A Tale of Two Siblings · 10:32am May 10th, 2013
You can visit the fundraiser page for Lindsey here: http://www.gofundme.com/2vu9ig On that page you can find out all of Lindsey's story, without reading any of mine.
Hi. I'm Jason, better known here as Late_To_The_Party, and this is my five-year-old sister Lindsey. Here we are watching MLP:FiM together.
If you can spare a little time, I'd like to tell you about us.
Lindsey was born June 1, 2007—two months premature. Just before her birth, doctors weren't sure if she or mom were going to live through it.
(Babies—Now available in convenient pocket-size!)
She spent five or six weeks in the hospital before she came home.
Now if you’ll allow me to tell you about myself for a moment; After kindergarten, I was homeschooled through high school, and graduated in 2007. It had been my goal for years to get a job that would pay enough I wouldn't have to worry about money all the time. I had grown up seeing how my parents were so often stressed about finances, and I wanted no part of that. Unfortunately, at that point I believed the only solution was to get more money—a view I held onto until quite recently.
Anyway, at the time, I was sure that getting a degree was the only way to get a job that would pay very much at all, so that belief combined with my love of video games led me to the decision to go to Full Sail University in Florida where I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Game Development in late 2009. Due to the accelerated nature of the program, I was in class 40 hours a week, so my living expenses and tuition was all handled with student loans. At the time, it seemed like a good idea, because the economy was still doing relatively well, and I was expecting to get a job starting at $55,000/year. Upon graduation, my loan money was running out and I didn't have a job lined up, so I moved back home to Indiana.
I didn't know it at the time, and I certainly wouldn't have phrased it this way, but those two years would turn out to have longer lasting and more severe consequences than any of the Cutie Mark Crusaders' failed attempts to find their special talents. On the one hand, I don't regret going to Full Sail, because that played a huge part in making me the person I am now. On the other hand, it was a very costly mistake, and if I had another chance I would do things differently. I wish I would have waited, gotten a part-time job near home, and really taken the time to figure out what it was I wanted to do with my life.
Only days after I moved back to Indiana, EA Tiburon (located in central Florida, not far from where I had lived while I was there) left me a voicemail about getting a job. I called them and called them but never could get in touch with them to set up an interview. Over the next few months, I applied for jobs all over the country. However, with the number of developers which had been laid off by that point, no company was willing to take the chance on someone fresh out of school who wasn't even a local applicant. Forbearances and deferments eventually ran out, but fortunately I got a job in April 2010 working at a tech support call center. I despised the job, but it was paying enough for me to make my loan payments, so I suffered through it. Suffered being the operative word: I became depressed, and while I had always been overweight, I gained even more. I was unmotivated to do much of anything other than eat and sleep when I was at home.
Lindsey, meanwhile, was growing into the sweetest little girl ever:
Here she is on her birthday:
On Wednesday, July 7, 2010, just over a month after she turned three, Lindsey fell from our parents' bed and hit her head on the floor. With her being the seventh child, this was hardly the first time one of us had fallen, but this time was different. Her cries indicated there was something very wrong, and within a half hour she had thrown up three times. Mom took her to the doctor to find out if she had a concussion. Shortly after they left, I got a call from work asking me to make the 40 minute drive over there just so I could sign a paper I'd already signed two copies of before, but they kept losing it. So I called mom to let her know I was also leaving and made my way to work, worried about Lindsey. I was somewhat dazed as I went into work, signed the paper, and left again. Meanwhile, Lindsey had been taken to Henry County Hospital for a CT scan, which revealed a mass in the right ventricle of her brain and an abnormal amount of fluid. She was then taken by ambulance to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. She experienced two convulsive episodes in the ER that convinced the neurosurgeon to get her into the O.R. immediately to relieve the fluid pressure and since she was out anyway, to get a biopsy of the tumor. They put in an External Ventricular Drain (EVD) to drain the excess fluid from her brain.
After this first surgery, Lindsey went to the PICU North on the 4th floor at Riley. She remained intubated on a ventilator and sedated until Thursday evening after an MRI. The breathing tube was removed and she was started on clear liquids.
My older brother and his fiancée moved in soon after Lindsey was admitted to the hospital so there would be someone around to take care of the other kids while dad and I were at work and mom was at the hospital with Lindsey. This brought us to a total of ten people living in one house...with only one bathroom.
In addition to the tumor in her brain, they also found three small ones at the base of her spine, suggesting the presence of cancerous cells throughout her cerebrospinal fluid.
On Saturday, July 10, Lindsey went back to the O.R. to remove as much as possible of the brain tumor and the EVD moved farther up her head. Her surgery was expected to last 12 hours, but they called to say they were starting to close just after 2 hours into it. Fortunately the nurse followed that up by saying the surgery went really well and Lindsey was doing super.
This was taken July 11th.
The surgery caused her to lose the use of the entire left side of her body, and through physical therapy she is able to regain some use of it, but will never recover full use of her left side. In addition to giving her problems walking around or picking objects up with her left hand, the left side of her mouth doesn’t work properly either, making it more difficult to understand what she says.
She had another MRI on Monday, July 12 about 3 in the afternoon after she'd been basically awake (and very agitated) since noon the previous day.
On Tuesday, July 13, Lindsey was moved out of PICU to the Heart Center to continue healing.
On Thursday, July 15, Lindsey again was taken to the O.R. to have the EVD removed and a permanent shunt put in. The shunt comes out the back, lower left of her skull and runs under her skin, down her neck, across her shoulder to the front and then down the chest to the upper right abdomen where it goes through the muscle in order to drain the brain fluid into the fluid surrounding the organs in her belly.
Riley, with assistance from two other hospitals, analyzed the tumor they had removed, but hadn’t encountered one quite like it before, so they were unsure what would be effective. At the beginning their best chance scenario was that there would be enough brain damage she would never mentally progress beyond her three-year-old state, and their most likely scenario was that she would die. They decided they would give her six weeks of radiation treatments and six months of chemotherapy as the best chance of killing the cancer still in her brain and spine.
On August 17th, Mom and Lindsey moved into the Ronald McDonald House in Indianapolis so she would be close to the hospital. Her radiation treatments started August 19th. The radiation was focused on the spot in her brain and her entire spinal column, due to the possibility of more cancerous cells in her cerebrospinal fluid. Five days a week they had to use the maximum safe dosage—if “safe” can really apply here—so it will cause curvature of the spine as she grows.
For several weeks after July 7th, I was so stressed I couldn’t work full days. I did not have the patience to deal with people whose biggest issue in life seemed to be that their music player wasn’t working right and they wanted me to fix it—not while my sister’s life hung in the balance. I was working half days at most. My depression was bad. I contemplated suicide most mornings while I was going to work. I thought about what would happen if I just drove full speed into that telephone pole, one of those trees, or the lake. Every day I reminded myself that the financial repercussions for my family in that event would be even worse than if I just quit going to work, and I was too responsible to do something like that to them, so every day I finished the drive without incident and did my job. Sometime in there I was also diagnosed with high blood pressure and placed on medication.
This is August 24, 2010, when Lindsey had her second chemo treatment and fourth radiation treatment.
It wasn’t until October 5th when they were able to move back home.
In April 2011 I had a job interview in Fishers, IN. The job was part customer service and part programming, so I was a great fit for it, when there were so many others I wasn’t suitable for with my experience (or lack thereof). It even would have paid enough I could have moved out and really started paying off my debts. Unfortunately, after making the hour drive to get there and go through the interviews, they ultimately decided not to hire me because they were afraid I wouldn’t like it as much as game development and so I would leave after a year or two. That rejection killed what desire I had left for a programming job at all, and my depression hit a new low.
In June 2011 I got a bit of good news. I got a job offer from my local Walmart. The pay wasn’t quite as good, and it was only 32 hours/week rather than 40, but considering the amount of time I wasn’t working at my other job, and the fact that the shorter drive would mean far less gas money, I took the job. I knew it wouldn’t pay enough, so I kept working at the call center for a couple afternoons a week before then driving to Walmart to work overnight. After a few weeks and one too many times of opening my eyes to find myself halfway in the next lane, I quit the call center altogether.
Lindsey’s Physical and Occupational Therapy started September 21, 2011, about the same time that I quit the call center. My last day there was a few days before we took a vacation to Orlando, FL, paid for by the Indiana Children’s Wish Fund—Not to be confused with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. One day we spent at Walt Disney World:
That was great. Lindsey really enjoyed her time there...
...Especially meeting Tigger.
In December 2011, she had started to lose some of her hearing, and also needed to get glasses; both side effects of the cancer treatment.
A matter of weeks after getting back from Florida life had returned to normal, or at least as close to normal as we can possibly be now. One of my co-workers—strictly speaking, my boss, I just never really thought of him like that—started discussing plans to develop apps for iOS. He didn’t have any programming experience, so he asked if I wanted to get on board and work with him to develop some apps in order to make some extra money. I was intrigued and started studying up on the subject. I even managed to buy a Mac, but I had to get a new credit card to do it. I didn’t think it would be a problem, since we would be able to make enough money to pay it off... but then he backed out. He transferred to a different store and with his new baby he didn’t have the time to devote to app development anymore.
Depression has a funny way of coming and going. Some days you might be fine, and others you’re definitely not. Those days I was not. I made up my mind that the next time I saw my doctor I was going to ask for antidepressants. That is, provided I wasn’t too depressed that day to even bring it up.
Now, this was early 2012, and for a while I’d been spending a lot of time on Facebook, just browsing through funny pictures, trying to get a laugh when I could. Through those random photo albums I occasionally came across images where people were clearly overly obsessed with a little girls’ show. Usually I found the fact that people my own age were sharing these pictures to be funnier than whatever joke was in the picture itself.
In March 2012, I decided to watch an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. To be honest, I’m sorry to say that it was in no small part because I wanted to have exact reasons why it was a terrible show so I could make fun of the people who watched it. Needless to say, a terrible show was not what I found. It wasn’t long before I had seen every episode and was eagerly waiting for more.
As strange it seems to some that a 22-year-old man was watching and enjoying My Little Pony, what was stranger still was what I realized within the next couple weeks. I wasn’t depressed anymore. I started to find motivation to actually do things. I started losing weight. I lost forty pounds in a few months, and though I’ve plateaued recently, I haven’t put any of the weight back on. I started writing and drawing again, neither of which had I done in months or years, despite how much I used to love it. I’ve even started to learn to play guitar. I still feel down from time to time, but I’ve not once considered suicide as though it were an actual option since March 2012.
I even had the motivation to go ahead and give the iOS development a shot on my own, but after being rejected a couple times by the iTunes store, I haven’t tried again since. Life’s too short to waste it desperately working on something you don’t want to do only to suffer the frustration of being told your efforts weren’t good enough. Now that I’m no longer depressed and can think clearly, I realize that what I really want to do is write and draw. Writing and illustrating my own novels would be ideal. I wish I’d realized that back in 2007 before I picked up all this debt.
Despite the fact that Lindsey is in remission, related medical problems keep popping up. The radiation damaged her pituitary gland so her thyroid and adrenal glands don’t produce enough. She started taking levothyroxine for her thyroid on March 23, 2012, and hydrocortisone to treat her adrenal insufficiency on April 20, 2012. The thyroid hormone deficiency is bad enough, but with adrenal insufficiency an illness or injury could cause her to slip into a coma and die, and she is especially susceptible to illnesses now, so we have to keep a close eye on her. One of the side effects of the hydrocortisone is hunger and weight gain, so you may notice she’s a bit pudgy.
In July 2012 she got braces for her feet (which you can see in the first picture) to keep her ankles from rolling in.
In August 2012 we discovered a buildup in her ear which appears to be a kind of dry, rubbery earwax. Doctors don’t know how to prevent it, so at the moment the only treatment is to remove it when it starts to accumulate too much.
Also in August we were told about a dark area which appears on the MRI scans of her brain. It appears to be brain tissue, but they don’t know what is altering it to cause it to appear differently on the MRI. The area is growing, but at a decreased rate as of her January MRI.
In September 2012 we found out that she had cataracts—another side effect of the radiation and chemotherapy. Surgery was performed to remove the one in her right eye on April 16th.
The surgery for her left eye is scheduled for May 28th.
Some days she is easily confused and has difficulty remembering things that happened even just a few minutes earlier.
She tends to take a 2-3 hour nap each day. Here’s one from a few days ago where she’s holding a present from one of my co-workers.
As if all this wasn’t enough, doctors say her learning curve will end sooner than most people’s, but we don’t know how early. Also, this form of cancer has a very high recurrence rate, and even if this cancer doesn’t come back, they say she will have another form within fifteen years due to the radiation she was subjected to.
On a brighter note, a few months ago I also started giving Lindsey one of the blind bag ponies every week. Here she is with the most recent one.
(You may not be able to tell very easily, but she’s smiling)
Each time she gets a new pony she introduces the new one to all the others she has. It helps a lot with her memory (she remembers their names better than I do) and fine motor skills, in addition to the fact that she just loves playing with them.
[youtube=5Gxrfz4I0Ic]
Yeah, it's 20 minutes long. Start at the beginning to see her naming all of them she can, [10:26] to start setting up for [15:27] BBBFF, with minor interruptions for getting a drink. She's got a little bit of a cold, and doesn't quite have the hang of clearing her throat yet. [21:25] for her Big Mac impersonation.
Her next MRI is June 24th. As you can imagine, these are always stressful, waiting to find out what they’ve seen, and whether or not the cancer is back yet.
There are two reasons I’m telling you about all this. The first is to show the tremendous difference that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has made in my life and that of my sister, and to thank everyone who made that happen. Thank you all so much; you have completely changed my life. To everyone who reads this, I hope the smile on Lindsey’s face, despite all she’s going through, brings a smile to yours as well.
The second reason is that there are some things a positive attitude can’t fix. Debt is one of those things. Just to give you an idea of the costs involved here, the first nine days in the hospital—just for the room itself—was $4,001.50/day. The operating room—again, just the room—was $60,503.50. Within a month medical costs had reached half a million dollars. Fortunately, after the first week, Children's Special Health Care Services took over covering costs that our medical insurance wouldn't cover. Unfortunately, the first week wiped out everything my parents had saved and maxed out their credit cards, and they’ve been living on the brink of bankruptcy ever since.
Those first few weeks didn’t help me any either. The combination of my degree and living expenses in Orlando for two years had set me back over $100,000, and when I wasn’t working full days I had to max out my own credit card in order to make my loan payments. Then the additional card to get the Mac for the failed iOS development endeavor. As it stands today, with my loans and credit cards combined, I am $113,621.06 in debt.
I have a budget in place for myself, and with my brother’s help, and the fact that I’ve started selling the stuff I have, I’ll be able to pay off my credit cards within a few years. ...if nothing goes wrong. Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way. Our vehicles are aging, and not particularly well. I have a ‘95 Ford Windstar and the transmission is going out. On a nearly twenty-year-old vehicle, this is unfixable; the parts just aren’t available anymore. We also have a ‘97 van which is used to take Lindsey to her doctor’s appointments and therapy, and it is rusting and trying to fall apart, and its brakes are failing. We really don’t have the money to repair or replace them.
We are barely earning enough to make ends meet as it is. However, if we earn any more, we are ineligible for assistance from Children’s Special Health Care Services. Lindsey’s weekly therapies, her braces, and all manner of other medical expenses would fall on us to pay them. We would not be able to. On the other hand, if we earn any less to avoid hitting that limit, we won’t be able to pay all our bills and will lose our home of over twenty years.
My brother and his wife can’t move out, because while that would lower the household income, it would also lower the cap because there would be two fewer people in the household. We would exceed the income cap and lose Lindsey’s medical coverage.
If I were able to move out, that would decrease the household income, but I can barely afford my student loan and credit card payments as it is. If I had to pay rent somewhere the student loans would fall back on my cosigner—my dad. Unable to make the payments, we would lose our home.
Even if nothing goes wrong between now and then (which they will), when Lindsey turns 21 she will no longer receive coverage from Children’s Special Health Care Services. All those extra bills will suddenly fall on us. Remember that by this point they expect she will have some form of cancer again.
As my mom phrased it, we are in a dark tunnel, and there’s no light at the end. Without external assistance, we cannot get out of debt. If you can help, even if you can only give a few dollars, please do. Anything would help and we would greatly appreciate it. The best way to help would be to use PayPal to send money to jasonlstegner@hotmail.com, because there is no fee if you "send money to family or friends." If that isn't an option for you, please visit my fundraiser page (Actually, please visit my fundraiser page anyway and share it. People are more likely to click a link that isn't from a fan fiction site. Go figure. Also, it's a better link to send to the less pony-positive crowd.), or if you have any other questions, please contact me at late_to_the_party@hotmail.com, subject line: Lindsey
I have to include this for legal purposes: Any contributions are not tax deductible.
Thank you for reading. If you want to get regular updates on Lindsey’s status, or see her story from my parents’ perspective, visit http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lindseystegner (A free registration is required) I will also be updating the fundraiser page with her status from time to time. And of course I will include an update on her in my monthly blog posts. So if I forget to mention her in one, smack me across the internet and I will correct that mistake.
UPDATE: A few questions have been raised, and I would like to answer them here. Questions are paraphrased, but I'm attempting to answer everything. I'm going for complete honesty here. If I wasn't, I could have just told you about Lindsey and not mentioned me much at all, and most of these questions would never have come up.
Q: If things were this bad, how come you kept buying stuff, like that Mac?
A: Before about a month ago, I had no idea things were this bad. I thought that as long as I kept within my own budget and made my monthly payments, we'd be okay. Most everything I've bought has been with the ultimate goal in mind of earning more money in order to pay off my debts. Unfortunately, earning more money is not an option now. The same goes for selling the stuff I bought to earn money with, because that would count as income.
Q: Is it true you have a sponsor badge for TrotCon?
A: Yes. I bought one for me and one for a friend back in February, before I knew the severity of our situation. Had I known then I wouldn't have registered. I have canceled my trip. The ticket is nonrefundable, but I won't be spending any more money for food, hotel, gas, etc. While the sponsor badge is nonrefundable, I can transfer it to someone else. So if someone would like a sponsor badge and an XL shirt, let me know so I can notify TrotCon. My friend doesn't want to go without me, so there is another sponsor badge (without a shirt) available as well.
Q: If we give you money, are we paying a sick child's medical bills or are we just paying off a depressed brony's debt?
A: Yes. No. Well, sort of. It's complicated. The first week of Lindsey's medical bills are on Mom and Dad's credit cards, and what little savings they had were wiped out at that time. As for Lindsey's medical bills, they are currently being handled by a combination of Dad's medical insurance and Children's Special Health Care Services. So the money donated will go to paying down my debt and my parents' debt so we will be able to reduce household income without losing our home. Reducing household income is the only way to ensure that we keep Lindsey's medical coverage. Also, I'm not depressed anymore. Just stressed, trying to figure a way out of this mess. Having hit an unavoidable obstacle preventing me from earning more money to get us out of this, I have turned to you for help.
Q: Why are you paying off your own debt first? That seems really selfish.
A: I'm not. That was the original plan back when I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Those were the easiest things for me to get to in order to reduce monthly payments, so those were first. Now that I've had a couple more days of realizing that there actually is some money coming in and there needs to be a good plan of what to do with it, I have come up with what I believe is a better plan. The current plan is to start with paying off credit cards in order of smallest to largest balance so as to free up money on a monthly basis as quickly as possible. My student loans aren't even on the table here, at least not until MUCH later. I do not in any way expect to pay off my student loans or my parents' mortgage through donations. I just want to raise enough that we can stand on our own again. The problem is that right now I don't know how much that will be, and part of it will depend on how long it takes to raise the money.
That's not to say we would turn down any money we're offered to help take care of Lindsey. Current debt aside, there will be more unexpected expenses as Lindsey grows older, and some that are already expected. For example, she would benefit greatly from having a whirlpool. The radiation damaged her enough that growing will be quite painful, and a whirlpool would ease the pain considerably. Even though it would be for her, that is a luxury item that is not even on the agenda now, just an item on a wishlist.
.........That is the second most depressing thing i've heard this week alone.
The 1st being the fact that the cousin of an online friend of mine is stuck with an overly abusive felon of a boyfriend and that she lacks the funds to drive out and pick her up. ($250 i believe)
Sadly, i don't have that much.
Then i read this and.... i have a very hard time imagining any real happiness in your household. I'm quite surprised, nay impressed, that you can accomplish what you do on this site given the circumstances.
I was unable to help my friend out, but i can send a small token your way. I just can't do it with Paypal. My own Paypal account got hacked and locked a few years back and i've yet to sort things out. So, i'll email you shortly so we can make alternate plans.
I wish you and family the best for the future.
This was both inspiring and heartbreaking. No one should have to go through what your family has gone through, and yet, you still manage somehow. I don't have much to offer, but rest assured, the brony community does not sit idly by while people are struggling. A true true friend helps a friend in need, after all. Stay strong, we'll do whatever we can.
Well... That ruined my day.
...
When I was little, my mind shattered, and there is no way to fix that.
But Lindsey... the hand of compassion can pull her up and out of the pit I will be in for my entire natural life.
I will help you in any way I can.
With this, there is a total of 5 donations I couldn't give b/c my PayPal account got cracked by a gambler.
You can easily guess the one I regret the most.
I'm so sorry!
You're wrong; there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Plus, Lindsey saying "Eeyup," just made my day, it was so cute.
Sodding hell mate. I don't have much but I'll gladly share what I can. As well I sew and make plush toys as a side hobby. I'm not the quickest on them but maybe Lindsey would like one? I'm happy to chat in pm or sommat. Like I said it wouldn't be a super quick thing but I can promise it'll be a good quality plush.
This reminds me of my family, and makes me want to cry. Good luck to you.
This is just one of the reasons why I severely hate America.
No, don't think that I hate the people in America, but I hate their system and how it works. I don't think I'm overestimating when I say that a little worse than a flue could, potentially, bankrupt an entire family.
That being said, I would donate if I could, but I am currently in need of everything I have myself. I'm moving out soon and need absolutely everything I have to pay for the flat. (Literally everything).
I'm sorry that I can't help, just know that my sympathies are with you.
Well.
If I were gates or an adult male with a firm job, good standing, and a hundred grand in savings, I'd help you the best I could, but sadly I am not.
No, I am a seventeen year old Junior with a day job I work after school so I can save for a car.
I wish I could help, I really do, and it hurts me that I can't.
This was the one part that made me actually feel very very bad... I mean really bad... :c
This is... I don't know. I can't do anything and it annoys me, bothers me, A LOT.
*sigh* All I can say is that I hope the best for you all and I wish you will achieve something amazing.
I am one bill away from living on the street as it is.
Still, I have a sudjestion, and one that might suprise you. Find the local Shriner's lodge, ask them for help. The Shriners own several hospitals, and one of there missions is to help children in need. If you need help finding the shriners, look for the closist free mason's lodge. WOrst case, you wast a little time, best case, you get the help you need. The free masons might actualy want to help you just because, thay do stuf like that, a lot.
Might not be beleavable, but, the free masons are actualy the largist charity orginization in the USA.The shriners run hospitals, you can look it up online.
I shall donate some as soon as I can.
*MGS3 Salute*
May luck shine upon you on the future years of you and Lindsey's life, there's always some sort of comeback life gets back at you when you're feeling down in the dumps
Wish I could help,
The Watcher
I can not say that I know the feeling of this, but knowing how close she is to "the brink" is scary. I recently took a class on cancer, and it would be easy to say that it having metastasized while it was in the brain is very serious and would affect her for her entire life.
I honestly wish I could help you in any way I could financially, but as one who is barely getting by as is, that would be a difficult task.
The least I can do is to keep your family in my prayers.
Best wishes,
MoldyShishkabob
Have foresight into your future, accept and acknowledge your past and luck shall find you.
~Alicon
I cannot support y'all monetarily, but you have my best wishes.
I'd donate, but unfortunately, I'm only 16, and my parents don't trust me with a credit card. They're also spending enough money as is sending me to lock haven wrestling camp which is $720! Sorry!
I'm sorry, but I cannot help donate at this time. I'm running low on cash as it is...
In any case, don't give up hope! She is a really fine girl, and has a bright future on the way. It just has to come when it is ready!
I will pray for you and your family, and I know that He will do great things for you.
Don't lose hope!
Fraid I don't have a means to contribute monetarily, but your family and her are in my prayers.
That's pretty awful. Sometimes words can't explain how wrecked a person's life is. The way healthcare works in this country is pretty pitiful. Best wishes for a brighter future.
sent a little money your way. :) hope that helps.
Wow.
Even with all that, and you can still smile. I can't even see the video from this box, and the description you gave has me smiling.
What you've got, here, is me reacting straight out the keyboard, with no further thought at all. I want to help -- I'd love to help -- but I just can't deal properly with this post right here, right now, tonight. I'd leave the tab open, to come back to it, but looking at my existing tabs that ain't gonna do jack. Augh. Um...
Could you drop me a PM with a link to this, maybe?
I'd say email, but my email isn't anyplace you could conveniently find me and I haven't been checking email from this box anyways. I'd be willing to PM or email you my address, but again, I'd forget to. I'll, like, exploit that as a reminder, to come back when I'm not zonked out on my own stupidity. Monday or something. Maybe I'll use this as a motivation and finally get my rear in gear.
Wow just wow. That's a strong story. I wish my luck on you and your family. You all will also be in my prayers. And yes the smile on your sister's face does put a smile on mine. Good luck, may God be with you.
Well, I may not be able to send you anything now, but next paycheck, I'll set aside something for you... all my best to you and your family.
I wish you the best. Unfortunately, well wishes are all I can give. Stay strong; it may seem bad now, but things will look up.
1068080 Thank you very much. I have read and replied to your email.
1068091 Thank you.
1068595 Yeah. Living through it ruins a lot of days.
1068620 I'm sorry to hear about that. I am curious what happened, if you don't mind me asking.
Thank you for your help.
1068624 You can still help! See the end of this comment.
1068634 They thought of a better analogy. We're in a large, dry field. We've got a number of fires burning, but we're keeping them contained. The slightest breeze, though, and everything goes up in smoke.
She is just so adorable, isn't she?
1068650 Thank you! She'd love that! We'll talk.
1068653 And to you.
1068658 I agree with you. I would leave, but the financial and medical situation has me stuck.
1068660 Thank you so much!
1068738 Thank you for reading and commenting, and you can still help without giving money as I explain at the end of this comment.
1068773 Thank you.
1068788 Thanks for the info, we'll look into that.
1068824 Thank you very much.
1068838 Thank you.
1068899 Thank you. It's a worry every time she goes in for another MRI.
1068956 I like that.
1068985 Thank you.
1069130 DON'T BE SORRY; BE ASSERTIVE! Wait, no. Uh... share! Yeah, that's it! Share http://www.gofundme.com/2vu9ig with EVERYONE!
1069147 Thank you.
1069213 I appreciate that.
1069220 Every bit of it helps. Thank you!
1069255 Uh... yeah, sure.
1069283 *starts quietly singing "smile, smile, smile"* Thank you.
1069461 Thank you very much!
1070033 Thank you.
To everyone, I set up an actual fundraiser page here. If you could check it out and share it with everyone you know (and maybe even people you don't know) it would be a huge help to my family.
1070104
I don't mind one bit.
A part of the human mind is dedicated to redirecting our thoughts away from death and truths of reality's entropy.
I was born without the right connections in my brain for that to operate, so I accepted Death as a concept.
We aren't supposed to accept that until we are near our deaths, because it breaks the mind.
1070121 That's really interesting. Thank you for sharing.
Is there any way to donate to your cause with PayPal? Sadly, I don't have a credit card and even if I did, I'm pretty sure it would not work with American banking systems...
Well, you have my best wishes. If you find a way to accept paypal payments, I would gladly back the wishes up with a few bucks, for whatever they are worth.
1070251 Absolutely. The best way to contribute through PayPal is by logging in at PayPal.com and using the "Send Money" tab. Use the email address jasonlstegner@hotmail.com and select "I'm sending money to family or friends"
Thank you very much!
1070104 No prob broham.
1070274
Which can take a day or two since it's weekend. 
Then I will gladly do it once the funds are transferred to the account.
Once again, take care. And all the best wishes to you, your sis and your whole family.
Jesus...
I'm sorry to say that there isn't much I can do, but I will try to scrounge up some money and signal boost for you. Best of luck.
Congratulations, dear sir. You've just made a jaded, fed-up, take-no-bullcrap, action-movie loving man's man from Michigan cry like a little baby.
i really wish i could help, i really do.
but without a steady income, i lack the money to donate. but i will do my best to donate some money and share it on my facebook and other social networks
I wish I could say I understand what you're going through, but I'll never know. Even if a similar situation happens.
media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lubn1aDU4Z1qfx711.jpg
you get all of my condolences, well-wishes and good karma, sir
Well, that is quite the pickle you have. Truely, I am sorry for all the hard times that have befallen you. I thought it was getting tough for us... Anyway, if I could help, believe me, I would. It's who I am. Then again, a 17-year-old can't legally do much. What I can do is wish to you the best of luck. It's not many times I stop to read about the hardships suffered by others online. This time, however, is different. I don't know how, I don't know why, but it is. To read about something somewhat similer to me just does that, I guess. Again, I'm sorry I can't do anything but wish you good luck. God knows we could all use a little of that nowdays.
My heart goes out to your little sister. While no one in my immidiate family is like that, I got a soft spot for kids.
(Tell her, "Eeyup" for me.
)
1070104challenge accepted.
I would totally have money soon enough and would totally donate, but for some reason the only place I was about to get a job at had it out for me or my dad, and now I will have no job!
Just goes to show, that slacking off for a year straight is no way to spend your time after graduating... but then again, who says I care?
This is around the time when I wish I had a PayPal account to help you out.
The very least I can offer is my sympathies.
Send her those. Tell her FIMfic is behind her all the way!
I feel useless. I wish I could donate...
I'm at Uni too, so I know what you mean about money being tight, but I've managed to send a bit her way.
Hope this helps, dude.
Oh, and let us know if there's anything else we can do, yeah?
I can see how tough it must be. I will keep you in my prayers.
Don't worry, the human being is pretty charitable. I saw it when Wanderer D needed help. I know it will go alright.
I'm already in tears just reading this. This is too much. :( My heart goes out to you guys.
More proof that there isn't a god... that worthless sack of shit let such horrible things happen to such a sweet girl. She deserves a better lot in life than the crap that has happened to her.
1070643 Thank you.
1070717 Just know that she's doing well for now, and if help continues coming in, we'll be able to keep taking care of her.
1070744 Thank you. Every bit helps. (Okay, dollars are more useful than bits...
)
1070746 I'm going to assume this is a Lost reference, but I've never seen it, so I can't say for sure.
1071095 It's life. Some of these responses I get from people make me take a step back and realize that things are pretty bad, but we've lived with it for so long that it's just the norm for us.
1071127 Thank you.
1071270 I told her. She smiled and responded in kind.
1071976
1071994 On the other hand, better to be broke with no debts than broke because of your debts. I'd rather be in your situation. At least you don't have to go to work to then not have any money.
1073527 Thank you.
1074907 Don't feel bad about not being able to donate. Just spread the word to people who can!
1074914 Thank you. I will keep updates coming through my blog here and on the fundraiser site.
1074992 Thanks. For the first time in a long time it's starting to look like it will.
1075967 Thank you.
1078208 If you'd like, we can discuss the existence of God or lack thereof, or the merits of said God, elsewhere. However, I'd appreciate it if you would refrain from using that language in these comments. Mom wants to save these comments in a scrapbook for Lindsey. Additionally, I have to point out the logical failing here: You just insulted a God you say doesn't exist.
1086252
This mad my day. Well, night, but that's not important. It put a smile on my face.
**made