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A few weeks ago our family's life changed. Now we are trying to get him strong enough for heart surgery.
His name is Jamal Khalilian. He survived, and for that we are deeply grateful. But the stroke left him unable to walk on his own, and needing help with the most basic parts of an ordinary day.
And the stroke is only part of what his body is fighting. He has also been diagnosed with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, which people call broken heart syndrome. He is facing serious heart problems and will likely need open-heart surgery. Before he can take that step, he has to get stronger.
That is the fight in front of us right now.
We arrived at that number after Dad came home from a long stay in the hospital. We celebrated for a moment. Then, almost immediately, we understood that watching him walk back through his own front door did not mean the crisis was over. In a lot of ways it meant a new one was starting.
He cannot walk without assistance. He needs someone with him around the clock. He needs physical therapy. He needs help transferring, bathing, using the bathroom, moving through his own house, getting to appointments, and slowly rebuilding the strength his body lost.
We also found a painful gap between what Dad medically needs and what insurance will pay for. Some essential home modifications and safety needs have already been denied.
These are not luxuries. They are the things that let a man who cannot walk independently use his own bathroom, move through his own home, and keep doing his rehabilitation. If they had been covered, we would not be asking.
We are still challenging those decisions and filing appeals. But his body cannot wait for an insurance process. So we are making the house safer now. We are arranging therapy now. We are covering the meals, the rides, the equipment, and the supervision now.
A medical crisis does not only create medical bills. Joshua is becoming one of Dad's primary caregivers. He does not have paid family leave or paid sick days.
If he does not work, he does not get paid. He will lose about $1,000 every week he steps away, and there is a real chance that being gone this long costs him the job altogether.
Your giving is what lets him make that choice.
Most of all, what you are buying him is time.
Time to heal. Time to get his strength back. Time to learn to move again. Time to get his body ready for whatever comes next.
He has already made it through something enormous. We want to give him every possible chance at the next part too.
Send this to one person who would want to know. Pray for him, if that is something you do. Check on our family. Send him a message, he reads them.
Thank you for standing with him, and with us.