Support Chef Shaun Fenix Nelson's Knee Surgery Recovery

Hey y'all, I'm Shaun Fenix Nelson. I've been in the restaurant industry going on my 33rd year. I'm about to be out of work without a place to live for four months while I have 2 knee surgeries, the first one on February 20 to remove hardware in my knee and the second, a knee replacement, on April 10.

A couple of months ago, I received some shocking news. Upon a visit to Emerge Ortho, my doctor discovered that surgery I had 2 years ago called an osteotomy had failed. This was to prevent a knee replacement that I was told I was too young to have.

I've dealt with osteoarthritis since I was a teenager playing football when I had my first ACL surgery. The second incident was a fall on unsafe surfaces in the kitchen, and I tore my ACL and MCL. They were able to give me half an ACL, but the surgeon decided that the rest couldn't be fixed. The attempt was made to give me 5-10 years before I'd have to have a replacement, which it gave 2 years. The recovery was not great, and a series of surgeries and infections cost me a lot of missed work and debt from medical bills.

It took me a while to decide to do this as I'm used to handling things, but I've fallen further behind. I will be non-weight bearing and mostly in a wheelchair for at least 2 months and cannot return to work until well after the replacement surgery. At this point, I'm even short on my copay and need to afford boarding and sitting for my dog while I heal from a pretty extensive surgery.

I humbly ask for anything to help me have a roof over my head and get back into the kitchen and do what I love, feed people! I love being a chef and hope to continue on for a couple more decades traveling, inspiring, and cooking for as many mouths as possible.

Thank you for your time and understanding. Please help me out so I can give back through my craft!

We can add an emergency hip replacement to prolong the knee replacement even further, I need help making it through till September for an October kitchen return