives.
In mid 2016 he had several medical procedures & a left shoulder surgery. In 2017 he had knee replacement surgery & while recovering, he developed an abscess tooth which led to him being life flighted in Jan 2018 to a hospital 80 miles away. He had a rare infection called Ludwig Angina & after 3 more surgeries, he was in a coma for almost 10 days fighting for his life. During this time they found several other issues including the severity of his high blood pressure so they started him on an additional heavy medicine regiment that he will be on for the rest of his life.
In early 2018 the VA rated him at 100% disabled. I became his full time caregiver through everything & started my own ecommerce store online as my main income. In March 2018 we used our entire savings & bought our first home.
Late 2018 Mike had an unsuccesful right shoulder surgery & one month later our 18 yr old son Kristian had a spontaneous lung collapse and had to have emergency lung surgery. Kristian spent almost a month recovering at the Heart & Vascular Institute about 25 miles from our town. One month later due to VA error they lowered Mikes 100% disability rating as well as almost half of his pay & he has been fighting for an increase since.
In early 2019 Mike had a botched 2nd right shoulder surgery where the Dr severed a nerve. He now has denervation, severe muscle atrophy & no use of his right arm from the shoulder to elbow. After extensive therapy they told him nothing else can be done for him. He is still fighting for his increase & the Veteran Affairs has completely failed him.
In late 2019 I started feeling very off & was sick for several weeks but got better. I became very ill again in early 2020 & was ill for months with what we now think was Covid. I slowly recovered but never fully felt back to normal. The pandemic followed & so did our financial hardship. I completely lost my main source of income & soon we started falling behind on mortgage & basically everything.
In Dec.2020 Mike became very ill again and was hospitalized where he had another surgery and was treated for ulcerative colitis. In March of 2021 I became very ill again & was taken to the ER where they discovered several issues. I followed up immediately with my new doctor for answers & treatment. I went through months of tests, scans, ultrasounds, appointments, being heavily medicated, in constant pain barely being able to function physically & mentally. Our daughter Kayla & son Kristian both worked full time while in school to help us out but our debt continued to grow & we kept falling more & more behind.
In September of 2021 I was told my Dr could no longer treat me & I would have to seek treatment from specialists. I was pretty defeated & stopped taking most of my pain meds & stopped seeking further treatment so I could function & try to continue contributing financially. We can't afford anymore copays or medical bills on top of everything else. It literally got to the point of me choosing food and gas over copays.
My health however is progressively getting worse. I'm always in pain & nauseous. I suffer from obstructed bowels, reoccurring infections, boils, skin lesions, loss of appetite and I've lost almost 30 lbs since Sept. Mikes health has also gotten worse this year & he's suffered many random falls & blackouts. Physically & mentally we have reached our limits and we've exhausted all other options.
We have a very short amount of time to pay what we are behind on mortgage, we've maxed out all of our resources, all of our bills are past due & we barely have money for food & gas. We've sold most of our valuables, sold our 2nd car & done everything we could to recover from this but our situation keeps getting worse. We've tried so hard to do it ourselves & not ask for help because we don't want to burden others but we know we need help. We are so afraid & have no where else to turn. We also know we are suppose to live by Faith & not fear. So on that faith we are finally asking for help.
Our family has been through so much in the recent years & we just can't get through this one alone. Please help us save our home & save our family from further despair. All donations will go to our past due mortgage to save our home & help our family recover from our hardship. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for any donations & support you can give. We'd also like to ask for prayers please. We are testaments of the power of prayer & believe in miracles.
Thank you,
- The Armsteads
Organizer
Michael Armstead
Organizer
Rosenberg, TX