Ulysses’ Family

This is my nephew, Ulysses. He is a beautiful 8-year old robot boy and I love him very much. He lives in Albuquerque with his mom (my sister, Michelle), his dad (Brad), his two older brothers (Henry and Gus), and his little sister (Wilma). He enjoys scary movies, confusing humor, and bizarre office supplies. He is delightfully weird.

He’s also been having a lot of seizures this year and his family recently learned why: Ulysses had a brain tumor in his right frontal lobe and would require neurosurgery. So he named his tumor Tumo, started taking meds to stop the seizures, and confidently prepared for his “partial lobotomy.” 

They scheduled the surgery for November 7th, and the doctor cleared him to join his family on their trip to St. Louis which had been scheduled for the week before. They had been preparing to perform as characters onstage as part of my band’s Halloween-themed theatrical rock shows and had been looking forward to the trip for awhile (they’re all pretty strange, I guess). In spite of the looming surgery and the anti-seizure meds making him very irritable, Ulysses seemed pretty excited (he was going to be dressed up as a bat, after all). 

What he didn’t know was that the same day the doctors found his tumor, his father, Brad, had been laid off from his job as a Senior Construction Component Designer—and the family’s health insurance was about to disappear right before a $150,000 surgery. 

He also didn’t realize that (in a bizarre pile-on of fate), also that week, both the family’s cars broke down, effectively knocking out their remaining sources of income (Michelle and Brad both also work for Uber, Lyft, and Instacart), not to mention it happened shortly before they were supposed to be embarking on that 1,000-mile car trip to St. Louis.

So they borrowed $1,200 to repair the car, made the trip, and enjoyed their last big family activity before surgery (albeit with a couple seizures along the way). Thankfully, they were approved for Medicaid shortly before returning home for the big procedure, and most importantly, the surgery went pretty well (although, if seizures persist, another surgery may eventually be necessary). Through a lot of pain and painkillers, Ulysses is finally back home (with a killer scar and hopefully only strong recovery ahead of him).

In the meantime, Brad has just set himself up for remote freelance work. While he works hard to find clients for work (Construction Component Design leads anyone?) and Michelle is spending extra time caring for Ulysses during recovery, the family needs some financial help to get back on their feet.

Anything you can give is much appreciated in this difficult time. We are all helping as much as we can to make sure they don’t miss too many beats getting kids to school and keeping life as normal as possible.

And while, yes, they are probably mortified that I’m posting this on their behalf, I think it’s justified and I also secretly enjoy embarrassing my family.

Thank you in advance for any support you can give.

We love you, Ulysses!!!!