Wendy Tietz fundraising campaign

On January 29th, Wendy suffered a stroke. Specifically, she had something called a subarachnoid brain hemorrhage. To give you an idea of the severity of this, one-third of people who have these die, another third survive with longterm damage, and the final lucky third survives with a full recovery.

I'm very fortunate to be able to say that Wendy is part of that lucky one-third. I say lucky because there are so many points that the situation could have gone south. I won't get into every close call that transpired, but there was a huge tug-of-war between good news and bad news for almost the entirety of the ordeal. It took a toll on everyone involved, and I can't even imagine what it felt like for Wendy being at the center of it.

This life-threatening situation was thrown at her without warning or clear solution, and yet she kept her spirits up and displayed a strength I didn't know she had. I've known Wendy for over a decade. There's no question that this is the most physically, mentally, and emotionally challenging thing she's ever had to face. Few things are scarier than a doctor telling you they've found a brain aneurysm and they have open you up to take care of it, but those are the cards we were dealt. And yet again, we got very lucky to have such an amazing surgeon assigned to Wendy's case. Seriously, that surgeon gave me back my wife.

We are now back home trying to get back into the swing of things. The worst is behind us, but there's still a long road to recovery ahead. Thankfully, we have a strong unit of family and friends that have been nothing but supportive and positive. To say we are lucky to have them is an understatement. All the messages and love really got us through a very tough time.

The immediate problem we're facing now is that Wendy's short-term disability is only covering so much of her salary. She can't work, nor will she be able to work for quite some time. The doctors estimate it could be months before she's driving a car and going about her daily routine like normal again.

I'm currently working two jobs, but this is definitely a physical and financial rough patch that neither of us were ready for...so I'm making this fundraiser for Wendy because she needs to be focusing on getting well--not worrying about money. She's already stressed about her health; I don't want her stressing about finances on top of it.

The goal amount is an estimate based upon Wendy being on disability for the next 2+ months, her regular bills, and upcoming medical follow-ups. Literally anything helps. A $10 donation is $10 less dollars out of her pocket she needs for pain meds, so do whatever you're comfortable with. We appreciate anything. Thank you so much in advance.