Michaels Medical Fund
Donation protected
Hello Everyone!
My name is Michael Todd. I currently live in the great state of Tennessee. I am middle child of 7 children who were all raised by one of the greatest mothers of all time, which brings me to the heart of this campain. Let me please try to explain.
It was almost a year ago to this day (December 22nd 2013) that the doctors told me the news that would forever change my life, "We are putting your mother on hospice because her illness has reached a terminal stage and there is nothing else we can do for her." Christmas was a mere 3 days away, but after hearing what the doctors said, any joy I may have had was quickly replaced with a combanation of fear, sadness, and most of all determation.
Not determation to fight the inevitable, but the determation to make the last few weeks/months/... of my mothers life as enjoyable and peaceful as humanly possible. To accomplish this goal, I knew I would have to give up my career and home and move closer to my mother's house so I could take care of her fulltime, which is exactly what I did 5 days later on December 27th 2013.
Fast forward to 7 months later, and on July 18th 2014, I was rushed to the hospital in ambulance where I was diagnosed with Acute Cholecystitis (my Gallbladder was about to burst) and I was immediately taken into surgery where they removed my Gallbladder and a portion of my intestines. Once the surgery was complete, I was moved to a room in the ICU to recover for 2 days and was released shortly after that.
Fast forward again to 2 weeks after I was release from the hospital, I started to feel pain when I would urinate so I went to my regular doctors office where they preformed a urinalysis which showed that I had a large amount of blood in my urine but no signs of an infection. With an puzzled look on his face, my doctor referred me to a urologist who I saw a 4 days later.
The urologist did several test in his office in an attempt to determine the cause of all the blood in my urine, After the test in his office were preformed, he sent me to the hospital to have a Catscan taken of my abdoman and pelvic areas and was told to go home and wait a few days for the results of all the test.
I have had my fair share of unpleasent moments in my life, however the next few days that followed were by far some of the scariest moments of my life. I was not only concerned about my own existence but, I was equally concerned about what would happen to my mother because I am the only fulltime caregiver that she has. After 3 days however, the urologist finally calls me back to say that the Catscan did not show any tumors, which was good news, but he said that he would now need to do another test to find out the why I am having all of these problems and why there is still blood in my urnine, which brings me to point of this campaign.
When I decided to become a fulltime caregiver of my mother, I did so with around $3500 after selling almost everything I had that I could live without. I knew this money would not last very long, but I tried to make it stretch as far as I could and was actually doing okay for myself until I was forced to have surgery to save my life,
The initial cost for the surgury was alittle over $24,000 but because I was not insured at the time of the surgery, (I lost my coverage shortly after leaving my job to live closer to my mother) and after other discounts, the final price was a little over $9,000 of which I still owe most of to this day.
The cost for the various doctors visits, test, and the Catscan, which cost over $1500 by itsef, has all, but depleted any savings that I ever had and now I need another test which cost around $2000 which will hopefully determine the cause of my medial problems.
Due to all of these medical bills, I have now been forced to move back in with my terminally ill mother, which on one hand is great because I get to spend more time with her, but on the other hand, it's is stretching her already slim finances since she is on a fixed income and can barely make ends meet by herself.
She would never complain however, but as you can imagine, I feel extremely bad for putting her in this situation, despite the fact that there is nowhere else I would be at this precious time in her life. Because, she is afterall, the greatest mother in the entire world. I love you mom.
Anyway, that's my humbling and long-winded story and the reason for the creation of this campaign. It's not unlike many other stories on this site, which is sad in itself if I really take a moment to think about it, but this one just happens to be mine.
Why would you choose to fund me then, when my story is no so different than many others? Well, I will leave that up to you to decide, but no matter what you decide, I just want to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to listen to my story and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and thank you once again.
P.S. Even if you cannot fund this campaign directly, you can still help by sharing the link to this campaign on Facebook, Twitter, etc.. Any and all assistance is greatly appreciated.
Michael.
My name is Michael Todd. I currently live in the great state of Tennessee. I am middle child of 7 children who were all raised by one of the greatest mothers of all time, which brings me to the heart of this campain. Let me please try to explain.
It was almost a year ago to this day (December 22nd 2013) that the doctors told me the news that would forever change my life, "We are putting your mother on hospice because her illness has reached a terminal stage and there is nothing else we can do for her." Christmas was a mere 3 days away, but after hearing what the doctors said, any joy I may have had was quickly replaced with a combanation of fear, sadness, and most of all determation.
Not determation to fight the inevitable, but the determation to make the last few weeks/months/... of my mothers life as enjoyable and peaceful as humanly possible. To accomplish this goal, I knew I would have to give up my career and home and move closer to my mother's house so I could take care of her fulltime, which is exactly what I did 5 days later on December 27th 2013.
Fast forward to 7 months later, and on July 18th 2014, I was rushed to the hospital in ambulance where I was diagnosed with Acute Cholecystitis (my Gallbladder was about to burst) and I was immediately taken into surgery where they removed my Gallbladder and a portion of my intestines. Once the surgery was complete, I was moved to a room in the ICU to recover for 2 days and was released shortly after that.
Fast forward again to 2 weeks after I was release from the hospital, I started to feel pain when I would urinate so I went to my regular doctors office where they preformed a urinalysis which showed that I had a large amount of blood in my urine but no signs of an infection. With an puzzled look on his face, my doctor referred me to a urologist who I saw a 4 days later.
The urologist did several test in his office in an attempt to determine the cause of all the blood in my urine, After the test in his office were preformed, he sent me to the hospital to have a Catscan taken of my abdoman and pelvic areas and was told to go home and wait a few days for the results of all the test.
I have had my fair share of unpleasent moments in my life, however the next few days that followed were by far some of the scariest moments of my life. I was not only concerned about my own existence but, I was equally concerned about what would happen to my mother because I am the only fulltime caregiver that she has. After 3 days however, the urologist finally calls me back to say that the Catscan did not show any tumors, which was good news, but he said that he would now need to do another test to find out the why I am having all of these problems and why there is still blood in my urnine, which brings me to point of this campaign.
When I decided to become a fulltime caregiver of my mother, I did so with around $3500 after selling almost everything I had that I could live without. I knew this money would not last very long, but I tried to make it stretch as far as I could and was actually doing okay for myself until I was forced to have surgery to save my life,
The initial cost for the surgury was alittle over $24,000 but because I was not insured at the time of the surgery, (I lost my coverage shortly after leaving my job to live closer to my mother) and after other discounts, the final price was a little over $9,000 of which I still owe most of to this day.
The cost for the various doctors visits, test, and the Catscan, which cost over $1500 by itsef, has all, but depleted any savings that I ever had and now I need another test which cost around $2000 which will hopefully determine the cause of my medial problems.
Due to all of these medical bills, I have now been forced to move back in with my terminally ill mother, which on one hand is great because I get to spend more time with her, but on the other hand, it's is stretching her already slim finances since she is on a fixed income and can barely make ends meet by herself.
She would never complain however, but as you can imagine, I feel extremely bad for putting her in this situation, despite the fact that there is nowhere else I would be at this precious time in her life. Because, she is afterall, the greatest mother in the entire world. I love you mom.
Anyway, that's my humbling and long-winded story and the reason for the creation of this campaign. It's not unlike many other stories on this site, which is sad in itself if I really take a moment to think about it, but this one just happens to be mine.
Why would you choose to fund me then, when my story is no so different than many others? Well, I will leave that up to you to decide, but no matter what you decide, I just want to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to listen to my story and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and thank you once again.
P.S. Even if you cannot fund this campaign directly, you can still help by sharing the link to this campaign on Facebook, Twitter, etc.. Any and all assistance is greatly appreciated.
Michael.
Organizer
Michael Todd
Organizer
Etowah, TN