Support Randy's Recovery and Medical Journey Together

You might be feeling a little de ja vu right now, and you are not mistaken. We've been down this road before. Years ago, about eight years ago, to be exact - I started a GoFund me page for Randy. Little did either one of us know what we were in store for. Life has thrown a few curve balls, there's been some ups and downs, but two things have stayed the same - Randy is still one of my favorite friends, and two, Randy is still dealing with health issues. But there have been some changes. Let me catch you up a little.

Two weeks ago, the 14th of September 2024 - Randy's life took a hard left. No signal, no slow down - no warning. That morning I walked into his home to bring him an iced tea as a little surprise, and immediately was greeted with one of the worst things I have ever seen. Randy lying unconscious on the floor. I immediately went to him and tried to revive him, getting only grunts and minimal reaction in return. I called 911 and the EMTs were soon working to revive him, they loaded him up in a stretcher and took him off to the hospital.

At that point things escalated further. When they got him to the hospital, his airway started to collapse. They intubated him and started him on assisted breathing. He didn't respond with any sort of reflex at that point - for the medical people in the crowd - on the Glasgow Coma Scale - he was a three - barely. The doctors didn't know if he would wake up again.

Now for those of you unfamiliar with Randy's health issues - the major players are Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Addison's disease. Both of which can be debilitating and deadly. In the case of MS death typically comes as systems needed to support life begin to fail. In the case of Addison's, death occurs when an event called an "Addisonian Crisis" occurs. A situation where the cortisol levels of the patient drop below life sustaining levels and the person effected can have heart failure, or enter a comatose state. That morning Randy's body picked the path of comatose state.

In the hospital Randy was treated with steroids for the Addisonian Crisis, but remained unresponsive for some time. Slowly he started to respond to us, squeezing my hand or his dad's hand, wiggling to music. As he responded a little more each time, we challenged him to do new things - squeeze both hands, wiggle his feet and eventually open his eyes and look at us. We breathed a sigh of relief and shared a laugh, but the challenge was far from over.

For the next several days Randy remained in the ICU struggling to maintain any level of consciousness and lucidity but by the fifth day in the ICU the hospital was ready to send him home. That day he experienced another Addisonian crisis, but was treated before he became comatose, and sent home later that day.

Since that time Randy and his family have been struggling to get back to some sense of normalcy. Randy has experienced confusion, lethargy and pain.

The doctors have told us that at this point in time Randy will need to be on full time oxygen and that we should consider living modifications to make his day to day routine easier.

Although they expect him to recover - the level to which he is recovering to, was already plagued with challenges from both the Addison's and the deteriorating nature of MS.

Now that you're caught up a little, where are we at? At this point, Randy is no longer able to maintain employment and is in the process of applying for disability - this is a process that can take months. In the meantime he is in need of financial assistance to help with medical expenses, living expenses and costs to make home modifications to allow for improved motility through out his home.

And that takes us to where we are now. I'm starting a new Go Fund Me for Randy all these years later. I know if he had the choice Randy would be out there working, he would be helping us out - he always has in his own ways. I'm starting this campaign so that we can help lessen the financial burden for him so he can focus on his health and himself. I can't cure it, I can't make it all better, but maybe I can at least help with this. Randy is a great guy, he can be goofy, gruff and everything in between. I can't put into words how much I wish we could just fix this all for him, but we can't - so this is what we can do. Please consider making a donation, even the smallest donation is so greatly appreciated. Please share this and hopefully we can at least make things even a little better for our dear friend. Thank you all.