GoFundMe page for my son

[MaterielGeneral]

Didn't really know how bad the medical bills were as my wife does the money handling but what was not covered from VA CHAMPVA dependent insurance is building up and more are still coming in. Kinda sucks, anyways my wife set up a GoFundMe page for my son. If anyone would like to donate or if you cannot donate but would like to share the link on Facebook contact me. Please private message me or email me at [email protected] and I will give you the link. Thanks

Here is some background information that I talked about on another forum:

December 28, 2016
Right before Christmas my 12 year old son came down with the flu/stomach flue. After about a week he started to get worse so my wife took him to the emergency room. Turns out he had Pneumonia. It was pretty bad in his one lung my wife said it was pure black on the X ray. Luckily after antibiotics and an inhalor he is doing better.

Then my 14 year old son came down with the flu/stomach flu a few days before Christmas. Same thing he got worse and had to go to the emergency room. Turns out he has Pneumonia and Strep Throat. After the antibiotics the Strep Throat is being handled but the Pneumonia is kicking his ass. The doctor thinks that it is viral. Hes having problems breathing and is in the process to be transferred to Grand Rapids to the children's hospital tonight to be put on a ventilator and I don't know what else, waiting to get briefed from my wife. Last I knew the ambulance crew was waiting for another person to help with the transfer.

So if you pray I could use some for my son.

I guess the moral of the story is we can have the best preps in the world it really comes down to mother natures mercy. But I do know my God and Savior is stronger than mother natures wrath.

December 28, 2016
My son made it to the children's hospital and my wife made it there shortly after. They still have him sedated and on a ventilator because of the Oxygen issues. There adding meds and an artery and neck line to monitor blood and heart rate better. Hopefully things will improve overnight.

December 29, 2016
At 6:34 this morning, my wife text me that he is on the ventilator but is alert enough to respond to questions with writing or texting (cant speak with a tube down your throat). His Oxygen is up to 69, it was at 60. His labs are looking better. They said he might be there a couple of weeks.

At 7:49 she text again that he has a fever again that is not responding to drugs. So they have ice packs on him and the air conditioning on in the room. Wife is freezing her A** off.

Tomorrow I have a VA appointment so I will be able to stop by the hospital and see him before hand and after the appointment.

To top it all off my daughters suv stopped running between Meijer and Walmart on a side road. I had to go tow it into a parking lot. Tried to jump it and nothing. Took it to a parts store and had it tested. Said it needed to be charged. Took the battery home and put it on the charger. I'm getting ready to go back to town and get it tested again. If its good then I'm going to take the alternator off and get that tested.

This **** sucks!

January 01, 2017
For those that have messaged me or who have asked I thought I would give an update. Thursday I had to go to Grand Rapids for my VA appointments so I visited before and after the appointments.

Before you can enter his room you have to sanitize your hands, put on gloves, a face mask and gown. Your not allowed near his mouth. This made me happy because it lowers any kind of transmission that could happen. I also noticed that there was almost always a nurse in his room doing one thing or another and they are observant.

Today (Saturday) my wife text and called me and said our son is starting to get a little better. They are lowering the Oxygen level and the forced intake(ventilator) more. As he does better they keep lowering everything.

They have some kind of cold blanket underneath him because of his fever that he has had. He quit responding to Tylenol four or five days ago so they are using the blanket. Today his fever has finally started to decrease.

So over all he is starting to do better.

All the training that I have had in the military on how to kill people and training as a correction officer/Emergency Response Team member does not prepare you for this when it comes to your own family. Its easy to be detached when it is some one not related or you do not know. Thursday when I was visiting my son I was crying like a B*tch. Just could not turn the faucet off.

I just literally talked to my wife on the phone as I was writing this and she said that if he keeps doing good like he is then he may get the ventilator tube removed tomorrow or Monday but probably Monday.

They also said that the way he keeps waking up with the sedation means that his body is slowly getting stronger. When he is waking up its basically just his eyes. He is to weak to communicate with his tablet and to weak to hold a pencil but he is getting stronger.

Suppose I will close this post for now. Happy New Years to Y'all and thank you for the prayers.

January 04, 2017
Thanks for the prayers and thoughts.
Took my 12 yr son, daughter and her boyfriend to visit yesterday(Monday) Things were good, he is gradually getting better. Got home last night and got a text from my wife that they are taking out the ventilation tube. That took place at 9:30pm. Everything went smooth. He was still going in and out of conscience because of the drugs. Afterwards he started to have hallucinations about Star Wars, was cracking my wife up.

This morning they took his feeding tube out if I remember right. Now only thing he has is an Oxygen nozzle strapped below his nose on his upper lip. They are reducing his drugs. He should start sleeping/sedated less and start remembering more.

This morning my wife made a nurse cry. The nurse had to step out for bit for a meeting. My son went No#2. My wife went to her told her and the nurse said she would be there in a few minutes. OK, no problem. Several minutes later the meeting was over, most of the staff dispersed but our nurse started smoking and joking with some other people drinking coffee, showing pictures on her phone etc. After several more minutes of this my wife said screw it and went to a couple of other nurses and asked for assistance. They were like no problem and started to clean my son up. Half way thru the other nurse shows up and my wife informed her she sucked and why she sucked. She didn't yell or anything just firmly defended my son (mother bear). Basically it comes down to our sons health. Nothing else matters. The hospital isn't free, were paying what ever CHAMPVA doesn't pay so were paying for a service. So we expect every one to do there job.

January 06, 2017
Going to see my son this morning. Night before last they removed him from the intensive care unit and reassigned him to a normal room. Last night people in Star Wars uniforms visited the kids in the hospital. They looked like the real deal so Im guessing it was the 501st. Im thinking about posting a picture of them and blotting out my sons identity so you can see how realistic Im talking about. Anyways looking forward to the trip today.

January 09, 2017
Great news, my son came home today. He still has a ways to go but he has exceeded the doctors expectations. They said he could go home and do his physical therapy as an outpatient basis. I had to sanitize everything before he got home with Lysol and sanitizing wipes because of his immune system still being on the weak side. He has to wear a face mask when he is around people.

Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts. It is appreciated.

January 10, 2017
he is doing pretty good but he is almost not eating anything. He is nauseous all the time and has to take medication to keep from throwing up. The pills are a couple hundred dollars or so. Our share was around $70.00.

This is pretty much is the jist of it. He is going to school online and part time at the school and doing physical therapy to get his strength back. He is determined he will not fail and have to repeat next year.
In the gofundme page my wife gives a better description.

 

[jimLE]

so sorry to hear about all of the issues.you got it 100% correct when you said. All the training that I have had in the military on how to kill people and training as a correction officer/Emergency Response Team member does not prepare you for this when it comes to your own family. Its easy to be detached when it is some one not related or you do not know. it worries me when something out of norm happens with my mom..so i know that yall must of gone through hell when it comes to all of that..

can i get on her good side?if i aint already..

After several more minutes of this my wife said screw it and went to a couple of other nurses and asked for assistance. They were like no problem and started to clean my son up. Half way thru the other nurse shows up and my wife informed her she sucked and why she sucked. She didn't yell or anything just firmly defended my son (mother bear). Basically it comes down to our sons health. Nothing else matters. The hospital isn't free, were paying what ever CHAMPVA doesn't pay so were paying for a service. So we expect every one to do there job.

 

[MaterielGeneral]

Yeah, the nurses were very involved with my wife, LOL. They later said they never experienced a parent that was that involved with their kid(good thing). When ever something was going on she was right there wanting the why, how come, alternatives, long term affects etc. She pretty much kept everyone on their toes. After he left intensive care to a regular room, they sent a person from the physical therapy and they were saying yeah, hes going to do this, this and that starting tomarrow and my wife just looked at the guy, looked at my son and said you don't realize how week he is, he cant do any of that. She basically told the guy to get out of his room and don't come back. I don't really know the conversation anymore but he really pissed her off.

Just the Grand Rapids hospital and not including the local hospital, ambulance, specialists, labs etc the bill came to over 130,000.00

 

[jimLE]

DANG!!! big bill there..
give me a friendly reminder to stay on her side,if i should ever come over..LOL..it sounds like that you have a good wife/mother there..

 

[MaterielGeneral]

Yeah, she is pretty good. We love to hate each other though. We have been together off and on since ninth grade.
We even got divorced once for about five years or so. For some reason we keep coming back to each other. Something about that soulmate thing.

 

[MaterielGeneral]

I just realized that I did not put the right information in the thread just the history of a previous thread on another forum. Instead of requesting pm or emails from those that want to help here is the direct link.

https://www.gofundme.com/ZackVarney

My wife said to go ahead and put it where ever I want to.

If you look at the picture on the link. Look to the right. That machine is all IV's with pain meds, antibiotics and some other stuff that I do not know. She gives a background and current information on the Gofundme page.

I sent the link to everyone in my contacts in my cell phone. My wife did the same. Nobody from my contacts replied in no manner. My wife's mother and a friend from high school replied on her side. The only people that have answered the call are preppers from the few forums that I attend. I find it amazing that essentially strangers have came to the aid when family have not. Told her she better not talk **** about prepping or preppers anymore, LOL. This just shows how our community really is.

 

[jimLE]

thats a lotta IV...and with all of that stuff on the other side,i gotta ask..you sure that aint a test lab? LOL

 

[Brent S]

I'm sorry your family has or is going thru all this. I am greatful that you are able to bring them both home at least. One thing I wanted to point out is how dangerous the flu can be. Most of us think it's just a bad cold, but reality is its ever evolving and kills many more than most realize. In 2013 56,000 people in the US died from it. One bad mutation and those numbers could go off the charts. In 1918 20 to 40 million died from it. That's more than all of WW1. The point I'm going for here is practice universal precautions like hand washing and protective gear like masks if you're around infected people.

 

[MaterielGeneral]

thats a lotta IV...and with all of that stuff on the other side,i gotta ask..you sure that aint a test lab? LOL

Yeah, it was pretty messed up.

 

[MaterielGeneral]

I'm sorry your family has or is going thru all this. I am greatful that you are able to bring them both home at least. One thing I wanted to point out is how dangerous the flu can be. Most of us think it's just a bad cold, but reality is its ever evolving and kills many more than most realize. In 2013 56,000 people in the US died from it. One bad mutation and those numbers could go off the charts. In 1918 20 to 40 million died from it. That's more than all of WW1. The point I'm going for here is practice universal precautions like hand washing and protective gear like masks if you're around infected people.

You are absolutely correct. The messed up thing is we are pretty on top of hand washing. Especially the boys and this still happened. Mother nature is a bitch. What disgusts me and at the same time fascinates me is every time I use a public restroom there is always at least one joker leaving that does not wash his hands and its not always just #1 many times it has been people that went #2, disgusting. I noticed this accidently one day on accident. Some guy went number #2 left the stall and walked out. I said to myself F'ing disgusting and then later thought about it from a medical/sickness perspective. Now I on purpose pay attention to who washes their hands or just walk out. I really, really want to call them out on it but just keep my mouth shut.

I am curious how bad it is with women not washing their hands.

 

[MaterielGeneral]

My son is becoming a star.

http://www.theprepperjournal.com/2017/05/11/really-prepared-real-world/