Personal and Medical bills

Our Story 

   I am a self-employed heavy-equipment mechanic in rural Colorado, a business I started in 1997. As you know being self-employed has its benefits but its drawback is access to health insurance. We aren’t able to afford traditional insurance so we enrolled my wife, Teresa, in a Christian health-share program, and as a veteran I get treated through a local VA. Over the last 10+ years Teresa has been struggling with various medical issues that were recently diagnosed as adrenal insufficiency which we suspect was a result of covid. (A health-share program requires that you pay for medical services with cash (a credit card in our case) and file for reimbursement of medical expenses — a process which can take several months — all the while credit card interest accumulates). The week before Thanksgiving 2020 Teresa contracted Covid, which was really hard on her body. She survived Covid but the virus took a heavy toll on her and she’s been dealing with residual issues of long-covid, including asthma and adrenal insufficiency— we have been in and out of the ER and numerous doctor’s visits ever since. Then, the day before Thanksgiving 2021 I was in my service truck driving out to a job when I had a head-on collision with another truck. The wreck totaled my service truck, and if that wasn’t enough, the accident accelerated my need for a knee-replacement on both of my knees. (I’m currently on a waiting list at the VA Hospital.) I work through the pain, but I’ve been repairing my truck slowly as I am able. It took 2 1/2 months to get the insurance pay-out and the parts, and during that time Teresa started having more difficulty with her asthma and adrenal insufficiency. After 4 trips to the ER they finally admitted her to the hospital on Monday February 28. A CT scan of her lungs revealed multiple blood clots in both lungs and a pulmonary embolism the size of a tennis ball in her left lung. All of this has meant that I have had to split time between caregiver/nurse while trying to rebuild my service truck. I was nearly finished with the truck when on Saturday May 14th I decided to take our 15 year old horse out for a ride. She’s had lots of training, but as I learned the hard way, that doesn’t always matter. I saddled her up and had just started out onto the trail, maybe 20 yards from the trailer, when she went ballistic and took off at a dead run. I was okay until the saddle went sideways and I had to bail off before I ended up underneath her. Despite my effort to get her to stop she refused to slow down or stop. After I bailed off she ran for about another 3 miles before stopping. Unfortunately, the ground wasn’t very kind to this old man. I broke my scapula, 2 ribs, and 2 transverse process bones on my lower vertebrae. I realize that this has been lengthy, but the bottom line is that we have had to use all of our savings, are in considerable debt, and I’m not able to work for 6-8 weeks while I heal. I hate asking people for money, but my children have encouraged me to start this gofundme. We would appreciate any help that you can give. 

 We pray God’s blessings on you and your family.